Evaluating Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Explorative Analyses of Development Paths in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Understanding the linkages between multiple targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may help to integrate different sectoral programmes and develop coherent cross-sectoral policy to explore synergies. Synergy is interaction among two or more actions, which will lead to an impact greater or less than the sum of individual effects. Therefore, synergy can be positive or negative (trade-off). This paper aims at developing an analytical framework to evaluate sectoral linkages and examine potential synergies and trade-offs among various SDGs’ goals and targets. Synergies and trade-offs related to energy access (SDG7), clean water and sanitation access (SDG6), food security and sustainable agriculture (SDG2) and poverty alleviation (SDG1) have been evaluated from the perspective of developing countries using examples from South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda), and historical data for the period between 1990 and 2012. The analytical framework includes both qualitative and quantitative methods. Network analysis technique has been used for exploring the conceptual linkage among different indicators, and capturing the targets associated with SDGs. Advanced Sustainability Analysis (ASA) developed under the European framework programme has been used for quantifying the synergies and trade-offs among sustainability indicators. The analysis showed strong synergy among various SDG targets. Interestingly, the potential synergy differs from country to country and over time. Ghana and Sri Lanka had relatively higher potential synergy, whereas Rwanda and Nepal had relatively lower potential synergy among the various targets. Higher synergy values were evidenced in those cases where the policy have recognized and emphasized on linkages among cross-sectoral targets.</p

Electricity crisis : possible way out

QC 2012012

Renewable Energy Market for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries: Country Case Nepal

The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid line extensions contribute to the advantages of renewable based decentralized rural electrification in Ne-pal. Solar home system (SHS) and micro-hydro are the most commonly adopted off-grid renewable energy technologies in the country. This dis-sertation examines the market of renewable energy based rural electrifi-cation within prevailing policy and programmes framework. The study verifies whether the market has been able to serve the poor in Nepal. It also captures the perception of various stakeholders (e.g. private sup-ply/installation companies, NGOs, financial institutions and the donor‘s programme) regarding the business, financing issues and the role of gov-ernment policy on the market development. In addition, the study dis-cusses and analyses renewable based rural electrification supply models, the economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal. The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally charac-terized by subsidy, equity and credit. The study shows that awareness about renewable energy technologies and willingness to pay for electricity access has increased considerably. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and affordability among the poor. The distribution analysis shows there is significant increment in the extensive growth but decrease in the intensive growth rate of rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the ru-ral people. Solar PV technology is still not in the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanisms have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovation in the credit and subsidy delivery system so that a larger rural population can be given ac-cess to electrification.  QC 2011050

Renewable Energy Market for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries: Country Case Nepal

The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid line extensions contribute to the advantages of renewable based decentralized rural electrification in Ne-pal. Solar home system (SHS) and micro-hydro are the most commonly adopted off-grid renewable energy technologies in the country. This dis-sertation examines the market of renewable energy based rural electrifi-cation within prevailing policy and programmes framework. The study verifies whether the market has been able to serve the poor in Nepal. It also captures the perception of various stakeholders (e.g. private sup-ply/installation companies, NGOs, financial institutions and the donor‘s programme) regarding the business, financing issues and the role of gov-ernment policy on the market development. In addition, the study dis-cusses and analyses renewable based rural electrification supply models, the economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal. The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally charac-terized by subsidy, equity and credit. The study shows that awareness about renewable energy technologies and willingness to pay for electricity access has increased considerably. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and affordability among the poor. The distribution analysis shows there is significant increment in the extensive growth but decrease in the intensive growth rate of rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the ru-ral people. Solar PV technology is still not in the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanisms have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovation in the credit and subsidy delivery system so that a larger rural population can be given ac-cess to electrification.  QC 2011050

