Solar Links Initiative is working with communities in rural Uganda to bring sustainable lighting solutions to subsistence farming households 

Implementation is always led by an existing Community Based Organisation (CBO) with a track record in community development. Projects are undertaken, where possible, on a community-wide basis in villages which are the most in need, which cannot access on-grid electricity. These communities are remote, usually in post-conflict regions. Community mapping is undertaken at the outset and impact measured on conclusion, after several months’ use of the equipment. A Solar Lighting Village Savings Scheme is established, or added to an existing development project, by the CBO, into which households save affordable amounts, which would otherwise be used for the purchase of kerosene for lighting and for phone charging, to repay the costs of the scheme so that it can be rolled on to a further community, at the same time as establishing the practice of saving.

Solar Links Initiative raises the funding and purchases home solar lighting systems from Greenlight Planet, a social impact business supplying Sun King solar products, based in Kampala. Selected representatives, chosen by the community, receive training in the systems as Lighting Engineers to oversee proper care and effective use and themselves carry out maintenance and replacement of parts, when the time comes.

Beneficiaries repay the costs of purchasing and installing the lighting equipment, and managing the project, over an agree period months. This also allows for remuneration of the trained engineers for their roles in equipment maintenance, and for further representatives to collect and bank the repayment and savings.

Solar Links Initiative  

is a UK registered charity which helps Community Based Organisations (CBOs) in 'last-mile' rural communities in post-conflict areas in Uganda introduce affordable and sustainable community-wide solar home-lighting systems to subsistence farming households. They repay the costs over a fixed period through a savings scheme simultaneously established, so that further communities can be benefited, and all participants are helped to plan for the future.

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 Charity no: 1110013, Company no: 5176983, registered in England and Wales

Registered office: 22 Old Millmeads, Horsham RH12 2LZ

Solar Links Initiative has installed lighting in communities in Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi 

Villages which have benefited are in Karamoja, Lira, Amuru and Agago Districts in Northern and North-Eastern Uganda, in Sembabule District in Central Uganda, Iganga and North Mbale Districts in Eastern Uganda and in the Ssese Islands as well in Kajo Keji District in South Sudan and Buruuri, Makamba and Bujumbura Provinces in Burundi. Communities which are particularly marginalised by energy poverty are selected. Identification of, and liaison with, CBOs and other community leaders, currently in Uganda, is ongoing with the purpose of replicating this project in their subsistence farming communities either as a stand-alone project, or part of their existing development programme. 

Communities with which Solar Links Initiative has partnered are detailed in the map below with a particular focus in Karamoja, in Kaabong and Karenga in the North and Namalu and Nakapiripirit in the South. Most recent partners are in Lira and Bulambuli Districts.

Community leaders with a track record of delivering improvements in their communities, manage the solar lighting projects on the ground

In the UK Phillida Purvis leads the activities of Solar Links Initiative, identifying and establishing relationships with those local leaders and CBOs, and working with them to ensure effective implementation.

Together with a board of trustees, chaired by Ian Hutchinson, and other volunteers contributing on an ad hoc basis, Phillida raises the funding, ensuring that all donations are used for the capital costs of purchasing and installing the solar lighting equipment, on a revolving basis, and establishing long term sustainability.  All donations to Solar Links Initiative can be made tax efficiently. 

100 million people in Sub Saharan Africa have no lighting

Two thirds of them light their homes with kerosene, which the World Health Organisation equates to the smoking of two packets of cigarettes a day, for women and children in the home. The environmental consequences of burning billions of litres of kerosene for lighting each year, emitting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, is also severely damaging.

In Uganda, 96% of rural households lack access to electricity. Energy poverty is a major obstacle to development. In addition to the benefits listed below, a home solar lighting system also includes a mobile phone charger. This makes possible regular phone use and access to information and to services and increases economic opportunities, as well as cutting out the time and costs currently expended on travel to the nearest towns and phone charging there. On top of delivering home solar lighting systems at affordable prices, the Solar Links Initiative model establishes savings mechanisms for the unbanked rural poor, who are then able to purchase goods, livestock and services which improve the health and welfare of their families.

Research from International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2009

Benefits of Solar

Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world, in spite of annual economic growth rates of between 5 and 7% over the last decade

The Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Uganda 161st of 186 countries listed in 2012, in the ‘Low human development’ category with one third of the population living below the poverty line. Amongst other indicators, Uganda has one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s lowest rates of electrification, with only 6% of the population having access to electricity. Because of the remoteness of rural villages, and even lower economic capacity than the average, communities in the north and east of the country are even less likely to be able to afford any form of electricity, now or in the future. The situation in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, commonly termed a failed state, and in Burundi, continuing to experience conflict is no better. The majority of South Sudanese live on less than 4 SSP a day and only 4% currently have access to electricity. Over 80% cannot afford kerosene or candles. Women are the greatest victims of prevailing energy poverty.

It is clear from discussions with local communities in these three countries, that the lack of clean and safe light is one of the most important impediments to development. Against this background, Solar Links Initiative has evolved to help local people onto the first step towards accessing renewable energy. 

Solar Links Initiative is different from other solar programmes both in its model of sustainability, at the heart of which are local, affordable savings schemes, and in the way that it involves and empowers the community and replicates itself.  Most other providers are selling metered pay-as-you-go systems, which require an upfront deposit and, usually, daily repayment. They are therefore neither targeting entire communities, nor are able to reach the most remote 'last-mile' communities, far, for the most part, even from trading centres where airtime can be purchased, and are considerably more expensive than the Solar Links Initiative scheme. This deliberately targets communities in post-conflict areas, currently of Uganda, where people are suffering the greatest need. 

