Village Power in Solomon Islands - a grass roots development
Small beginnings
In the late 70’s, the lands of the Voko people of the tiny village of Iriri in the Western Solomon Islands was being threatened by an international logging company. The tribe took a united, active stance against the company involving legal action but ultimately, due to the imminent destruction of their “children’s future (the forest and the lagoon)” they felt forced to take physical action. This was spearheaded by the women who, at their own instigation and with their children, sat at the boundaries of their land, in the path of the company bull-dozers. The villagers won their four year campaign. Concurrently with their battle the villagers developed a “community development plan” to sustainably harvest their natural resources themselves in order to ensure a sustainable future for their people. The corner stone of this development plan incorporated an electricity supply from their water source. By 1983, the first village–based micro-hydro electric system built by Solomon Islands village communities was completed in Iriri Village in the Western Province, Solomon Islands. This village based micro hydroelectricity project was funded by UNIDO as a pilot project to test the viability of small hydro systems as stand alone, community based energy supplies . The Iriri project (designed and implemented by an APACE team of four men and one woman) did not have a policy commitment to women’s participation; it did however, include a consultative process to identify and address particular concerns of the village women . For twenty years the Iriri project has operated without outside financial assistance. The Iriri project was locally perceived as successful and led to similar projects in the neighbouring villages of Vavanga and Ghatere, replicating the Iriri model, but with more explicit gender needs identification and women’s participation. Similar projects in other provinces continue to be implemented under what has become the Village First Electrification Program-Solomon Islands (VFEP -SI), the only active energy program in the region with a stated gender policy commitment.
The success story spread among the villages
The “success” of these early projects, as seen by Solomon Island people, was first measured by the cheap, universal access to modern, affordable electricity; then followed factors such as the new income opportunities (small village businesses such as ice-making, carpentry and bread baking) that sprung up in these villages; better quality houses and street lights in the electrified villages. Stronger community participation and pride became a conspicuous characteristic as the residents spoke often of their modern villages and the changes that had come about. Other communities did not enunciate women’s participation as a “success” factor but they did identify the extent of women’s participation as a strength of the electrified villages. Despite non-existent telecommunications and scant national media services, the success stories of these early projects spread rapidly throughout the country, (through tribal and marriage connections, word-of-mouth and an increasing number of local and eco-visitors) leading to hundreds of villages requesting similar energy-based development projects. All applications for new projects came through village men.
Recognition for women’s participation
In 1993 Western Provincial Assembly signed a MOU with APACE to plan and design a provincial village electrification program based on the community development model first trialled in Iriri. The MOU contained a unique section (for such an agreement at that time); it acknowledged the central role women hold in village life, the protection of the land and natural environment. It attempted to ensure that all project stakeholders took into account the energy needs and aspirations of women and that adequate provision would be made in all project stages and levels to actively involve women.
A field office was opened in Gizo, the main town in the Western Province, to begin social, economic and environmental assessments and technical surveys of all the villages in the Western Province that requested, in writing, to participate in the program. A team of young men and women was recruited from the three original villages that had built and managed their own micro-hydro development projects. A set of guidelines and appraisal criteria for community participation in the program was developed . The guidelines advised villages of the program commitment to women as primary energy providers and users and one of the nine criteria established basic levels of women’s participation that each village must implement in order to become eligible to move to a priority village for financial assistance within the program.
Role modeling and mentoring for women and men
APACE, based at the University of Technology Sydney held responsibility for the program which was managed by women and coordinated by a team of women and men; a Women’s Officer was appointed to plan for, and monitor women’s participation at all levels of the program. The local staff team of 4 men and 6 women was mentored by the Sydney based management team. Technical management of the program was eventually devolved to Nixon Silas and coordination to Claudine Lilo two of the young people originally recruited to the program. A Women In Development (WID) Policy and Manual and the “Zuke” (“I see the light”) Women’s Energy Awareness Workshops were developed. Women throughout the province, and the nation, attended these workshops.
1. Women in Development Policy
The policy is formulated to provide incentives and opportunities for women to be constructively involved in the development process.
The policy aims to achieve: Women being involved as decision makers
Addressing women’s needs as primary energy users at the village level
Equitable distribution of benefits to women, men and youth
The policy and accompanying manual adopts an equal opportunity (and sometimes affirmative action) methodology for village assessment; pre-feasibility studies; project design, implementation ,monitoring and evaluation; electricity use; training and role modeling.
2. Zuke Women’s Energy Awareness Workshops
The workshops aim to empower women through awareness, understanding and exploration of the implications of modern energy technology at a village level.
