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the flow

HINDSIGHT:  MICRO HYDRO IN REGIONS OF CONFLICT

9/20/2021

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​International donor support for rural development (including electrification) in the global South is often implemented in close partnership with national governments.  However, increasingly national governments are the cause of dire conflict situations, involving human rights abuses, mass casualties, and socio-economic fallout from constant violence and lack of safety of civilians.  
The most severely impacted sub-regions within conflict-ridden countries are typically indigenous and ethnic regions that are underdeveloped and off-grid.  It is in these regions that rural development programs, including community-based micro hydro projects, are located. 

​​This year we have been tracking situations in Myanmar, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and others in order to understand the impact of conflict on rural development efforts and vice versa. Below HPNET Manager and Facilitator, Dipti Vaghela, shares her reflections.
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Anglophone rights activist Mancho Bibixy speaking in a 2017 rally in Bamenda, Cameroon. Credit: Phonix22, Wikimedia Commons

IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
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International development partners can better integrate political economy analyses into the design of their programs.  For example, in the case of Myanmar prior to the 2021 coup the country had faced government takeover by the national military thrice since its national independence from the British in 1948.  While the closely monitored 2015 elections were democratic, the NLD government’s victory was a pseudo-democracy since the advantages granted by the country’s constitution to the Myanmar military dictatorship had not changed with the election.
​In spite of the obvious history of national military rule and its restraint on the civilian government, many international multilateral financiers and bi-lateral donors that entered the country after 2013 chose the fledgling national government as their primary client.  The repercussions of this decision are the missed opportunities to strategically use development initiatives as a tool to empower civilians and weaken the junta. Had the country’s political economy been accounted for by international development partners, a looming coup would have been anticipated, and the primary recipients of international support would have been local and non-government actors.  However, doing so would have required international partners to revamp their approaches to build trust with local practitioners.
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Mass demonstration in Yangon soon after Feb. 2021 coup. Credit: Twitter
The situation is similar in Cameroon and Ethiopia, where the conflicts are also rooted within national governments.   When governments begin to commit human rights violations, their international development partners can only simply cut ties with the government, having no institutional leverage to negotiate on behalf of ethnic and marginalized civilians.  However, hindsight analyses can help donors integrate the realities of local and national political economy into future scoping missions and program designs.

Read More: Cameroon: Impacts of Conflict on Micro Hydro Regions

RESILIENCE OF LOCAL AND NON-GOVERNMENT STAKEHOLDERS

​As the need for rural development has become greater with the pandemic and the humanitarian situations, international donors now seek non-government partners to deploy aid and support in countries of conflict.  However, such a noble approach comes too late -- local non-government actors are forced to focus on maintaining basic safety (ironically from violence caused by the same national governments that were supported by international donors) and economic stability.  
Yet local civil society organizations (CSOs) and local private enterprises continue to be resilient in the face of the conflict.  In Myanmar local CSOs have pooled together to provide aid to ethnic regions destroyed by the national military, micro hydro communities continue to build climate and economic resilience in a devastated economy, and local private sector actors have forged ahead with their promises to electrify communities. In Cameroon and Ethiopia government censorship has prevented access to understanding the plight of impacted rural communities, but it is clear that activists living in the conflict regions are frontline changemakers.

Read More: Myanmar: Community Hydro Resilience During Conflict

While it will be difficult for international aid to support the frontline during conflict, it is still valuable to conduct a hindsight analysis on what alternatives to government partnerships could have been more strategic from a political economy perspective.  From the energy access and local practitioner aspects of rural development, we offer the following hindsight.
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A micro hydro community in Cameroon. Credit: WISIONS
MITIGATING INTERNAL BIASES
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The staff and consultants of international development organizations come with their own biases, based on their professional journeys.  The biases prevent them from fully understanding the political economy aspects of energy access.  For example, they may be more open to a practitioner that is an English-versed extrovert with less experience and not from the local region, than an English-challenged introvert who has an extensive track record and is based locally.  They may chastise the crude appearance of locally developed technology without understanding the constraints it was built under nor the value of the local social capital that resulted.  The presence of such biases during the scoping of a mission and during every engagement between international and local, non-government stakeholders impedes trust-building.  The biases can be countered by acknowledging them and taking support from bridge-building facilitators who can strategize around the strengths, weaknesses, and incentives of the differing international donor, government, and non-government contexts.
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Forebay tank of a community-financed micro hydro project in Shan State Myanmar, functioning since 2005. Credit: D. Vaghela
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A micro hydro, Francis turbine electrifying 150+ households in Shan State, Myanmar, since 2005. Credit: D. Vaghela
TWO-WAY, RESULTS-BASED CAPACITY BUILDING 

