Development of the guidelines

Transcription

1 4 Development of the guidelines THIS CHAPTER DESCRIBES the methodology used by each of the pilot countries to develop their planning manuals, and the experiences gained and lessons learnt on the way. The project identified that it was necessary to bridge the gap between rural communities and the financial and other institutions that could be involved in financing and supporting a rural energy project. Not only was it realized that there was a lack of knowledge in the villages of what financial options were available to them but, in Sri Lanka, it also became obvious that the mainstream financial institutions had very little experience in the rural sector. In order for the institutions to become more active in this sector it was necessary for them to become more familiar with villagelevel capabilities and also with their limitations when it came to organizing and developing projects. In order to bridge the gap between end-users and institutions and lenders, the project aimed to produce financial and institutional guidelines. It is interesting that each country produced different sets of guidelines, which targeted different stakeholders. In Zimbabwe, the financial and institutional guidelines were aimed primarily at community leaders and facilitators, whereas in Sri Lanka they were aimed at financial institutions themselves. It should be noted that the process of developing the guidelines in each country was at least as important as the resulting guidelines themselves. This is because the process set out to involve all the relevant stakeholders in rural energy services, and led to a considerable increase in awareness, dialogue and co-operation between all the key actors involved in the delivery of these services. Zimbabwe The guidelines project in Zimbabwe built on, and ran in parallel with, two existing rural energy initiatives, which played a critical role in the development of the guidelines. The first was the Energy Forum (see Box 1). The Energy Forum was contracted by ITDG to provide various inputs to the project. The second initiative was the Community Energy Project (CEP), started in 1994 (see Box 2). This project aimed to develop and demonstrate an effective method for community participation in the planning, implementation and management of smallscale, decentralized energy systems. The approach was to use experience from this project to feed into the development of the guidelines. The guidelines produced in Zimbabwe consist of four parts, and these are described in Table 2. The development of each part is described in detail below, and the flow diagram, Figure 1, presents a summary of the key elements during the development.

2 10 Development of the guidelines Zimbabwe country context Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a land area of square kilometres and a population of 11.2 million (1997). It is classified as a low income country by the World Bank, with a GNP per capita of US$610 (1998). Since independence in 1980, annual GNP growth has not kept pace with population growth, and poverty has increased. Recently problems in the financial sector have caused a large decline in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar. This, coupled with a fiscal deficit, high inflation and political instability, has contributed to the growing poverty and uncertainty in the country. Agriculture accounts for almost 70% of the population s income, and 77% of the population live in rural areas. Much of the agriculture is subsistence and unsustainable, leading to soil erosion and a weakening of natural resources. Energy consumption is high in Zimbabwe by regional standards. The commercial sector uses coal, liquid fuels and electricity to meet its energy needs. This accounts for about 50% of the total energy consumption. The household sector uses the other 50%, with biomass being its main energy resource. At present about 20% of the population have access to electricity. The Rural Electrification Programme has the aim of providing electricity to all of the population over the next 20 years. In reality it has been estimated that around 30% of the population will not be grid connected by this time. Electricity generation, supply, and distribution is regulated through the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). Zimbabwe s electricity is generated from coal and large-scale hydro-power, with thermal power dominating Zimbabwe s local electricity generation capacity. Future expansion of the grid will be through coal and hydro-power. At the household level there is scope for micro-hydro-power, biogas, solar photovoltaic energy and wind energy. Box 1: The Energy Forum of Zimbabwe (E for Z) E for Z was initiated by ITDG in Zimbabwe (ITZ) in 1993, to bring together key players in energy supply to share experiences, enthusiasms and ideas on how to achieve greater support for community energy supply. The Energy Forum is a grouping of non-governmental organizations, government departments, educational and technical training institutions, agricultural development banks, and energy experts with an interest in rural energy supply. The following institutions are affiliated to the Forum: Scientific and Industrial Research Centre (Energy Technology Institute), University of Zimbabwe, Department of Renewable Energy, ZERO (NGO), ZESA (national power utility), Bio-mass Users Network (NGO), ENDA Zimbabwe (NGO), Department of Energy and ITDG. Box 2: The Zimbabwe Community Energy Project This project was started by ITZ in Its aim was to demonstrate the effectiveness of an approach that enables the community to identify and prioritize its energy needs, and select, install and operate a range of small-scale decentralized energy conversion systems that meet its specific needs. The project focused on two areas in Manicaland Province, in the eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. These areas were the Guhune ward of Chief Mutambara in Chimanimani District, and Ward 21 of Chief Tangwena in Nyanga District. As a result of the project, people in Mutambara identified grid extension as their priority. In Tangwena, an integrated water and energy supply scheme was selected.

