SELCO Solar panels – Image per SELCO Foundation Website
Under the guidance of the SELCO Foundation, led by a UMass Lowell alum Harish Hande, the planning phase for Global Ecosystem Hubs for Sustainable Energy (GEHSE) has begun.
The SELCO Foundation and VE seek to conceptualize and implement a knowledge platform, based on discoveries from others working in parts of the developing South Asia and Africa. The Global Hubs platform aims to position the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, as critical catalyst for a sustainable and equitable change for all across multiple sectors, including health, agriculture, and education
Global hubs will function as an umbrella organization capable of creating, supporting, and linking multiple “Regional Hubs” across Africa and Southeast Asia.
The idea of the Global Ecosystem Hubs is to create connections, facilitate productive transfers of local knowledge, local expertise and networks and to catalyze implementation of poor-centric sustainable energy solutions.
While it is important to provide solutions that work and respect the context of the region the SELCO Foundation believes factors of poverty, such as geographic isolation, political tension, and undeveloped supply chains, are similar globally. Because of this, findings and programs that work in North Eastern India could be used in Tanzania and vice versa.
Approach
The global hubs use an inclusive ecosystem approach that capitalizes on sustainable energy access to create local systems that innovate, develop, disseminate, and sustain solutions over a period of time.
The Global Hubs approach rests on five tenets:
- Local ownership to be built among stakeholders
- Stakeholder partnerships stretch across sectors from medicine, economics, education, agriculture and much more.
- Need-based innovation that is designed with the end-user at the center
- Replication scaling of processes by understanding the contexts that surround the users and their needs
- Implementation-based emphasis over a prolonged research phase
The Three Types of Hubs
Central Hub: The heart of the organization this hub will champion and advocate for ecosystem driven approaches for the development of sustainable energy programs, working closely with the other two hubs.
Research and Development Hub: Located in India this hub will serve as the Research and Development (R&D) platform, providing actionable knowledge, insight, critical strategic, and organizational feedback that will fit the complex and diverse needs of each regional hub.
Regional Hub: Regional hubs are the physical entities that will champion the ecosystem approach and anchor the programs in the region. These hubs will act as a bridge between the other two hubs and the community it supports.