Local capacity building is a vital aspect of any development initiative to sustain itself post-implementation.  However, often the approach used by international development partners are not results-based, outcome-oriented, nor linked to implementation.  At times the specific need for knowledge building is not addressed because the international development partner has not taken initiative, effort, and/or lacks skill to understand the local context, and relies only on what its consultants can offer.  Training consultants fly in for some days, constrained on time to build understanding prior to the training activity and conduct follow up.  Participant selection does not prioritize local practitioners; and when it does the targeted actors do not want to attend due to lack of trust and assurance of the training meeting their specific needs.  
Such pitfalls can be addressed with two-way learning between international and local stakeholders, where capacity building includes international actors learning from local practitioners.  In this way local knowledge is valued as much as international knowhow, i.e. local trainers are paid as much as international trainers.  Valuing local expertise is a robust and efficient way to build trust with local stakeholders, which also helps to develop customized, impact-based interventions. Scaled micro hydro contexts embraced two-way learning.  For example, Swiss trainers in Nepal in the early 1990s designed technical capacity building after understanding existing manufacturing skills and facilities, EnDev Indonesia’s management spent weeks in the field to understand the existing situation before iterating their program, and HPNET’s work in Myanmar started with a scoping mission led by local organizations involving foreign partners, and created space for two-way learning with international development organizations.
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Local practitioner for the first time sharing about his 25 years of micro hydro experience to international and government stakeholders, at HPNET's 2014 event in Myanmar, supported by WISIONS. Credit: P. Pawletko
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND?
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As international development partners exit conflict stricken countries, the media’s attention fades, and funding priorities shift, the dire situations on the ground continue to worsen.  The progress of taxpayer-funded, international development interventions is unraveled.  Some donors stay on but must abide by the oppressive regimes’ rules, including not spotlighting the humanitarian crises and not holding the regime responsible.  While addressing post-conflict downstream impact (e.g. refugee crises) is critical, more must be done to integrate political economy analyses and the strengthening of local, non-government entities in development and aid interventions. 
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MYANMAR:  COMMUNITY HYDRO RESILIENCE DURING CONFLICT

9/17/2021

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In spite of a long-awaited and victorious democratic election in 2015 in Myanmar, the National League for Democracy (NLD) government fell to the country's third and most devastating military takeover on Feb. 1, 2021.  Since then, over 1200 civilians including women and children have been killed by the military, and over 7000 peaceful protestors have been indefinitely detained, in prisons infamous for torture.  Prior to the coup, the military government has for decades inflicted horrid violence in indigenous regions, including the genocide waged against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017 that triggered 740,000 survivors to flee by foot to refugee camps in Bangladesh. 
Months after the coup, with urban and rural civilians enduring increased atrocities, no sign of international support to stop the violent tyranny, and yet the junta continuing to receive foreign weapons, the shadow NLD government established the People Defense Force (PDF) as a last effort to rid the country of military rule.  The situation is now dire as the nation enters a longstanding civil war, already displacing 250,000 people in ethnic regions, while battling COVD-19 as aid and health services are controlled by the junta.
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Rice field in rural Myanmar. Credit: KP
Connecting with and supporting renewable energy practitioners in Myanmar amidst the dismal humanitarian situation, we are observing glimpses of resilience in the continued efforts of local mini-grid communities, developers, and civil society organizations (CSOs) -- as listed below.  [Names and locations have purposely been omitted for safety.]​
Considering that the post-coup context makes it difficult for international aid and development agencies to continue in Myanmar, it’s clear that robust rural development requires local actors at the forefront.

Read More: Hindsight: Micro Hydro in Regions of Conflict

  • Project installation.  Local micro hydro developers have been committed to the promises made to communities prior to the coup, innovating installation methods to continue under difficult safety conditions. They have utilized quarantine time to build new skills, e.g. programming languages.
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Locally innovated and fabricated, self-cleaning Caonda screen for intake weir. Credit: MM
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Weir with Coanda screen and settling basin. Credit: MM
  • Self-financed upgrades.  Pico and micro hydro communities, as planned prior to the pandemic and coup, have raised local finance to upgrade electro-mechanical equipment, civil structures, and distribution lines.
  • Forest restoration.  With droughts worsening every summer, communities are initiating forest landscape restoration, including reforestation, tree ordaining, and other conservation efforts..
  • Participatory resource mapping.  CSOs continue their efforts to bring awareness to communities on how natural resources can be tapped for enhancing rural livelihoods using renewable energy.
  • Energy access monitoring and advocacy.  CSOs continue policy advocacy for the transition to renewable energy and minimizing dependency on mega dams and fossil fuel sources.  They also keep tabs on the socioeconomic conditions of rural regions.  For example, they are now observing that government-run utilities are no longer charged based on energy meters.  This has meant communities are not able to pay the tariffs, and electricity is being cut in hundreds of villages -- making community-based energy solutions vital.
  • ​Local capacity building.  CSOs have remained determined to fully complete capacity building initiatives planned long before the government upheaval, including on natural resource management, mapping, policy advocacy, and exposure to various community energy solutions.
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ADVANCING PICO / MICRO HYDROPOWER IN THE GANGA, MEGHNA, BRAHMAPUTRA, AND SALWEEN RIVER BASINS

9/8/2021

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The river basins of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Salween (GBMS) Rivers are endowed with rich natural resources, exceptional biodiversity, and vibrant indigenous cultures.  Yet social and environmental well-being continue to be undermined by large hydro development, as decision makers seek economic prosperity and economic recovery, in the stark context of a global pandemic. 

