Lessons learned from collaboration with local government to integrate refugee energy needs into development plans and policies
Introduction
The Energy Solutions for Displacement Settings (SUN-ESDS) Kenya Project, which is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as part of the global program ‘Support to UNHCR in facilitating the operationalization of the Global Compact on Refugees in the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus (SUN)’, and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has been working to strengthen the Turkana County government in the implementation of the Kalobeyei Socio-Economic Development Plan (KISEDP). The project has focused on the promotion of sustainable energy services to refugees and their host communities through market-based approaches. Various policy frameworks have been developed between 2019 and 2024.
This policy brief outlines lessons learned by the project while collaborating with the host government, to create an enabling policy environment for the integration of refugees’ and host communities’ energy needs within local development and policy frameworks in Turkana West sub-county. The region is host to Kakuma refugee camps and Kalobeyei integrated settlement. The two settlements are home to 37.2 percent (288,206) of the total 774,370 registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Kenya. This brief highlights some of the key policy bottlenecks that must be overcome in the long term to improve energy access in displacement settings globally, using the experience drawn from Kakuma and Kalobeyei.