3 Development of the guidelines 11 Table 2: Overview of manuals and guidelines produced in Zimbabwe Publication Content Target Audience Community Energy Participative Planning Describes in detail the participation matrix (see Table 3). Institutions, government departments, private Guidelines Gives an overview of the activities that need to be sector, and any other stakeholder who needs to carried out at each stage of the project cycle, how the develop rural energy projects. activities should be carried out, and who should perform them. In particular, it identifies how the community and end-users can effectively participate in each stage to ensure the project meets their real needs. Zimbabwe Renewable Energy Industry Directory This is a directory of suppliers and consultants for All stakeholders, including rural communities. renewable energy services. It gives full contact details, and a list of services and/or equipment provided. Community Energy Projects Guidelines on Description of common energy technologies. Government extension workers, NGOs Institutional Support Approaches to successful community energy projects. working with rural communities. Description of existing support institutions (banks, technical, government, NGOs). The role of institutions at different stages of the project cycle. Financial Investment Guidelines for Provides investment guidelines for use by a Rural communities. Community Energy Projects community, in conjunction with a facilitator, to enable them to produce sound, bankable proposals covering all aspects, from development to operation, maintenance and replacement.

4 12 Development of the guidelines Energy Forum of Zimbabwe (E for Z) Guidelines for community facilitators Institutional and financial guidelines for communities and other stakeholders Asian Development Bank Private sector Voluntary sector Participation Matrix developed at Energy Forum workshop Bankable investment proposal Yellow Pages Institutional support Field tested as part of Community Energy Project Field tested in Ward 21 Cross-linked Community Energy Participative Planning Guidelines Circulated to other institutions for comments Three half-day E for Z workshops Refinements Financial Investment Guidelines for Community Energy Projects Contribution to Zimbabwe Renewable Energy Industry Directory Community Energy Projects Guidelines on Institutional Support Figure 1: Flowchart showing the process of developing the Zimbabwe guidelines The participation matrix guidelines for conducting participatory energy planning with rural communities A workshop was held in 1994, as part of the CEP project. This was attended by over 40 participants including local councillors, district administrators, government energy sector officers and various NGOs. The workshop produced a participation matrix to guide the planning process at the village level (see Table 3). The matrix was developed as a useful tool for avoiding potential conflict between the stakeholders, by clearly identifying the respective roles of various players in various tasks, at the local level. It also clearly lays out the different activities that need to take place at each stage of the project cycle to ensure effective community participation.

