We’re working with partners in Sierra Leone to find ways to make energy work harder for households, businesses, and communities.
Core Vision: Enhancing the Social Value of Energy
Access to electricity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for socio-economic development. If energy users are to be able to derive significant social value, they also need to have the capability to translate electricity use into economically productive and socially meaningful outcomes, as well as supportive institutions, markets, and safeguards. This collaborative research project in Sierra Leone investigates strategies for enhancing the social value of energy to users and for incorporating the translation of energy use into social value into energy planning and project design. In the process, we aim to help Sierra Leone’s energy sector pursue energy projects that make a substantial contribution to promoting sustainable development and thriving communities, towns, and cities.
Project Goals
- Enhance and scale sustainable development outcomes of energy projects and investments in Sierra Leone, by creating evidence for high impact translation pathways.
- Create a community-level focus on social and economic development through energy innovation, by developing a portfolio of best practices in the design, operation, and use of energy systems to create social value.
- Build a community of practice among key energy stakeholders in Sierra Leone, by facilitating capacity building, strategic exchange, and coordinated action grounded in scientific evidence and practices.
Project Team
- Dr. Clark A. Miller: Director, Center for Energy & Society
- Dr. Nalini Chhetri: Associate Director for International Initiatives
- Dr. Netra Chhetri: Director, Innovation and Global Development
- Dr. Mary Jane Parmentier: Director, Global Technology and Development
- Dr. Saurabh Biswas: Lead Project Researcher
- Mr. Wilbourne Showers leads the research team in Sierra Leone and serve as the point of contact for CERCB
- Mr. Festus Lansana leads the research team in Sierra Leone and serve as the point of contact for CERCB
- Ms. BrieAnne Davis: Research Assistant
Online Training Program in the Social Value of Energy
- Training Program Overview: Enhancing Energy Projects through Social Value Creation
- Course 1: The Social Value of Energy
- Course 2: User Capabilities and Social Value Creation
- Course 3: The Energy-Poverty Nexus
- Course 4: Data Methodologies
Project Reports and Publications
Biswas and Miller, “Deconstructing knowledge and reconstructing understanding: Designing a knowledge architecture for transdisciplinary co-creation of energy futures”, Sustainable Development, 2022.
About the Project
This is a joint project between Arizona State University and the Centre for Economic Research and Capacity Building:
The Center for Energy & Society at Arizona State University (ASU)’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS) is a network of 50+ faculty and students focused on advancing research on the human dimensions of energy transitions, including a major initiative on energy innovation in developing countries. The center is a transdisciplinary unit at the vanguard of commitment to linking innovation to public value. ASU is a public research university in the USA, that is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world for research and innovation.
The Centre for Economic Research and Capacity
Building (CERCB) is an independent research firm in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that provides non-partisan research on the design of state and local fiscal and economic policy. The objective of CERCB is to promote development of evidence-based public policy, to contribute to public understanding of issues concerning central and local governance, and to enhance knowledge for institutional capacity building. Established in 2012, CERCB, fills a critical need resulting from paucity of robust empirical research and capacity building and training services that affect the quality of human resources, public policy design and implementation at local and central government levels in post-conflict settings across Africa.
This project is part of the Applied Research Programme on Energy for Economic Growth (EEG), led by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). The programme is funded by the UK Government, through UK Aid.
The Applied Research Programme on Energy and Economic Growth (EEG) produces cutting edge research on the links between energy and economic growth, working closely with policymakers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to build more sustainable, efficient, reliable and equitable energy systems. EEG is a five-year programme, led by OPM and funded by the UK Department for International Development. (For more information visit: www.energyeconomicgrowth.org)
Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies.