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. |
- 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.
- 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.