This year, at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week 2025, we’re hosting Clean Energy Access for Crisis Affected Communities alongside innovation partners at UNITAR, Innovation Norway, Response Innovation Lab, NORCAP, UNICEF Office of Innovation, and IOM. Collectively, we’re bringing together humanitarian actors, donors, investors, and private sector representatives working to chart a path forward to consider critical questions and share learnings: What makes a initiative’s model viable in crisis settings? Which financing mechanisms have the greatest potential to drive scale? And how can humanitarian and development partners provide catalytic funding and technical support to bridge existing gaps?
Clean Energy Access for Crisis Affected Communities
March 26th, 2025
14:00-15:30 UTC +1 (Geneva Time)
Virtual and In-Person at CICG
Register for the session by clicking this link.
In an overwhelming landscape of humanitarian crises, energy poverty remains one of the most pressing challenges. Among refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers uprooted by conflict, violence, or disaster, 9 out of every 10 people live without access to electricity. Deepening an already exhausting cycle, 80% rely on firewood and charcoal to cook their meals, heightening protection risks and exacerbating respiratory illnesses. What does the delivery of reliable and scalable energy look like in crises contexts where displacement and a lack of energy access are deeply intertwined?
In recent years, actors have seen how innovative financing mechanisms and effective energy business models enable displaced communities and host populations to access affordable, reliable energy, bolstering local businesses and fostering economic development. These models pave the way for successful public-private partnerships that reduce reliance on humanitarian aid, demonstrating how financial innovation can propel change and enabling interventions that go beyond the lifespan of traditional aid interventions.
Still, significant barriers remain for energy initiatives. The technical adjustments required to scale effectively are frequently challenging to meet, and smaller, locally-led businesses face persistent challenges in securing the right mix of financing. The sector is perceived by investors as highly risky with thin profit margins, limiting the already scarce capital available.
As champions and backers of transformative, life-changing innovations in humanitarian contexts, we must do more to bring financial actors into the fold, both by enabling actors on the supply side to succeed, and by strengthening the role of UN agencies, NGOs, and community-led organizations as viable energy customers on the demand side.
Meet energy initiatives we champion and support through the Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge model. Click here and register to hear their leaders share insights this year at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week 2025 in Geneva at a session that will be hosted both online and in-person.
Energy Peace Partners
Energy Peace Partners (EPP) is pioneering the use of Peace Renewable Energy Credits (P-RECs) to improve energy access in countries facing climate vulnerability, political instability, and conflict. Like traditional Renewable Energy Credits, P-RECs are
certificates with high eligibility criteria that verify the production of clean energy, except they specifically vet projects in conflict-affected settings, de-risking them for purchasers. One P-REC is produced for every Mega-Watt hour of clean energy produced by vetted companies, which can then be sold to companies that want to support clean energy projects to offset their environmental impact. Clean energy initiatives use revenue from P-REC sales to cover project costs that scale energy access in fragile settings. Credits are being used to power vital services like education and health facilities, bridging the energy gap and generating social and environmental benefits. With strong eligibility criteria, P-RECs ensure accountability to investors, making them a promising tool for transforming energy access in conflict-affected regions.
Africa GreenTec Electrification Rurale Sarl
Africa GreenTec Electrification Rurale Sarl, a minigrid developer in Mali, is introducing the Solartainer, a mobile solar container that provides clean and affordable electricity to villages that struggle with a lack of access. The Solartainer is equipped with solar panels, storage systems, and inverters, making it independent of traditional power grids and diesel generators. It can be quickly deployed in conflict zones, offering new opportunities for education, healthcare, and business development otherwise impeded by limited access to energy. With electricity from the Solartainer, students can study at night, clinics can store vaccines, and businesses can run more efficiently. By using solar power, the project helps reduce CO2 emissions. This innovation embodies a commitment to an equitable and sustainable energy future, transforming conflict-affected communities into drivers of sustainable growth and development.
Prado Power
PRADO POWER focuses on improving energy access and agricultural productivity. They provide solar mini-grids and productive-use equipment (PUE) such as grinding machines, cold storage, and solar water pumps, to communities. The company emphasizes improving women’s socio-economic status through access to PUE which adds value to agricultural products and increases their market value. Recently, Prado Power has secured a unique financing model through a Green Sukuk, supported by InfraCredit and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Climate Finance Blending Facility. This local-currency, green financing is the first of its kind for a solar-powered rural project in Nigeria, offering environmentally friendly, interest-free investment opportunities aligned with Islamic finance law.
Imvelo
For over 10 years, Yemen has experienced conflict that has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, leaving over 75% of the population reliant on international aid. The country’s healthcare and energy infrastructure have been severely damaged, making it difficult to properly store and transport medicines that require refrigeration. Imvelo Inc.’s SOLARES: Integrated Systems aims to optimize transportation sustainability in Yemen. This project tests the SunShifter™, a solar-powered system that helps run refrigerated trucks, keeping medicines and vaccines at the right temperature during transport. By replacing diesel fuel with renewable solar energy, the initiative seeks to reduce CO2 emissions while improving access to life-saving medicines in conflict-affected communities. SOLARES also includes a network where different organizations can share truck space, maximizing resources and efficiency. SunShifter™ kits power the trucks, reducing the environmental impact and dependency on fossil fuels. This solution enhances transportation reliability and sustainability, helping organizations deliver essential goods faster and more sustainably while contributing to global environmental goals.
Mandulis Energy
Mandulis Energy tackles the lack of clean, affordable energy in Uganda’s refugee settlements, creating machines that turn agricultural waste into clean cooking briquettes, which are distributed alongside affordable cookstoves to families. They’ve also developed a hybrid mini-grid using biomass, biogas, and solar power, providing electricity to communities. To socialize the environmentally-friendly interventions and improve the economic prospects of small entrepreneurs, interested farmers are trained to sell agricultural waste and use the cookstoves to produce biochar, an organic fertilizer.