The workshops are divided into five sections: Energy and technology
Women as project participants
Working as a unified community
Decision making and planning
Why women want and why women need village electricity
National acceptance for the policy and program
By 1995 the success of the projects in the Western Province had gained significant national attention leading to the Prime Minister approaching APACE to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Solomon Islands Government under which the two organizations, with the cooperation of the Western Province, would design and implement a national village electrification program based on the model pioneered in the Western Province. To co-ordinate this national endeavour Claudine Lilo moved to the national capital, Honiara,to establish the Village First Electrification Program - SI office which also acted as the Secretariat for the national coordinating body. SIVEC, the Solomon Islands Village Electrification Council was formed with community, NGO and Government representation. Although designated places for three women were constitutionally ratified on the Council the process of appointment has never been clearly delineated; the gender balance has been met but more by chance than procedure. Constitutional amendments proposed for the forthcoming AGM, to be held in February 2004, include significant additions to strengthen the recognition and position of women at all levels of the program. The amendments further propose to institutionalise a gender policy and program based again on the Western Province model.
SIVEC has, through the VFEP, adopted guidelines and criteria for community participation and has advised the government on an appropriate village electrification policy which includes gender and energy issues. The SIVEC guidelines and criteria have been built on the experience of the Western Province program and contain similar gender priorities. Again the national program has taken a similar approach to role modelling and mentoring as used in the Western Province. The framework of the plan is for all the village electricity projects to be wholly owned and operated at the community level.
The VFEP (SI) is designed as a rural village developmental program not as an energy program. Therefore the inclusion and integration of gender issues into the program has a natural and central role. The first five fundamental tenents of the VFEP (SI) are:
1. The prior awareness, understanding and agreement of all the traditional resource owners is essential;
2. The community energy system must fit inside an established community development and/or business plan;
3. The ownership, operation and management of the community energy systems will be entirely village governed;
4. A village tariff will be charged to users of the electricity which will be invested by the community for community use;
5. Women will be integrally involved in the all steps of the village energy project.
Training is the key
Human capacity and institutional strength are seen, by all stakeholders, as the two over-arching barriers to delivering energy projects in Solomon Islands . The basic methodology used for the technology transfer, within the VFEP (SI) is training and education at all levels. Each village project is designed as an on-the-job training activity in planning, design, construction, technology, organization, monitoring and management. Differing local groups (SIVEC, SIEA , provincial coordinators, VFEP (SI) Technical Team, village technicians, village management committee and the local hydro committees) are involved in appropriate level activities. Short training courses, seminars, workshops (including segregated, women specific workshops), work experience and periodic formal courses are run as well as sponsorship for higher level capacity to international training opportunities and seminars.
Women have at least equal opportunity to participate in all training and employment opportunities throughout the program. However, despite specific encouragement women have not taken up opportunities for training beyond village level activities (with the exclusion of Claudine and two of the original young women recruited to the program ). This pattern may change with some village women now becoming more involved at the national coordinating level .
Regional interest in replication
As happened at a provincial and national level, the perceived success of the VFEP (SI) to deliver social and economic development opportunities directly at a village level spread into neighbouring countries. The Papua New Guinea Village Electrification Council is a registered, indigenous NGO and in Vanuatu and Bougainville Village Electrification Working Groups have been set up. Each of these groups, which cooperate under a fledgling, trans-border network, the Melanesian Village Electrification Group, have endorsed the Village First model, including its strong gender biased approach.
Encouragement but no dollars
The VFEP (SI) has received nomination for several international awards, won three national Australia awards and has been reviewed by the Australian Government’s development assistance agency many times, on each occasion receiving high praise. In Solomon Islands, commendation and encouragement for the program have come from government members, non-government organizations and rural communities across the country. There was a recent unanimous vote of the all male parliament calling for the adoption of a national village electrification program using this Village First model. The traditionally conservative SIEA (again an all male institution except for some women clerical staff) has given their informal support. However it is noteworthy, that although the program exists under a national government agreement and support is conspicuously widespread, the national Ministerial bureaucracy has consistently ignored its existence . The program has never received any official budgetary support or aid funds (outside of limited NGO opportunities) and has been ignored by three ministerial program identification and planning missions (1985, 1996, 2000) each of which failed to consult with any community women involved in the program.
Neither SIVEC nor the VFEP (SI) have any core funds; both struggle daily to remain operating although both are well structured, accountable entities with substantial political, community and grass-roots support. For those of us who have been a part of this bottom-up program for a long time, it seems that it is excluded from main-stream energy sector recognition, and therefore broad funding assistance because:
a) it has set its own indicators (including gender acceptance) and does not rely on traditional energy indicators of western supply and demand models;
b) it does not provide a private–sector investment focus for the energy supply or rely on a credit model to bring in users;
c) it is perceived as a development activity by the energy people and an energy activity by the development people; and
d) it is largely gender driven and therefore not seen as real technology by the technology people.
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