5 Development of the guidelines 13 Community Energy Project Nyamarimbira This project was set up in the Tangwena community in the Nyanga District of the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe. Most of this community (292 families) depend on agriculture for their survival, but access to water is difficult due to the terrain, leading to limited supplies for drinking and irrigation. During the dry season and at times of low rainfall this leads to crop failure. Firewood and biomass supply the energy requirements. In 1996, in collaboration with ITDG and German Agro-Action, the community developed a project that integrated the infrastructure priorities to provide water supplies, energy services and food security. It was set up as a community water supply project to provide essential drinking water and irrigation services. It is a gravity-fed system (conveying water almost 14 kilometres) and the community identified the opportunity to build a hydro-power scheme on the back of the project. The project is funded through grants and community equity. This equity is given in the form of labour and local material such as sand, stones, etc. The project is managed by a community management committee which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme and for the collection of the water tariffs. The water supply scheme has proved successful and has built up local capacity in community management and operation. Work has just started on the hydro-power plant, which will provide income generating activities through power for grain milling, battery charging and welding. The matrix is not aimed at members of a community, but rather at stakeholders who would facilitate community participation, for example government extension workers, or development NGOs. The general idea of the matrix shown in Table 3 could be applied to any form of rural infrastructure project where community participation is an important element. Although the general form of the matrix was agreed on by the Energy Forum as a whole, the detail of the processes and roles at each stage were refined and filled in by the ITDG project team as they worked on preparing energy project proposals with village communities in Manicaland Province. The completed matrix resulting from this experience is shown in Table 4. Although these guidelines are specific to the Zimbabwe case, they provide some examples of the detail of the local-level planning process, the key elements of which could be useful in the context of other countries. It is notable that the two districts used in Zimbabwe advanced through the project development cycle at significantly different rates of progress, despite similar external inputs (Chipare, 1997). This was for a number of reasons, including the degree of commitment to the project, and stakeholders having different agendas. Financial and institutional guidelines for communities and other stakeholders The aim of the financial guidelines in Zimbabwe is to inform rural communities about how to approach a financial institution for project funding. The guide gives a list of questions to guide a community in adequately describing a project so that an outline proposal can be put forward for financing. Cross-sectoral ownership of the work in Zimbabwe was seen as very important from the outset therefore, documents were commissioned from various sources (all the sources were members of E for Z). The three documents commissioned were as follows: Bankable Investment Proposals (BIP) a representative from an agricultural development bank (ADB) drafted formats for village-level loan applications

6 14 Development of the guidelines Community Energy Project Nyafaru The Nyafaru scheme, which was commissioned in 1995, generates about 20 kw and supplies a clinic, shop, two schools and households. Nyafaru is a farm run as a co-operative. The project was developed by ITDG and Cold Comfort Trust (CCFT). CCFT were providing managerial support to the farm. ITDG s objective was to prove that micro-hydro power was technically feasible and could provide useful power in areas that were off-grid. ITDG approached the project by involving the participation of all members of the co-operative, who assisted on the surveys and provided labour and some local materials. The Nyafaru Micro Hydro Committee was set up, which was responsible for the management and running of the scheme. CREDIT: ITDG/ZUL E3 ZIMBABWE A5.13 Nyafaru micro-hydro scheme, Zimbabwe one of the Community Energy Projects. Photo shows Abel Hazangwi, the controller/operator, outside the power house. Yellow Pages a representative from the private sector, an engineering consultancy firm and electrical contractor agreed to draft a Yellow Pages a list of suppliers and consultants for decentralized and renewable energy services Institutional Support Guidelines these were drafted by a representative of the voluntary sector. The drafts were completed by late June They were then revised in September when the authors met to compare notes, and to cross-link the documents. The crosslinked documents were then circulated for comment to further institutions involved in rural energy diffusion. In Ward 21, the preliminary BIP format was used by a community the Nyamarimbira Project Committee to draft a detailed funding proposal for an integrated energy and water supply project. This was shared with ten prospective funders, two of whom were interested enough to request a more detailed feasibility study. Eventually the one submitted to German Agro-Action was successful in January 1997.

