The Pacific Islands: A Different Context requires Different Policies
Slides from a presentation by Paul and Donnella Bryce to the Asia Pacific Forum on Renewable Energy, RIAP Sydney, April 2004
2. A physical context of …
Extraordinary isolation:
- from overseas markets
- from main shipping and air routes
- from other neighbouring Pacific nations
- from citizens within each nation.
80% of PIC citizens live in small rural villages, generally unserved by regular transport, whether by sea, land or air.
3. A cultural context of ..
5,000 to 50,000 years of isolated existence, leading to:
- enduring communal ties, of kinship and language;
- traditional land and resource ownership rights;
- well over a quarter of the world’s spoken languages;
- traditional gender roles and marriage rites
- a diversity matching its language groups
4. An economic context of ….
- 22 developing nations, 5 least-developed nations, with;
- tiny markets. Some countries have populations less than a Sydney suburb;
- very high transport costs for fuel, raw materials, goods and services;
- energy poverty levels comparable to remote Sub-Saharan regions of Africa;
- very limited export products, with few resources and no affordable energy to add value;
… resulting in a tiny private sector, confined to tiny urban centres with energy, communications and transport services.
plus …
few human resources, largely undeveloped:
e.g. ……Marshall Islands’ Energy Ministry comprises one graduate Engineer, straddling policy development, participating in international events, delivering energy projects, researching and advising its Government, doing field installation and maintenance.
….each multilateral or bilateral or NGO initiative at the top level depends upon a tiny urban ‘elite’ churning opportunistically between foreign-funded ‘projects’.
6. Meanwhile in Solomon Is. ……
- capita energy consumption is tiny, and DROPPING;
- public electricity access confined to urban areas, except for a few village-based APACE systems;
- during the conflict (2000-2002) the ONLY continuous electric power services existed through APACE micro hydro-electric systems. [still largely the case, except for private generators]
.. energy poverty is endemic
7. Meanwhile, mainstream donor energy policies assume..
- an entrepreneurial middle class;
- significant private sector economic linkages; hardware shops, trade stores, outlets for products
- enough consumers and cash to pay tariffs; places to pay tariffs
- transport, distribution systems, markets for rural products
- institutional structures; banking, credit frameworks
- functioning and trusted government agencies, supporting rural outreach
- political structures where policies are implementable
8. e.g. Global village energy partnerships
(refer www.gvep.org)
Significant GVEP objectives are to:
1. Bridge the gap between investors, entrepreneurs and energy users in the design, installation and operation or replicable energy-poverty projects.
2. Facilitate policy and market regulatory frameworks to scale the availability of energy services.
3. Serve as a marketplace for information and best practices on the effective development and implementation of energy-poverty projects/programs.
9. The practical process is typified by:
- assessing and ranking sites by external consultants for technical and economic potential ……. (non-social) ‘master plans’
- Regulatory frameworks opened up: e.g. release land from customary title
- reduce other barriers to external private investment
- subsidise investors bidding for ‘ownership’
- import urban or foreign construction engineers and machinery
- set up external tariffs for locals to pay for electricity
- follow urban electrical rules that preclude customary dwellings.
10. In the rural PIC’s there are generally …
- very high logistical costs
- few cash-based existing industries
- little economic (cash) returns in the short term
no urban or foreign investors
- few (and over-stretched) human technical resources
combined with ……
- very strong ties to customary land and resources
- strong distrust of government schemes
- no tradition of paying for services
- little concept of paying for a resource that is customarily owned.
11. In Solomon Is.,mainstream results include…
Local community left with …..
- costs of de facto access; few able to connect;
- few added skills or employment;
- little awareness or capital for electrical applications;
- social disunity, jealousies; resentments about resource usage.
Investor/government instrumentality left with …..
- high O and M costs, minimal tariff revenue, continuing subsidies;
- legal disputes re land and water resources;
- loan payments on capital that cannot be amortised;
- Minimal technology transfer.
12. APACE ‘Village First’ energy model …
A Melanesian model built for Melanesia, within Melanesia, by Melanesians
- Local control, responsibility and contributions throughout all 8 steps.
- Coordinated by an indigenous Council (SIVEC) inspired by rural people, with community membership but with Government representation.
- Field work managed by trained and experienced SI national team (APACE VFEG) with diminishing Australian assistance.
- Power systems with:
- Full community ownership and management on customary land;
- Community-defined tariff systems, held at community level;
- Localised management and construction teams, drawn from previous project villagers keen to assist their national brothers and sisters;
- Respect and support for existing chiefs and resource owners;
- Inclusion of women in decision-making and design.
The community is the instigator and a major investor at each step.
14. Results …
• seven rural hydro-electric power schemes commissioned in Solomon Islands (1983, 1991, 1993,1997, 1999, 2002, 2003);
• 65 prospective rural SI villages currently proceeding through 8-step project cycle, with 120 villages assessed;
• National representative Council (SIVEC) set up for rural energy on the ‘Village First’ model, with Parliamentary endorsement;
• sister Councils PNGVEC and VanVEC being set up in PNG and Vanuatu, by citizens and local community leaders.
… driven by local communities, funded through local entities; maintained without Government or external subsidies.
(Other village schemes in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Laos)
…. yet out of step with bilateral and multilateral ‘policies’.
Pictures
15. Mounting transformer and ‘stringing’ HV transmission lines; Bulelavata village 1999
16. Erecting 11 kV transmission to the nearby School; New Georgia; 2000
17. Hydro weir; Bulelavata village; local design & construction 1999
18. Power house; local design and construction; New Georgia 1998
19. Trading store with hydro powered cold storage; Manawai village 2002
20. Helen Buga presenting for Isobel Province, SIVEC Seminar Feb 2-6th 2004
21. SIVEC Seminar of Feb 2-6th 2004, comprising leaders from Govt. and 5 Provinces
View pictures 15 - 21
22. Appropriate technology = technology appropriated by people .... within their social and cultural context
In the PIC's, successful policies and practices need to grow from the bottom: they cannot easily be transposed from other contexts.
We need:
- no more external experts
- no more policy developers
- no more design studies
- no more master plans
23. It may be time for Bonn to recognise and support
- indigenous models that work
- activities that precede and encourage markets
- listening and feeding into lower levels
- Australia to recognise rural electrification as a necessary path to sustainable social, political and economic development
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