However, community-scale hydropower offers an alternative path that provides modern energy services, while strengthening the local social, economic, and ecological resources of this unique region.  The region is fortunate to have experienced local practitioners who have been advancing pico hydropower as a nature-based, community-centric solution for clean and sustainable energy access.
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Pico hydro manufacturing training participant in Meghalaya, India. Credit: Rams Vaidhyanathan
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Htan Hla Pin Community Micro Hydro, Shan State, Myanmar. Credit: Loïs Sevestre
​HPNET has engaged with local practitioners in the region since 2013, in partnership with International Rivers, Nagaland Empowerment of People thru Energy Development (NEPeD), and the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), and the Meghalaya State Council for Science and Technology for different activities.   We have mapped stakeholders, visited sites, and held dialogues on opportunities, challenges, and regional best practices, based on a 4-step approach to knowledge exchange.   Since 2019 the approach has been refined into a knowledge-to-impact initiative called Social Enterprise for Energy, Ecological and Economic Development (SEEED).  SEEED is based on 40-years of experiential hindsight in the global South on what makes community hydro systems sustainable and deliver optimal results.  The SEEED Accelerator was launched this quarter, enabling practitioners to customize proven sustainability mechanisms to local contexts, unlocking their potential to generate climate resilient socio-economic co-benefits.
​A key component of the SEEED Accelerator is to establish peer-to-peer and multi-stakeholder cohorts, targeting different geographic regions.  We’re excited to launch the first SEEED cohort -- focusing on the basin regions of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, and Salween Rivers (GBMS) in partnership with International Rivers, supported by TROSA and the WISIONS initiative at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy.  The partnership offers three learning opportunities for field-based practitioners in the GBMS basins -- namely  group capacity building, individual customized coaching, and peer-to-peer exchange.  Read on to learn more!
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Map showing Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Salween river basins: Program basins of Oxfam’s Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) program. Credit: Oxfam in Asia

Cohort Capacity Building
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The GBMS SEEED cohort kicked off earlier this month with a 3-day virtual capacity building event, offering technical capacity building for small-scale hydro practitioners working directly with communities in the GBMS regions (i.e. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal or Thailand).  The course was conducted by Mr. Ramasubramanian (a.k.a Rams) Vaidhyanathan, focusing on site assessment and the basics of system design for systems < 10 kW.  Days 1 and 3 were conducted online, and Day 2 included optional field assessment work.  The group of 20+ participants are continuing to solidify their understanding of key topics while also learning about each other’s work through group emails facilitated by Rams.  Remaining committed to field-based practitioners, the HPNET Secretariat will continue to facilitate learning exchange among the cohort beyond the HPNET - Intl Rivers partnership period.
Customized Individual Coaching
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All participants who completed the 3-day group training have been invited to receive follow-up, customized capacity building.  This allows helping to resolve each participant’s specific technical issues in their ongoing initiatives and to improve their technical processes to prevent issues.   This type of support is important for both advanced practitioners (e.g. NE India practitioners scaling up their work to hundreds of implementations this year), as well as beginning level practitioners (e.g. civil society organizations in Myanmar who are conducting their very first feasibility studies).  It is also an opportunity for the HPNET Secretariat to continue refining its approach to the SEEED Accelerator, better responding to and strategizing context-specific needs for future cohorts.
​Peer-to-Peer Exchange Event

An exchange event will be held on 21-22 September, 2021.  Building upon exchanges conducted in 2016, 2018, and 2019,  this 2-day virtual event aims to provide opportunities for South-South, peer-to-peer exchange and multi-stakeholder dialogue.  Day 1 will focus on sharing from field-based practitioners from across the Asia Pacific, while Day 2 will focus on multi-stakeholder dialogue on country and state specific challenges and opportunities in the GBMS regions.  See here for details on how to participate!  
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EARTH VOICES: FROM SHAN STATE, MYANMAR

7/17/2020

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Our blog series Earth Voices sheds light on the connections between community-scale hydropower, indigenous-led conservation and sustainable development. Each edition highlights a different community, aiming to highlight that which makes each unique, while emphasizing a common thread – a worldview in which environmental sustainability is no new concept, but rather a reality which has underpinned community well-being and resilience for millennia. Earth Voices explores how community-scale hydropower reinforces environmental traditions by incentivizing watershed strengthening, which, in turn, enables reliable and sustainable power supply.
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Cattle grazing in the Shan Highlands.
This year, we embarked upon the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” -- a designation that reflects a dawning realization that nature-based solutions are critical to achieving a sustainable future. Needless to say, it’s been a challenging start thus far. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in agenda setting, resource flows, and action on conservation and climate. Out of necessity, the world’s attention has turned to the immediate concerns of the global health and economic crisis. Yet, the urgency of the climate emergency continues to escalate, and ecosystem restoration remains imperative to planetary health and social-ecological resilience. In fact, in addition to combating climate change, forest conservation and restoration can prevent the emergence of new zoonotic diseases and future pandemics.

