What would you like to search for?

Energy will move Madagascar forward

Having access to energy has become a fundamental need.

Energy is a basic necessity : we need it to cook our food, to light our homes, to access information and new technologies. In Madagascar, household access to energy is still very limited. Only 15% of the Malagasy population has access to it. Policies and rural electrification Barefoot College have shown that 75% of the rural population use battery lamps. These are very harmful to the environment in general. As for cooking, research in the Menabe region have shown that 99% of households still use charcoal and firewood, the latter being 100% from natural forests (dry forests, mangroves, etc,…). The policies as well as the means relating to this energy sector of the strategies are already in place but the hardest thing remains to be done : the implementation, it’s true that we don’t die with this current energy situation but let us ask ourselves questions : what is available in the households today really meet their needs ? Are the existing offers adapted to the context ? Are the energy sources we use sustainable ? To all these questions, the answer is No.

Several actors in the sector, along with organization such as WWF and parteners are working through many initiatives to facilitate the population’s access to clean and durable energy sources. We can talk about the national program Barefoot College, how many of us know this program ? It contributes to the electrification of remote villages through the installation of solar systems. Ok so far, it’s already very interesting ; but these solar systems  are installed by women « mamas Solaire » who are grandmothers chosen in the beneficiary village and trained at the Barefoot College center. In addition to energy training, they learn entrepreneurship, sewing, breeding, agriculture and personal development. They return to the village as solar engineers and bring light. In terms of cooking energy, reforestation of fast-growing species for wood production (charcoal, firewood, etc…) and the production of improved stoves to reduce wood consumption have been promoted but need to be much more.

These initiatives must be scaled up throughout the island ; should they not be among the priorities for the development of Madagascar ? Indeed, because access to energy is an indicator of development and in this sens, we will develop in an intelligent and constant way ; we will be actors of the lasting development in the proper sense of the term.