Kenya hosts a total of approximately 475,000 refugees and asylum seekers of which 40% reside in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, located in Turkana, Northern Kenya.

The refugee and host community living in and around Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement do not have access to energy from the national grid. Cooking and lighting solutions in Kakuma are typically characterized as expensive and inefficient with adverse effects on health, safety and the environment.

The Market Based Energy Access (MBEA) II Project, implemented by SNV in Kenya, provides clean, safe and affordable cooking and lighting solutions for refugees and the host community through a market-based approach in Kakuma and Kalobeyei. The project builds upon the activities and lessons learnt from the MBEA I pilot phase which ran from October 2017 until august 2019. The project is supported by the Energising Development Kenya programme III.

Our objectives

MBEA II seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• Facilitate access to household lighting for the poor and vulnerable communities.

• Ensure sustainable availability, adoption and use of stand-alone solar systems and cookstoves for productive use in business settings and social institutions.

• Stimulate and facilitate access to credit for suppliers and end users of off-grid solar systems and clean cooking solutions.

Our activities

The project facilitates market-based access to cookstoves and solar solutions for households, businesses and social institutions in the camp. Through provision of technical assistance and financial support to clean energy companies, SNV supports the development of distribution channels in the camps. To stimulate uptake in the host and refugee community the project also implements awareness raising and behavioral change campaigns. In addition, SNV engages in partnerships with relevant agencies operating in the refugee camp in order to promote co-financing for solutions targeting social institutions. Household and micro business' access to finance for stoves and solar solutions is improved by promoting innovative financing mechanisms through partnerships with financial intermediaries, and the development of a cash-based intervention (CBI) for energy access.

Project targets

• 7,500 people will gain access to clean cooking

• 30,000 people will gain access to electricity

• 173 micro-enterprises and 58 social institutions will gain access to clean cooking

• 625 micro enterprises will gain access to electricity

• 75 jobs created along the value chain

For more information on the project, please reach out to one of the experts listed at the end of this page.

Request for proposals

SNV invites eligible organizations to submit their proposals to participate in this project. Applicants’ attention is drawn to the qualification requirements and the application process as outlined in the Terms of Reference for this initiative. Please click on the button below to learn more.