With all this in mind, it’s evermore critical to highlight local communities and indigenous peoples who have been championing conservation and regenerative solutions for millennia. While political leaders grapple with COVID-19 recovery efforts, and international actors face funding and travel restrictions, local communities continue to push forward nature-based solutions. 

For this 3rd edition of our Earth Voices feature series, we bring you one such example from Shan State, Myanmar. This edition shines a light on one village where local change-makers harness the interconnected benefits of watershed restoration and community-scale hydropower. Read on, to learn how eco-restoration supports reliable power supply and cultural resilience, and to gain a glimpse into the vision and journey of  an inspiring community mobilizer.

Please note:  Following the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, this article has been updated to protect the safety of HPNET's local partners, with names and specifics removed.

Myanmar’s locally-grown off-grid energy sector

Ethnic conflict and political strife have affected Myanmar for many decades, and the country  only recently opened up after a half-century of Military rule. This context has posed various challenges for Myanmar’s energy sector. Decentralization has been ineffective in practice, meaning that region and state governments have little or no control over energy policies, plans and budgets. Additionally, areas controlled by armed groups are present in many regions and sometimes have their own infrastructure. Corruption and foreign export of generated energy further complicate matters and impede progress within the sector. [Hivos Myanmar 2019]

Despite these challenges and conflicts, Myanmar has a long history of locally developed, small-scale renewable energy technology, which has proven its efficacy over the past 30 years. To date, more than 6,000 small-scale hydro systems and 10,000 biomass gasifiers have been implemented by local developers, without donor support, foreign technology or enabling policy. Solar power has also emerged in more recent years, supporting agricultural end uses, with significant benefits for rural farmers across the country. These clean, low-cost energy solutions are attributed to a thriving community of grassroots entrepreneurs, whose resourcefulness has brought transformative impacts to thousands of rural communities. 
This video provides a glimpse of Myanmar’s indigenous community hydro sector, featuring the pico hydro systems discussed in this blog post and 3 other community-scale hydro systems. 
The region and people

The village is located in an ethnic self-administered zone, in the picturesque Shan Highlands. The region is home to a government-recognized ethnic group in Myanmar, who have a long history in Shan State. The people have their own language and practice Theravada Buddhism. Their unique culture is hinted in legends such as the Prince Kummabhaya, whose bow and arrow rescued seven princesses trapped in the caves by a giant spider. 
In addition to being rich in culture, the region is rich in environmental resources and fertile  land. A productive and profitable agriculture sector provides a key source of income, supporting local livelihoods in rural communities. International organizations such as USAID, Winrock International and GIZ have invested extensively in agri value chains in the area, particularly in tea-leaf and coffee production. Today, the region's coffee is sold in Seattle and elsewhere around the world.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, local producers have seen a significant drop in the selling price of tea-leaf and other crops, such as fruits. This has negatively impacted the local economy, however some are less severely impacted than others, in that they aren’t as dependent on external markets.
Rice paddy in Shan state.
Green paddy nursery and strawberry field in Shan State.
Environment, conflict and resistance
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The region’s fertile land has also supported poppy plantations – the plant from which opium derives – fueling long-standing conflicts. Poppy plantations existed in the region until the late 1960s to early 1970s, at which point a UNDP initiative substituted the plantations with tea-leaf growing. Major townships of have since eradicated poppy growing, however it persists in other areas within Shan State. Some armed ethnic groups still exist in these areas and conflicts between the military and community groups persist in this ‘triangle’ linking eastern, southern and northern Shan.

That said, the ethnic people of the region strive to maintain peace in the region. Residents have heard that the military has plans to establish a base camp in a watershed area in the region, but the local  communities don’t accept military entering the area.

Other challenges also persist in the region, stemming from natural resources. For instance, the area has attracted mining and widespread logging, with devastating consequences for local communities and ecosystems. Mining has negatively impacted watershed ecosystems, while deforestation has resulted in frequent landslides and increasing water scarcity in summer months. However, local communities continue to resist natural resource exploitation on their lands. For instance, steadfast local resistance prevented a mining company from establishing itself in a village with an important watershed, which provides drinking water to 20 nearby villages. Across the region, the people continue to work to build back what has been lost, applying indigenous knowledge, innovation and determination to restore and conserve local ecosystems.
Landslide resulting from deforestation. Credit: MEE Net (Myanmar Team).
Deforestation has affected much of the region.
Eco-restoration, land stewardship and hydropower

In 2000, the government mandated a Forest Conservation Department to lead conservation efforts in the area. However, local communities assert that the department is corrupted by profit motives and is ineffective, with limited human resources. According to local conservation leaders, “only bamboo remains in the government’s forest conservation area”; this is juxtaposed against thriving forest ecosystems that are stewarded by local communities, as per traditional knowledge.