Sustainability of rural energy access in developing countries

The importance of access to modern energy has been well understood by governments and donor agencies in many developing countries, and significant effort has been made in recent years to address energy access challenges. However, despite these efforts, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that the energy access problem will remain unresolved by 2030. Therefore, adequate and appropriate action is needed to resolve this problem more quickly. This dissertation analyses policies and their impacts and will help researchers and policy makers in developing countries to (i) understand the impact of policies in the formation of a renewable energy (RE) market, (ii) consider the determinants of technological choices when promoting access to energy services and, (iii) better appreciate the sustainability performance of rural energy. For the purpose of analysis, several country cases from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa region were carried out as these are the two main regions where the energy access problem are most acute. To understand the impact of policies in the formation of RE based rural electrification market, a case study was conducted in Nepal. The study has shown that rural electrification has been expanding as a consequence of market-oriented policies. When it comes to selection of electrification path-ways, different technological alternatives are analysed in Afghanistan and Nepal, taking levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) as the means to select cost effective options. The analysis has presented best-fit conditions for these various technological pathways in the two countries and verified whether they are following the appropriate and cost effective course in their efforts to expand rural electrification. For understanding the determinants of cooking fuel choices and to analyse policy implications in the transition of large populations from traditional to modern fuels, fuel choices are modelled in the case of China. Choices are modelled (using MESSAGE–ACCESS mod-el) with standard economic variables such as income, technology costs and fuel prices, along with some unique variable such as inconvenience costs. Future access scenarios are designed considering different policy options to accelerate the transition. Sustainability is one of the key concerns in terms of energy access. This dissertation introduces methods for evaluating (i) the sustainability performance of energy technologies and (ii) the status and progress of developing countries in providing sustainable energy access. Different sets of sustainability indicators are considered for the rural energy sector and aggregated to form a single composite index. The energy technology sustainability index (ETSI) is used for assessing the performance of different energy technological systems in the case of India. The analysis reveals that mature technologies such as biomass gasifiers, biogas and micro hydro have relatively better sustainability performance among the options considered, while solar and wind, though showing fairly good improvement in sustainability performance, still have difficulties competing with more mature and conventional technologies without policy support. The Energy Sustainability Index (ESI) has been applied to China, India, South Africa, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Ghana between 1990 and 2010 to evaluate the status and progress made by these countries in rural energy sustainability. The analysis suggests that South Africa’s rural energy sustainability index is highest followed by China, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Ghana respectively. The rural energy sustainability has improved relatively over time in all countries except Ghana. The dissertation shows that policies are helping the rapid expansion of the RE market though with uneven penetration in rural Nepal. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanism are perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification, requiring innovation. The electrification pathways taken by Nepal seem functional and moving in the right direction but some flaws in the delivery mechanisms require attention. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, pathways are not well defined and the country lacks a clear-cut national policy framework for the expansion of rural electrification. The analysis on fuel transition shows that even a fast developing country such as China will continue to have serious problems guaranteeing the access to solid fuels for cooking for one third of its rural population by 2030. The problem could be more severe in poorer nations. There-fore, further policy intervention addressing the high implicit discount rate of the poorer section of the population, reducing the upfront cost of more efficient technology (stoves) or the costs of cleaner fuels with subsidies must be considered to promote energy transition. Overall, this dissertation has analysed key issues in the global discussion about sustainable energy access. The methods for sustainability assessment suggested have been specially designed for rural settings in developing countries and are instrumental to assess the performance of rural energy technologies and track the progress of sustainable energy access efforts among rural households.QC 20140210</p

