Page 15 - IB November 2024

Ni-Vanuatu Women Lead the Way to a Brighter

Future with Off-Grid Renewable Energy

In the community of Lawital in the north of Tanna in Vanuatu, a women-
led collective is driving a transition towards clean renewable energy, and
improving safety, livelihoods and quality of life in the process.
Like most rural communities in Vanuatu, Lawital has no access to the
electricity grid. Most of the community’s electricity is generated from diesel
and other fuels that generate carbon emissions, which is not good for
the environment, and is expensive for locals. This lack of access to clean
and reliable energy impacts women the most, which is why women in
Lawital have been strongly advocating for access to clean electricity – for
cooking, for their children to do their homework, and for lighting to improve
safety in the community.
But there are brighter days ahead, with the women-led collective
- Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (WITTT) network - in Lawital on track to
implement a new project that will provide lighting and device charging
systems to all 115 households in the community and five community
centres, as well as streetlights in 10 public spaces.
Dalila Yaws Bob, Vice President of Women I Tok Tok Tugeta Tanna,
describes the transformation that this project will have for her family and
others:

“We are launching an off-grid energy project in my community, and if
my ancestors were here, they would rejoice that someone fi nally thought
of us. In my community, we struggle to charge our phones and the kids’
laptops. It costs 150 vatu to charge one phone and 200 vatu for a laptop.
If you don’t have the money, you can’t access it.”
As someone who collects rainfall data for the Vanuatu Meteorology and
Geo-Hazards Department, Dalila is also thankful for the impact that the
project will have beyond Lawital.
“I’m so happy that through this project, we’ll also be able to get
information from one community to another through our mobile phones,”
she said.
Flora Vano, Country Manager at ActionAid Vanuatu, is excited about the
possibilities the project will bring.
“This project will be game-changing for women in my communities. In
this part of Tanna, people are still using kerosene lamps, candles and
fires, because there is little access to energy. Women have told us that
this project will help in so many ways, including protecting themselves
going to and from the gardens late at night.”
A monthly PayGo payment system will be implemented for the users to
gain ownership of the systems over approximately three years to ensure
project sustainability, with payments being reinvested into maintaining the
systems, purchasing future renewable systems and improving livelihoods
in the community.
The goal of the project is to improve the livelihoods of women and the
wider Lawital community, by enhancing access to clean energy, improving
women’s health and safety, promoting digital inclusion, and establishing a
sustainable and scalable model.
Flora adds, “Supporting women’s leadership in bringing renewable
energy to the community brings a double impact of driving gender equality
and clean energy transition.”
The project is supported by a partnership with the Women I Tok Tok
Tugeta Network, ActionAid Australia, ActionAid Vanuatu, Powerwells
and the Australian Government. This project is part of the Australian
Government’s Pacific Climate Infrastructure Financing Partnership
initiative to expand the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for
the Pacific’s climate investments, by partnering with businesses to
deliver reliable and sustainable renewable energy to remote and rural
communities in the Pacific, implemented by the Business Partnerships
Platform.

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