Background

Energy is a vital contribution and critical enabler to equitable well-being in the Nepalese society. In developing countries like Nepal, access to affordable and reliable energy services is fundamental to reducing poverty and improving health, increasing productivity, enhancing competitiveness and promoting economic growth. Nepal is today on the verge of a making new constitution with emphasis on regional developments. While the recent national policies address improvement of livelihoods in different regions of Nepal, the approach for decentralized regional developments is gaining all citizens’ attention. However, it is still very unclear or not well addressed how the decentralized development can be achieved.

The project sees energy as the point of departure for a transformation of the Nepalese society towards equitable livelihoods through regional developments. The recent national plans have addressed issues on energy solutions. But their focus has mainly been on providing energy for lighting and cooking. However, energy is also a powerful tool for transformation to decrease poverty.

Scaling up the total energy access on the regional levels can increase well-being in different regions. Total energy access can improve the overall well-being of Nepalese citizens. Consequently, the vison of this project is to contribute to that in 2050 good energy governance, citizens’ well-being, and sustainability goals are widespread in the majority of regions of Nepal.

Partners: NTNU and Tribhuvan University, Institute of Engineering from 2015-2020.