It is the ethnic people themselves who continue to conserve the primary forests, as they have always done, and who endeavor to restore ecosystems that have been degraded by logging and extractive industries. The communities carry an intricate understanding of local ecological systems, and the environment is very much intertwined with their culture and beliefs. In one area, there are, in fact, plans in the works for a “forest conservation festival”, carrying religious significance, connected with Buddha’s teachings around living in harmony with nature.

The establishment of pico and micro hydropower has further strengthened pre-existing environmental stewardship practices among the ethnic people. Small-scale hydro systems have been developed in at least 15 villages, bringing extra incentive to protect the forest, since watersheds provide the perennial source of their electricity. As such, community-scale hydro has become intertwined with reforestation and conservation efforts across the region. 
Local animal populations benefit from community-led resource management. Credit: MEE Net (Myanmar Team).
50 kW micro hydro system. Credit: MEE Net (Myanmar Team).
People-powered pico hydro

One village provides a bottom-up example of an integrated approach to forest conservation and small-scale hydropower – in this case, largely attributed to the vision of one dedicated community mobilizer.  [The name of the village is purposely not being provided to protect the safety of the community after the Feb. 2021 coup, which has resulted in a civil war affecting the region.]

After seeing the wide-reaching benefits brought by community-scale hydro in other villages, the community leader was inspired to bring energy access to his own community through similar means. He learned the required technical skills from experienced local energy entrepreneurs, which he put to use in his small village, toward a vision of ecologically sustainable and reliable energy provision. 

Working together with other community members, he led the installation of seven pico hydro systems between 2000 and 2015. Six systems are currently in use, ranging from 1.5-5 kW capacity per system, with a total capacity of 17 kW. Two of the six  systems are in the same location but use different transmission/distribution lines. While all of these projects are pico hydro projects, he has also supported the development of a cluster of four community-owned micro hydro projects in the same sub-region. 

​Today, approximately 150 households are connected to the carefully planned pico hydro systems, out of the 167 households that make up the village. Solar home systems provide lighting for some of the other households, and some families use both pico hydro and solar electricity. Additionally, the local school, temple and monastery are provided with free electricity from the pico hydro systems.
Bathing spot connected with the pico hydro.
Repairing pico hydro turbine. Credit: MEE Net (Myanmar Team).
Current and future benefits

The pico hydro systems have brought multifold benefits for community development. For instance, lighting enables students to study at night and extends the hours at which classes can be taught, with known benefits for learning outcomes. Moreover, the ability to power cell phones, televisions and radios provides access to vital information and communication channels – the importance of which is increasingly evident, as the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold.  Soon the village will also trial electric cooking options, to reduce deforestation linked with  collection of fuelwood.

Although the government's central grid has reached nearby towns, the village has not received the central grid. The village would have to raise funds for the final transmission and distribution lines. In addition, there is little certainty about the reliability of the central grid. As such, the pico hydro continues to remain a vital community asset, providing multiple benefits to each household at affordable cost.

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Integrating conservation and energy access
The community has seen the direct impact of deforestation on the river, with water scarcity noticeably worsening from one summer to the next. There is a critical need to restore the watershed ecosystem, to preserve the water source – not only for drinking water, food security, and irrigation, but also to safeguard the community’s electricity supply. With a keen understanding of the linkages between the forest watershed, water and energy, the community was mobilized to leverage the interconnected benefits of pico hydropower and ecosystem restoration.

​In the video linked above (People Power in Myanmar), elders observe how deforestation was gradually drying up the river; the community therefore plants trees and protects the watershed ecosystem, in order to ensure consistent and sufficient water levels and flow rates, for reliable energy access. ​
They explain how the community cultivates and consumes forest products in a sustainable way. For instance, the community has a collectively agreed upon protocol for timber extraction, wherein two trees must be replanted for every one tree that’s cut down. 
“Without water, there is not light – we cannot produce electricity. Only if we conserve the forest, we can retain water. So we really need to conserve our forest.” – Elder and conservationist in Shan State
While the community leader certainly stands out as an inspiring conservation and micro hydro advocate, his efforts are not carried out in isolation, nor are the actions of his community. Communities all across the region have self-mobilized to safeguard their natural resources, and collaborate on large-scale, organized resource mapping and participatory research initiatives. For instance, in 2018, the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEENet) held a gathering as part of a participatory research project, called the "Community-Owned Integrated Pan Long River Mountain Watershed Management". Many villages came together to collaborate on a Community Sustainable Environmental Assessment, mapping the forest, water and energy resources of the upper, middle and downstream communities along the Pan Long River. The communities continue to carry out environmental monitoring and work together to sustainably steward their ancestral lands in the face of present-day challenges. 
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Community Sustainable Environmental Assessment workshop. Credit: MEENet (Myanmar Team).
PictureBamboo pico hydro turbine. Credit: A. Khomsah et al. 2019.
Opportunities for locally-rooted, pro-environment pico hydropower

Among small-scale hydropower technologies, pico hydro (< 5 kW) tends to receive less attention and support, particularly as the cost of solar home lighting systems becomes competitive. Yet, we have examples to see the vast potential that pico hydro presents as a local, low-cost, high-impact solution.

