About Powering Agriculture
Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development supports the development and deployment of clean energy innovations that increase agriculture productivity and stimulate low carbon economic growth in the agriculture sector of developing countries to help end extreme poverty and extreme hunger.
Village Infrastructure Angels (VIA) provides solar home systems (SHS) and solar-powered agroprocessing community mills run by women entrepreneurs in remote regions of Honduras.
Despite the improvement in recent years, the country’s access to electricity varies greatly - from over 98% in major city centers to less than 25% in the most rural departments. Moreover, women in rural areas spend significant time processing the crops, a very labor-intensive activity. The benefits of the solar-powered mills will save substantial time on manual work and allow women to engage in more income generating activities. This solution, going beyond pure household lighting and phone charging, will result in higher income per family, ultimately offering a means to get out of poverty.
The role of social impact incentives (SIINC)
SIINC payments are aimed to reward and incentivize VIA to go beyond simple household electrification, contribute to women empowerment and increase household income. The results-based revenue will complement income from the villages, creating a solid business case for VIA to attract investors. It will also pioneer more impactful solar-based solutions for poor communities.
The metrics: What SIINC is paying for
The SIINC mechanism is based on three carefully designed metrics that were co-created with VIA. SIINC payments are aimed to incentivize VIA to set-up community-based businesses run by women. The project delivers access to microfinance loans in remote regions where such credit was never available. The use of the agro-processing mills will relieve women from manual labor and they can use that time on income generating activities, such as handicraft making. In addition to this, the beneficiaries can pay for the solar-powered mills with the goods they produce and can use the remaining time to generate additional income.
Facts and figures
- Total (maximum) amount of performance based payments (SIINC): 195,000 USD
- Period of ongoing performance based payments (SIINC): 4 years
- Preferred follow-on scenario: self-sustainability via economics of scale
- Total amount of investment to be mobilized (debt): 318,000 USD
If you're interested in learning more about SIINC and VIA, you'll find useful links at the end of the SIINC Fact Sheet. For more detailed information about Village Infrastructure Angels, visit their Innovator page here at Powering Agriculture.
Village Infrastructure Angels and connectivity specialist Eseye are working together to use cellular connectivity to more effectively monitor battery usage for village mills in Vanuatu. Using an Eseye SIM card, the necessary data can be automatically collected and sent directly to VIA.
Village Infrastructure Angels and Eseye are partnering to provide rural villages in developing countries access to solar power to run agro-mills. This project has the potential to save 300 million women worldwide an hour of daily labour, resulting in significant social, economic and health benefits.
Combining VIA's solar solar-powered mills with access to microfinance means women need to do less manual labor, have more time for income-generating activities, and have the opportunity to earn the money needed to pay for the solar-powered mills with the goods they produce
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