Summary
More than 800 million people worldwide, many of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, do not have access to electricity. Achieving access to it is critical for expanding economic opportunity, ensuring food security and reaching other key measures of human development.
Research and investments tend to focus on improving energy access in homes, schools and health facilities, with less emphasis on providing energy access for income-generating activities, such as farming and small businesses. To address this gap, Columbia World Projects is working with the Government of Uganda and other partners to map existing energy sources in Uganda and identify possible areas where energy investments would benefit the local economy. The goal is to provide easily accessible information to investors and policymakers that will ultimately lead to investments in the expansion of productive, income-generating activities, such as irrigation, small-scale farming, food processing and storage, light industry, and other energy services.
Through partnership and innovative data collection and analysis, the project aims to unlock economic opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
In Partnership With:
- Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Government of Uganda
- Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries, Government of Uganda
- Ministry of Local Government, Government of Uganda
- Ministry of Water and Environment, Government of Uganda
- Uganda Energy Credit Capitalisation Company (UECCC)
- Winch Energy Uganda
- Agriworks, Uganda
- United Nations Capital Development Fund
Statistics
- 2,000+square kilometers of land in Uganda were surveyed for this project to assess where new energy investments could be made
Team
-
Edwin Adkins
Project TeamRead Full Bio arrow_right_altEdwin Adkins has 15 years of experience in energy and rural electrification planning in developing countries. Mr. Adkins now works as a coordinator for energy projects for...
-
Philippe Benoit
Project LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altPhilippe Benoit is Managing Director, Energy, for Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050 and Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’...
-
Vijay Modi
Columbia UniversityProject LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altVijay Modi is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and a member of the Earth Institute faculty. His areas of expertise are energy...
-
M. Suresh Sundaresan
Columbia UniversityProject LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altSuresh Sundaresan is the Chase Manhattan Bank Foundation Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia University. He has published in the areas of Treasury auctions, bidding,...