A key advantage of pico hydropower is its low cost to sustain, long-term. Up-front costs are minimal, with little civil construction required, and there are no or few recurring costs, since there are no batteries to replace, nor complex technology. Moreover, pico hydro is easy to design, install and maintain, and doesn’t require formal education or training. Nearly all of the components can be fabricated or procured locally. When repairs are required, the simplicity of the system allows the community to be creative in using locally available material to rehabilitate the system. 

In addition to its affordability, pico hydro is often favoured by rural practitioners due to its complementarity with environmental values and priorities. When integrated with watershed strengthening, pico hydro brings intersectional benefits for social-ecological well-being and resilience. In Myanmar and other countries across the region, we have seen indigenous practitioners consistently prioritize healthy watersheds, ensuring reliable energy supply, as well as sustainable community development.

Moreover, with appropriate load management, pico hydro systems can power more than household lighting loads.  They can be used to power village-scale grain mills and other small machines to reduce physical drudgery and set up local enterprise.

Examples of successful, locally developed pico hydro can be seen all over the world. For instance, in addition to Myanmar, pico hydro also has had a long history in Laos, Vietnam, and India,. There continue to be unelectrified regions with untapped pico hydro potential.  With support from WISIONS, HPNET members have collaborated through knowledge exchange activities, to continue advancing pico hydro throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Moving forward

As we navigate a path toward sustainable development and environmental resilience, it is clear that much can be learned from pico hydro, and the locally-rooted practitioners who have championed it across the global South. Moving forward into the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, let us uplift, and learn from indigenous communities, such as in Shan State, Myanmar, that are advancing nature-based solutions for the benefit of their people and our collective future.

Composed by Lara Powell, HPNET Communications Coordinator
With content from HPNET members in Myanmar and the HPNET Manager, Dipti Vaghela
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FIELD-BASED CAPACITY BUILDING EVENT, MYANMAR

12/16/2019

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Earlier this month, Hivos together with HPNET member Hydropower for Community Empowerment in Myanmar (HyCEM), and local civil socieity organizations conducted an event in Shan State, Myanmar on "Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) Field-Based Capacity Building for CSOs and Community Leaders".

The event followed up on an action plan activity laid out in July 2019 at the Multi-Actor Meeting to Advance Community-Centric Hydropower for Rural Livelihoods and Reforestation, organized by Hivos, HyCEM and HPNET member the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM). Workshop attendees had identified a need to facilitate a field-based exposure, capacity-building and solution-finding workshop to bring together non-state actors, namely local DRE entrepreneurs, local civil society and village electrification committees, for collaborative learning and exchange. 

The objectives of the event were three-fold:
  • Support Htan Hla Pin, Myaseti, and Myiang to increase energy access in their micro hydro systems
  • Increase awareness of Mon, Kayin & Shan participants on mini-grid design & implementation
  • Explore areas of collaboration between local CSOs, DRE entrepreneurs and DRE village communities

On December 12th, participants gathered for sessions on Energy Demand and Resources and DRE Solutions and Technologies. The workshop opened with a participatory mapping activity followed by presentations and interactive discussions for each sub region.
Later in the day, Energy Action Partners (ENACT) introduced a participatory energy planning tool, The Minigrid Game -- a software-based, cooperative simulation tool which enables communities and developers to co-design a renewable energy micro/mini grid. The multi-player game challenges participants to design a renewable energy micro grid to meet their household  and community-wide energy needs, while staying within a monthly budget.
On the second day of the workshop, participants split up to attend site assessments, discussions and visits in different villages. One group was led by ENACT who ran Minigrid Game workshops in a nearby village to facilitate discussion and consensus-building for their community energy systems. ​
Overall, the workshop was effective in supporting collaborative dialogue among non-state actors -- an important outcome for advancing an inclusive DRE sector in Myanmar. ​
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MYANMAR: MULTI-ACTOR MOMENTUM TO ADVANCE COMMUNITY-CENTRIC, ENTERPRISE-BASED MICRO HYDRO

8/3/2019

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HPNET member organization Hydropower for Community in Myanmar (HyCEM) was able to follow up on the recent tri-country regional exchange to advance community-scale hydro. For the first time, micro hydro community leaders, local civil society, local social entrepreneurs, and international civil society came together to cohesively strategize the upgrade of the many existing community micro hydro systems and enabling new projects.

The meeting focused on the different social enterprise-based models that have allowed Myanmar indigenous entrepreneurs and communities to implement over 5000 pico, micro, and mini hydro projects.  The discussions also focused on how to better support the community re-forestation efforts that have sustained the watersheds that power the many micro hydro systems.

