Abstract

Access to modern energy is vital to societal wellbeing and to economic development. Still, the majority of rural households in developing countries do not have access to improved energy systems for basic household energy services. Many energy policies have been devised and several energy projects have been implemented to improve the access. However, many of these policies and energy projects were not successful due to the socioeconomic, cultural, resource and technical conditions present in particular contexts. Major barriers were attributed to the weak understanding of local contexts and societal needs. Nevertheless, some projects considering local social needs through innovative approaches were successful. Hence, improving access to improved energy technology needs to understand local contexts, linking to income generation activities and poverty alleviation and inclusion of women to benefit from the system. A bottom-up approach is sustainable to increase energy access while contributing to poverty alleviation and livelihood improvement.