Global Village Energy Partnership: Harnessing Energy for Poverty Reduction: People, Productivity and Partnerships

This document summarizes discussions at a workshop organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Development Bank of Philippines and the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Bank in the Phiplippines. The three-day workshop focused on consumer lending and microfinance to increase access to energy services as a means of poverty reduction.

The workshop aimed to develop design elements for increasing access to energy lending, and identify existing barriers and innovative models within consumer finance appropriate for provision of energy services.

Microfinance practitioners acknowledged energy services as a potential profitable product line. Highlights include:

• Energy services must match consumers income flows, be demand driven and affordable;
• Energy markets need to grow on their own strength rather than depend on subsidies;
• Improved financial capacity, adherence to best practices, solid energy service providers, and awareness of energy products among MFI personnel is important to successful energy lending;
• MFIs need to match loan amounts to funding sources;
• Knowledge gap between MFIs, energy service providers and consumers can be bridged through capacity building, knowledge sharing and piloting new approaches to energy lending.