A typical household of maybe eight or ten people spends about £5 per month on paraffin and candles for lighting and perhaps an extra pound on telephone charging, and many hours a week travelling to trading centres to purchase both. This is a large amount of money and time for subsistence farmers who consume almost all that they produce and have very little cash. 

Solar Links Initiative raises money which is used for the purchase of the home solar lighting systems from solar lighting specialists in Kampala. The cost is approximately £65 per households. Although the solar panels will last over 20 years, batteries and bulbs will need replacing after about 5 years, depending on usage. Solar Links Initiative partners with local community organisations who work with their community to set up, or expand, a savings scheme which will allow for the costs of the scheme to be repaid, on a not for profit basis, over an agreed period of time. Each household is required to sign an agreement to save an affordable monthly amount, of about £5.  The community group opens a savings account with a bank and acts as trustee for the households.  Savings are banked through Mobile Money by the representative and can be viewed online by signatories, including Solar Links Initiative. 

The scheme also helps to strengthen a community spirit.  Two representatives are chosen out of the community of approximately 150 households who a) collect the money each month and b) are trained to advise on maintenance of the equipment and trouble shoot more minor technical problems.  The 150 households are divided into smaller groups who guarantee each others' monthly repayment.  Beneficiary communities are already able to report very substantial improvements in their lives.

Solar Links Initiative is currently working with communities in Eastern Uganda and in Lira District in Northern Uganda having worked in communities in Karamoja for the last few years. In Kajo Keji District in South Sudan,  beneficiary villages are Wudu, Mondikolok and Liwolo and in Burundi in the Provinces of Buruuri, Makama and Bujumbura. Each village comprises about 150-200 households, with an average of 8 members, so approximately 15000 people can benefit annually, at current capacity.

The benefits are not just limited to one area of the subsistence farmers’ lives, but cut across all aspects of it. The following are examples given by beneficiaries:

1.    Education

  The children can study in the evening and their performance at school improves, as attested by teachers;
  Parents encourage reading and homework, whereas many confess to chiding their children previously for using precious paraffin;

 2.    Health

Coughs and more serious respiratory disease disappear: pneumonia kills more children in Uganda than malaria and it is the smoke-filled houses that weaken the lungs and make them susceptible; Mosquito nets, which are flammable, can be used; Mosquitoes, and snakes, dislike LED lights;

 3.    Hygiene

 The house, which can be cleaned at night, is cleaner and clothes, bedding and everything in it no longer smell of smoke; the hygiene of baby care at night is vastly improved;

 4.    Household Economy

·      Households can engage in economic activity after nightfall;

·      Household chores can be done at night, allowing for greater economic activity during the day;

·      Families have more spending money – less is spent on the savings scheme than on paraffin, and phone charging, and spare funds are now available for expenditure on better food, soap etc;

·      Saving for other community loans is made possible;

·      The cost of medication for respiratory problems and of hospital visits for burns are saved;

·      Women are the greatest beneficiaries, and that impacts the lives of their children;

 5.    Safety

·      Children, especially babies, are much safer with lights at night;

·      Fire risks, and therefore the fear of fire, are eliminated: the danger of the whole house burning down is now avoided;

·      Domestic violence has reduced, all wives hold to account husbands who cannot bring paraffin home, and this can often end in argument;

     6.    Information and Communications

·      Villagers have greater use of mobile phones, as they can charge them themselves, without having to leave batteries charging elsewhere for a couple of un-connected days;

     7.    Community development

·      Community spirit and motivation to cooperate has strengthened;

·      Socialising at night is possible and the whole community feels better about itself;

·      The community is empowered through establishing a community savings scheme, which can also be used for other loans.

In addition there are benefits, learned from other studies, that the communities themselves may not quickly or readily assess, of reduced birth rates (as well as reduced night time rape), especially of teenage girls (25% of girls aged 18 already have a child in Uganda, and most live in rural communities) and substantial decline in environmental damage, from the reduction of CO₂ emissions, which, from kerosene/paraffin burning contributes more to climate change than all the UK CO₂ emissions in an entire year. (Africa alone burns 30 – 50 million tons of CO₂ annually).

The scarcity of scalable wide-reaching solar lighting solutions may, in part, be explained by the fact that local people themselves, with no experience of them, have not traditionally been prioritising them and CBOs, not being pressed for it by their communities, consider it beyond their reach. When participatory approaches to development are employed and communities are asked to consider their own needs, solar lighting will be mentioned, but it does not come to the top of the list, although it will in fact bring benefit to all family members across many areas of their lives. There is evidence that a reason for this apparent indifference in unlit communities is that it is men who are more likely to articulate the needs of the family, and their priorities tend to be outside the home, whereas women and children enjoy the greatest benefit. Early impact studies however show, after using it, men value it as highly and become enthusiastic savers for the scheme. Household repayments ensure ownership, a prerequisite for sustainability. As explained above, this method allows the scheme to be rolled over from one beneficiary community to another each year. It is cost effective because the outside funding required is one-off, for the purchase of the equipment, which is as competitively priced as any on the market, geared to the needs of subsistence farming communities and comes with the supplier’s commitment to after sales service, which includes a one year warranty. Solar Links Initiative fundraises for those capital costs varying according to the size of the system and number of households.

Solar Links Initiative identifies and liaises with beneficiary communities, ensures that individual households are properly ‘sensitised’, and, throughout implementation of the project, constantly monitors its progress, and reports on it after visiting the community.

Solar Links Initiative is doing what no other organisation is doing with a model of operation by which the funds raised are spent on the purchase of the equipment and the establishment of the schemes sustainability.

Please support this cost-efficient, affordable, sustainable, replicable and scalable initiative, delivering proven community-wide impact, through an online donation, or as described here:

Thank you for whatever you can do to help African farming communities help themselves to better lives!