Since Monday 2 May, policymakers, experts, practitioners and academics have gathered in Lausanne, for the 2016 International Tech4Dev Conference, organised by the UNESCO Chair in Technologies for Development. This year the theme is “From Innovation to Social Impact” to explore ways in which the application of innovative technology solutions should advance inclusive social and economic development. 

On Wednesday 4 May, SEED is invited to participate in the panel discussion “Social Innovations for Energy Access: Organizing Sustainable Energy for All” to identify organisational processes and social innovations that open up new avenues for achieving the United Nations’ goal of ‘Sustainable Energy for All’.

The provision of sustainable energy services to those who live at the margins of world society requires the development of innovative organisational and collaborative capabilities supporting the adoption of decentralised low-carbon energy services. Innovative institutional arrangements are currently being explored, as the transfer of institutional technology has yielded mixed results.

Against this background, the proposed session aims to initiate an interdisciplinary debate on what kind of social innovations may facilitate sustainable energy access. In particular, it focuses on a) innovative business models for the diffusion of clean energy products; b) on how such models have to be aligned with the wider socio-economic context to which they are introduced, and c) on the potential of novel forms of stakeholder management and ‘institutional innovation’ for meeting the organizational challenges associated with mini-grids for rural electrification and with rice straw-based electricity generation.