Renewable Energy for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries

QC 20120328</p

Opportunities for developing socialization skills white playing

Kvalifikācijas darba temats: Socializēšanās prasmju attīstības iespējas rotaļdarbībā. Darba autore: Viktorija Goļimbovska. Darba vadītāja: Rasma Purmale Kvalifikācijas darba apjoms: 50 lpp., 4 tabulas, 8 attēli, 4 pielikumi, izmantoti 35 literatūras avoti. Kvalifikācijas darbā ir veikt teorētiskais un empīriskais pētījums, kura mērķis ir raksturot pirmsskolas izglītības iestādes iespējas socializācijas procesa sekmēšanai pirmsskolas vecumā. Kvalifikācijas darba teorētiskajā daļā tika veikta literatūras analīze par socializācijas procesa būtību un tās veidošanas iespējām vecākā pirmsskolas vecuma bērniem, raksturoti socializācijas procesa pamatfaktori un nosacījumi bērna veiksmigai socializācijai. Kvalifikācijas darba empīriskajā pētījumā tika pārbaudīta izvirzītā hipotēze, ka vecākā pirmsskolas vecuma bērnibūs socializējušies, ja pirmsskolas izglītības skolotājs mērķtiecīgi, bērna interesēm atbilstoši iekļaus rotaļdarbības ikdienas pedagoģiskajā procesā pirmsskolā. Sasniegtie rezultāti liecina, jā bērnam tiek piedāvāta brīva darbības izvēli, nodrošināta nepieciešamā vide, palīdzot bērnam veikt savas aktivitātes pašam, pilnveidojas viņa pieredze, attīstas sociālās iemaņas un prasmes. Atslēgas vārdi: pirmsskola, sociālās iemaņas, socializācija. Kvalifikācijas darbs praktiski var būt lietderīgs pirmsskolas skolotāju darbā ar vecākā pirmsskolas vecuma bērniem sociālos iemaņu un prasmju veidošanai.Subject of the qualification thesis: „Opportunities for developing socialization skills while playing”. Author of the thesis: Viktorija Goļimbovska. Scientific supervisor: Rasma Purmale Scope of the qualification thesis: 50 pages, 4 tables, 8 images, 4 annexes, 35 reference sources used. The qualification thesis comprises a theoretical and empiric study with the purpose of characterising the possibilities of a pre-school educational institution in encouraging socialization process at pre-school age. The theoretical part of the qualification thesis contains analysis of literature on the essence of socialization process and its creation possibilities for senior pre-school age children, describes main factors of socialization process and conditions for successful socialization of children. The empirical study of the qualification thesis verifies the hypothesis, older pre-school aged children will be socialized if the pre-school education teacher purposefully, in accordance with interests of a child, will include play activities in a daily routine in the kindergarten. The accomplished results demonstrate that the experience of the child is improved and his/her social skills are developed by offering the child free choice of activity, ensuring necessary environment and helping the child to perform his activities himself/herself. Keywords: Socialization skills, socialization. The qualification thesis may be of practical use in the work of pre-school teacher with senior pre-school age children for the purpose of developing social skills

Swedish construction MSEs:simply renovators or renovation service innovators?

To address the renovation needs of detached house stock in Sweden, micro and small-sized enterprises (MSEs), a subgroup of small and medium-sized enterprises, are expected to introduce more comprehensive house renovation solutions. One-stop-shop (OSS) is an innovative Product-Service System model that can enable MSEs to offer comprehensive renovation packages instead of existing fragmented solutions. We have applied a conceptual framework for innovation adoption in organizations and conducted an interview of 21 construction MSEs in three different geographical areas in Sweden to examine their perceptions and preparedness to adopt the OSS business concept. Findings showed that the examined MSEs are positive towards OSS as it could address the needs for the comprehensive renovation of detached houses. However, presently, are not prepared to take the coordinator’s role in such a concept mainly due to the perceived business risks, the lack of flexibility to organizational restructuring, and lack of resources and management competency to coordinate multiple tasks and actors. Those organizations lacked awareness of existing policy support and access to funding mechanisms to try new business models. As a solution, they proposed an external coordinator to be the provider of OSS, on the trial phase, whose role and characteristics need to be further examined

Strategies for deep renovation market of detached houses

Deep renovation of the buildings is a key for sustainable development, however, the rate of deep renovation of residential buildings in the European Union (EU) is lower than what is required to meet the climate and energy goals. This paper analyses peculiarities and commonalities in market conditions and approaches to the deep renovation of single-family (or detached) houses in Denmark and Sweden. The market analysis covers the Political, Economic, Social, and Technical (PEST) dimensions and is based on systematic literature review and findings of market gap analysis. The PEST analysis is complemented with responses from 49 stakeholders/experts to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) for the deep renovation market. The synthesis of SWOT and PEST led to some strategies for deep renovation. Furthermore, policies and strategies adopted by some other countries have been discussed to place findings from this study in the regional and global context. Capacity building in designing and managing deep renovation with technological advancement and construction practices; and enforcement of quality assurance systems of artisans could avoid the perceived risk, and inconveniences associated with renovation. Encouraging systematically planned stepwise deep renovation through One-Stop shop and linking such renovation with appropriate financing mechanism could attract more homeowners with financial limitations. Besides, clustering several houses in need of renovation and appropriate energy/carbon pricing mechanisms could make the renovation market more attractive for investors and construction companies. The findings of this paper are of interest to construction companies, policymakers, investors, and analysts about the deep renovation market