Powered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and DCHI recently hosted a special session on Humanitarian Energy. In honour launching of our accelerator programme, the session highlighted the crucial role of Modern Energy in tackling the changing landscape of humanitarian crises. Thanks to our co-hosts and inspirational speakers, including the honour of welcoming H.R.H. Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Senior Advisor for Private Sector Partnerships at the UNHCR, we believe that we created real momentum for the humanitarian energy transition.
Joined by over 80 participants, some of the key parties leading the energy movement for humanitarian aid shared their insights with us. Our partner GPA kicked off our session with a very insightful presentation outlining the Energy challenge we’re currently facing, and certain ways projects are already using modern energy to tackle these needs.
Snapshot from Thomas Fohgrub’s presentation (Head of the Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA) Secretariat, UNITAR)
Our breakout sessions built on GPA’s inspiring examples, by hearing about our accelerator programme, including the success stories of our 2019 programme. With thanks to project leads from AMPERE and Lighting for Learning, our participants heard first hadn’t about the opportunities, and obstacles they have faced launching their pilots in the field.
To end the event, we had the honour of welcoming H.R.H. Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, who gave a highly motivating keynote to introduce UNHCRs Clean Energy Challenge. His inspiring words left us all feeling energised about the movement to come!
H.R.H. prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme keynote on the clean energy challenge
Ultimately, this session was the ideal way to bring together those with an appetite to contribute to this exciting time in the humanitarian energy transition. Going forwards, we will use this momentum in our accelerator programme to make greater impact using modern energy. Keep an eye on our website for any news on energy, or our upcoming focal point café’s.
Focal point café
DCHI is very excited to announce that we will be hosting regular Focal Point Café meetings in 2020 as our newest networking opportunity within the Humanitarian Innovation Sector! We will host regular meet-ups that will offer the perfect opportunity to network in a casual-setting, whilst having the opportunity to hear about humanitarian innovation cases and relevant themes, as well as exploring best practices and lessons learnt from various organisations.
Access To Modern Energy Programme
Access to Modern Energy is increasingly recognized as an area of humanitarian concern. If communities affected by crises go without proper access to energy, it becomes impossible for them to meet the basic needs of life. The programme enables humanitarian organisations to be the catalysts for tackling specific energy challenges, whilst opening themselves up to receiving the knowledge and business insights from energy experts and private-sector partnerships. Ultimately, the projects will provide local insights for humanitarian partnerships to enable cost efficiency and improve quality of humanitarian work.
