The skills and awareness of workers facilitating participatory processes depend largely on the training given, which is in turn governed by the remit of their parent organisation. If energy is not included in the training, it is unlikely to be recognised by either extension worker or village as a need.

• The provision and use of energy is an important consideration in all environments

• Processes seeking to identify household problems should be participatory – and ideally without a pre-set agenda

• Broad general knowledge is needed to facilitate agenda free needs assessment

• Facilitators or animators of participatory processes are often to blame for communities not reporting energy needs

• Workers can be trained to “see” energy issues, basic energy awareness should be a part of broader training programmes

The purpose of the project was to assist general extension workers to be aware of the role of energy, and of the potential to incorporate energy into their grassroots work by promoting and adapting tools to specifically explore energy related issues.

The Key assumptions were:

• Energy is an important aspect of life and livelihoods and forms a cross cutting need for all development activities
• Participatory processes are important; There is strong concern among donors that development actions be demand led and that participatory planning processes are the basis of planning development activities
• There are few recorded and reported examples of where energy issues are expressed as a need resulting from participatory processes. A survey of needs rankings across a broad range of projects shows food, water, health needs and education in the foreground - leading to projects in those sectors

The research project has confirmed that one of the ways of creating a suitable awareness of energy is to present to extension workers participatory tools that illustrate the possible responses of the community regarding energy needs. Tools and guidelines have been developed and have been distributed so as to be embedded in standard teaching and training, not presented as a new curriculum per se on energy.

The summary report is available here Extension Processes For Rural Energy - Summary 

The Full report is available to read on the project website: http://www.sustainablelivelihoods.org