Report Launch | A Spoonful of Solar to Help the Medicine Go Down: Exploring Synergies Between Healthcare and Energy
WRI India is launching its report on A Spoonful of Solar to Help the Medicine Go Down: Exploring synergies between health care and energy on 26 October, followed by panel discussions and stakeholder consultation.
A joint global report between World Health Organization and partners estimates that, globally, nearly 1 billion people access health facilities that function without electricity or with unreliable electricity. In India alone, several thousands of rural public health facilities operate without an electricity connection.
Electricity acts as an enabler of health services and improved health outcomes. Reliable access to electricity is required for the majority of the critical health services to be delivered to people, such as running medical equipment for sterilization, immunization, emergency medical procedures, childbirth, and water supply.
In rural parts of the country, decentralized solar energy is being increasingly considered by health facilities as a solution to bridge the energy access gap, as well as enhance the climate resilience of health facilities and building its long-term adaptive capacity. This report reviews decentralized solar energy interventions across six Indian states under different financing, ownership, and operating modes and attempts to understand the lacunae certain implementation models face in terms of scalability. The report provides recommendations on the enabling conditions necessary to ensure the sustainability of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) systems in rural health facilities in the long run.
The report's findings and suggestions are expected to support state and national policymakers in the energy and health sector, implementing and funding agencies to scale the use of decentralized solar energy solutions in health facilities sustainably.
The report launch will be followed by a panel discussion with leading experts at the health-energy nexus to share reflections and discuss the enabling ecosystem needed for the sustainability of decentralized solar energy interventions in health facilities. This will be followed by a roundtable discussion on scaling health facility electrification in India.
SPEAKERS
- Sanjeev Jain, Advisor /Chief Engineer (Retd.), Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA)
- Dr. Arun Panda, Senior Fellow, WRI India
- Huda Jaffer, Director, SELCO Foundation
- Rahul Srinivasan, Senior Energy Specialist, Sustainable Energy for All
- Marion Cros, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank
- Bharath Jairaj, Executive Director, Energy Program, WRI India
- Lanvin Concessao, Senior Program Associate, WRI India
- Harsha Meenawat, Senior Program Manager, WRI India
PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:
Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), Centre for Chronic Disease Control, CLASP, Clean Energy Access Network, Christian Medical Association of India, CMC Vellore, Envo Renewables, National Health Systems Resource Centre, IKEA Foundation, KOIS Invest, Odyssey Energy Solutions, Oxford Policy Management India, Public Health Foundation of India, Schneider Electric, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Selco Foundation, UNICEF, World Bank, WRI India
