Access to energy in rural areas is in the heart of poverty alleviation issues. Because of his transversal role, energy is a way to promote local development, from a human and economical point of view.



Traditional petrol lamps give out noxious smokes and provide poor quality lighting.

The impacts of access to electricity in rural areas can be summed up by the following table:

Domestic sector Improvement of living conditions, for households and especially women:
- decrease of health problems due to smokes from petrol lamps,
- Access to media (radio / TV)
- Better quality of lighting => decrease of sight problems
Social sector Education:
- electricity in schools: lighting / video
• improvement of education conditions, possibility to organize evening courses for adults
• improvement of literacy rates

Health:
- improvement of health care,
- preservation of vaccines and drugs
- improvement of childbirths conditions
- Use of video for information campaign (VIH, …)
Economic sector Development of production and generating income activities: mills, sawmills, shops, fruits drying, handicraft, tourism, ice production, etc.
• Lighting
- Increase of working hours in the evening
- Increase of the incomes
• Possibility to mechanize transformation process
- Improvement of the productivity
- Better possibilities of trading the production (dried products)
- Increase of the incomes
• Local production, managed by local structures
- Creation of new economic activities
- Local economic development

Local development => Fight against poverty