UP-SCALE Building Skills, Capacities and Learning for Civil Society
Introduction
UP-SCALE is the knowledge and capacity building arm of the ACCESS Coalition and acts as an energy access knowledge aggregator of best practices and expert advice, while providing technical support to civil society operating in the rapidly evolving energy space. UP-SCALE participation comes from expert organizations with decades of experience on energy access that are based in both the global North and South.
Why
Involvement of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) – including community-based organizations, research institutions, and social entrepreneurs - on issues about energy access has increased alongside the growing global attention and action with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the development of SDGs. In particular, UP-SCALE builds on the expert member organizations to increase the impact in the delivery of both advocacy and implementation efforts, ultimately aiming to accelerate the delivery of SDG7 and in turn, enhance the pace of achieving other SDGs.
CSOs need to have ability to access external knowledge while also gaining timely, specific support on proven processes, technologies, and methodologies for providing energy services to the poor. Typically, there is limited capacity of internal teams to provide suitable solutions and successful energy access processes and a lack of available tailored resources for this. The initiative will provide a light-touch and tailored approach to help close the gaps and equip CSOs with effective resources making their operations more effective and ultimately increasing their impact.
Current Status
The steps to develop this initiative are shown in the following flow diagram. It displays the steps from the initial creation of UP-SCALE up to the current progress of the initiative, which is listed Step 4.
Knowledge Portals
CSOs have been acknowledged for playing a decisive role, specifically in a few key subject areas that are essential to achieve SDG7. The purpose of these Knowledge Portals is to highlight these topics and focus the debate around them in terms of the current obstacles and knowledge gaps. Ideally, these discussions will lead to ways in which CSOs and other stakeholders can help increase the delivery and impact of energy access. The portals are meant to serve as a collaborative space to identify existing and needed knowledge as well as a repository to increase awareness and educate on complex topics that matter to the most vulnerable people.
The Knowledge Portals intend to present a cohesive definition of different sensitive topics, which are key for the successful delivery of SDG7 and current efforts from the CSO community. The portals will provide information on the ‘What’, ‘How’, and ‘Who’ of the specified topics.
- What: definition, context, and current obstacles/knowledge gaps
- How: required actions considering existing best practices
- Who: outline of active contributors in the sector and current multi-stakeholder analysis