HPNET has supported HyCEM since it was formed in 2015, under the mentorship of the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM), which also continues to support the association.

Special thanks to Hivos Southeast Asia and the REAM for making the milestone meeting possible.  Hivos is pioneering fact-based advocacy of Myanmar's indigenous micro hydro development, using a bottom-up, theory of change process -- starting by first listening and understanding the local most, multi-actor perspectives. The Hivos approach is unique among the myriad of top-down international organizations in Myanmar.
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REGIONAL EXCHANGE TO ADVANCE COMMUNITY-SCALE HYDRO IN INDIA, MYANMAR, AND NEPAL

6/30/2019

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Our country-specific strategic advocacy efforts were merged into regional momentum this month, thanks to International Rivers and its partners taking the lead in organizing a multi-actor regional exchange, Advancing Community-scale Hydro:  Bridging India, Myanmar, and Nepal. The event, held in Shillong, India, focused on policy, enterprise, and institutional challenges, opportunities, and best practices.  HPNET Board members from the three countries were critical in the participant selection, agenda design, and presentation content. 

The event resulted in increased awareness among front-line civil society organizations and development partners in India,  Myanmar, and Nepal; utility actors from India and Nepal; and government officials from India, Myanmar, and Nepal.  The awareness has resulted in stronger momentum at the country level for multi-actors to work closer together in bringing practice-to-policy changes that have tangible benefits for marginalized rural communities.

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Participants of the regional exchange, Advancing Community Scale Hydro: Bridging India, Myanmar and Nepal. Credit: International Rivers.
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Regional nightlight map. Source: https://achimkemmerling.files.wordpress.com
The event was informed by the video below, developed by the local association Hydropower for Community Empowerment in Myanmar (HyCEM), with support from the Global Greengrants Fund, International Rivers, Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEENet), Green Rights Organization, and HPNET.
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HPNET-WISIONS DEEP DIVE AT THE ASIA CLEAN ENERGY FORUM:  SCALING INCLUSIVE ENTERPRISE MICRO HYDRO

6/19/2019

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HPNET and WISIONS hosted a Deep Dive Workshop at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2019, entitled Hydro Mini-Grids in the Asia-Pacific: Scaling Inclusive
Enterprise-Based Approaches.  Special thanks to the ACEF team, our speakers, and WISIONS for making the rich dialogue possible!

The agenda and speaker bios can be found here.  Watch the videos below!  Or listen to the audio here.

Part 1 - Examples and Opportunities for Enterprise-based Hydro Mini-Grids
Moderator:  Divyam Nagpal
Panelists:  Bir Bahadur Ghale, Hydro Concern Ltd., Nepal; Satish Gautam, UNDP Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihoods, Nepal; Sandra Winarsa, Hivos Southeast Asia; Meherban Khan, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) Pakistan, and Dipti Vaghela, Hydro Empowerment Network
Part 2 - National Programs to Scale-up Enterprise-based Approaches
Moderator:  Bikash Pandey, Winrock International
Panelists:  Ernesto 'Butch' Silvano, National Energy Administration, Philippines; Trimumpuni, IBEKA, Indonesia, Senator Adrian Banie Lasimbang, Borneo; Sherzad Ali Khan, Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN); U Aung Myint, Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM)
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IN-COUNTRY EXCHANGE: MYANMAR ROUND TABLE

2/26/2019

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Building onto HPNET's commitment to indigenous micro hydro practitioners in Myanmar, on February 25th HPNET, in partnership with the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM) and the association Hydropower for Community Empowerment in Myanmar (HyCEM), organized a a multi-actor round table to facilitate dialogue between international development partners and Myanmar practitioners.

With the presence of HPNET’s Board members, comprising of senior practitioners from Germany, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, an insightful dialogue resulted.

The discussion reflected on best practices of micro/mini hydro development in S/SE Asia, including enabling financing, grid interconnection, technology development, and community ownership.  It examined how Myanmar's indigenous practitioners achieved financial viability in community-led projects; and identified financing bottlenecks and solutions to further scale the work of indigenous practitioners in Myanmar. The discussion closed with identified opportunities for coordinated strategy among development partners and with local practitioners.
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U Zaw Min of HyCEM presenting at the HPNET- REAM-HyCEM Round Table in Yangon, facilitated by members of the the HPNET Board. Photo Credit: Dipti Vaghela
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VIDEOS:  HPNET AT THE IRENA IOREC 2018

11/9/2018

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If you missed us at the 4th International Off-grid Renewable Energy Conference and Exhibition (IOREC) in Singapore, Oct. 31 - Nov. 1, 2018, organized by the International Renewable Energy  Agency (IRENA), you can check out the videos below of our side-event!

The panel focused on 
Accelerating Financially Viable Hydro Mini-Grids:  A Closer Look at Small-Scale Hydropower in S/SE Asia, including case presentations from Nepal and Myanmar, and a multi-stakeholder panel discussion, with the most senior experts of the sector!
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Part 1:  Nepal Case Study​, Barpak Micro Hydro Project, presented by Mr. Bir Bahadur Ghale, founder of ​Hydro Energy Concern Pvt. Ltd.  Mr. Ghale has been a pioneer of enterprise-based micro hydro development in Nepal.


Part 2:  Myanmar Case Study​, Mae Muk Waterfall Micro Hydro Project, presented by Ms. Dipti Vaghela, Network Facilitator and Manager of the Hydro Empowerment Network.  The project is an example of Myanmar's self-financed, locally manufactured, indigenous micro hydro projects. 


​Part 3:  Panel of Experts​, moderated by HPNET Board of Advisors member, Dr. Binu Parthan of Sustainable Energy Associates (SEA).  Panelists included Mr. Bikash Pandey of Winrock International, Mr. Kapila Subasinghe of DFCC Bank Sri Lanka, Senator Adrian Banie Lasimbang of Malaysia, Ms. Tri Mumpuni of IBEKA, Ms. Rana Ghoneim of UNIDO, and Mr. Gerhard Fischer of the the ASEAN Hydropower Competence Centre -- each with decades of micro hydro experience!    Speaker bios can be found here.​

Thank you to IRENA, the panelists, and the HPNET Secretariat for making the side-event possible!
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Myanmar micro Hydro Evolution:  the Impact of ground-truthing and Multi-actor dialogue

3/30/2015

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Micro hydro in Myanmar has blown us away.  

Thanks to ground-truthing research done by the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM), we came to know that Myanmar's micro hydro practitioners quietly, over the last few decades, have been designing, fabricating, installing, and sustaining several hundreds of community-owned micro hydro projects -- without external funding or technical support!  
This type of simple, steady, and scaled implementation of micro hydro is rare without external support.  HPNET member U Sai Htun Hla has commissioned 150 pico/micro hydro projects in the last 15 years.  His mentor, over 80 years old in age, U Khun Khaw, has commissioned over 100 projects and has stopped counting. :)  There are several others, including new practitioners from a younger generation, Ko Khun Aung Myo and Ko Zaw Min, who bring university training to micro hydro engineering and design processes, e.g. CAD tools for drawings and Google for self-training.
These practitioners have self-financed most of their projects, allowing the communities to repay the capital costs within 5+ years of commissioning.  Because the projects have been commissioned on very low budgets -- affordable by local communities -- they have been forced to use low quality hardware and no load controllers, leading to frequent technical issues.

But things are changing for the better:
  • In Nov. 2014, HPNET member U Aung Myint, General Secretary of REAM, spearheaded a practice-to-policy exchange on micro hydro, with support from the WISIONS SEPS grant and many others.  The exchange brought proven experts from Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka to Myanmar to firsthand dialogue with policy-makers, civil society groups, international aid organizations, and practitioners.
  • REAM's Nov. workshop encouraged the SE4ALL initiative -- led by the Myanmar government and the World Bank's off-grid energy program -- to invite the local practitioners to give their first-ever Power Point presentation and that too to an audience of high-level government, World Bank, and other national decision-makers!
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  • HPNET invited 2 Myanmar practitioners to its 2nd Annual Gathering of Practitioners, in Bandung, Indonesia, with WISIONS' support.  The practitioners were immensely inspired by the Indonesia's thriving private sector for micro hydro.  They saw the resulting transformation of turbine and load controller fabricators who had started with little experience but now offered standardized and fail-proof products.  With support from GIZ, the Indonesian fabricators had long formed an association of micro hydro developers, the Asosiasi Hidro Bandung, which has 100+ members committed to high quality micro hydro development and to lobbying for supportive policy.  The Indonesian progress relayed much-needed confidence to the Myanmar practitioners to build high quality hardware, be financially sustainable, and attract talented young engineers to their micro hydro work.
  • The Myanmar practitioners were so inspired by the Indonesians, that within days of returning from the HPNET meeting, they kick-started their own association.  The Small Hydro Power Association of Myanmar (SHPAM) is now collectively voicing for targeted financing, technical knowledge, and institutional capacity building to upgrade their work. 
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  • We eagerly await to see whether SHPAM's requests are answered by the agencies involved -- particularly the World Bank, as it is assisting the Myanmar government to design its SE4ALL program this month!  We are hopeful that micro hydro and other renewable energy mini grids are equally prioritized with mainstream but disenfranchising electrification paths being considered by the government and international financiers (including the World Bank).

This evolution is an example of how ground-truthing and in-person exchange can rapidly lead to new developments.  Without REAM's study of the field situation and multi-actor dialogue, the local micro hydro practitioners in Myanmar would have remained invisible to the government and the World Bank, during a very critical phase in Myanmar's energy planning.  And without the Myanmar practitioners' visit to Indonesia, their confidence to form an association to lobby for solutions to improve their work would not have quickly transpired.

We will keep you posted on how the micro hydro (r)evolution in Myanmar continues. :)


By Dipti Vaghela, HPNET Coordinator

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