7 Development of the guidelines 15 Table 3: Participation matrix Activity What will be done? Who will do it? How will it be done? What will be achieved? Needs assessment Articulate needs Rural community (RC), Participation, RC define their needs; Acceptable empowerment, development partners (DP), DP and LE refine them awareness local experts (LE) DP and LE direct dialogue Prioritization of Prioritize and select most DP, LE and RC Participatory; DP direct process and Ownership, empowerment, needs critical needs RC confirms priority acceptance Formulation Systematize planning to RC, LE, DP and other Participatory, dialogue, consultation Ownership/acceptance, capacity realize objectives stakeholders Local knowledge input maximized building, in-built monitoring/ Consider available alternatives evaluation mechanisms Development Finalize plan, organizing All stakeholders Participation Success, attainment of objectives resources and co-ordinating Local involvement (on the job, consultation) Implementation Action with specific All stakeholders with Hands-on involvement of RC and LE Actual skills transfer, ownership/ activities emphasis on RC and LE Spread roles among several participants acceptance, enhancing Local contribution (funds, labour, monitoring, evaluation and skills, etc.) control Monitoring Deliberate effort to note RC, LE and DP LE and RC participate Success, accountability, capacity progress against plans, at building all stages Evaluation Based on note above, LE, DP and RC Field observations Decisions made for subsequent measure successes, failures, Actual measurements direction impact, lessons and Interviews with RC recommend corresponding action Local level workshops Control Correcting at all stages All actors involved at the Checks and corrections at all stages Attainment of capacity building various stages Notes on the participation matrix: RC = rural community, DP = development partners, LE = local experts. Local inputs being maximized; networking/linkages being created and maintained; awareness being raised through exchange visits.

8 16 Development of the guidelines Table 4: Completed participation matrix for Nyanga Ward 21 Activity from pro- What was done? Who was involved? How was it done? What was achieved? posed framework Needs assessment Preliminary needs assessment Sample of rural community Participation, RC in defining their needs; Acceptable empowerment, study. (RC), local councillor, DP and ITDG refined them and produced awareness. Survey of current practices, extension workers, report. Feedback meeting held. ITDG Acknowledgement of the energy constraints and opportunities. development partners (DP), and community in direct dialogue. needs. Needs assessment report. local consultants. Prioritization of List of needs most critical ones DP, ITDG and RC General meeting for wards. Identification of ward priorities. needs selected. Nyamarimbira Water Participatory consultations. Formation of project committee. Supply Project prioritized to Ownership, empowerment, benefit two villages. acceptable. Formulation Setting of objectives. Systematic RC, ITDG, DP and other Participatory, dialogue, consultation. Ownership/acceptance, capacity planning to realize objectives. stakeholders Local knowledge inputs maximized. building, in-built monitoring/ Training and stakeholder Considered available alternatives. evaluation mechanisms. analysis. Exchange visits and training workshops. Funding proposal. Development Constitution write up. RC, ITDG, DP, Sector PRA, interviews, meetings and workshops. Draft project constitution. Assessment of situation with ministries and RDC. Detailed funding proposal. and without project. Identification of key stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis. Implementation Gathering of local materials and All stakeholders. Participation of community. Project materials. purchase of project inputs. Engagement of consultancy. Field blocks for irrigation. Survey of water route and excavation of weir base. Monitoring Visit to project by funders. All stakeholders. Meetings and workshops. Minutes of meetings. Periodic project meetings. Progress reports. Control Review of progress every six All stakeholders. Review workshops. Revised plans. months.

9 Development of the guidelines 17 The community had previously prepared five or six proposals, none of which had been successful. The team identified that this was largely due to poor communication between the community and project stakeholders. In particular, the community was unaware of the information requirements of potential funders. As a result of preparing the guidelines, the Energy Forum was involved in formulating a number of national level energy projects for example, the Department of Energy asked the team to join a steering committee for a mini-hydro scheme proposed for Manyuchi in Masvingo Province. When working at this level, the team was able to support the participation of local communities in the planning process and the development of bankable proposals. The comments and revisions made as a result of using the manuals in the field, and from discussion with the Forum members, were all incorporated into the final versions of the manuals. Three half-day workshops were held at the end of 1996, at which E for Z members were able to propose revisions to the guidelines. After this, the guidelines were redrafted, and were then ready to be published. The institutional and financial guidelines booklets were distributed to institutions, local government and energy developers in the country as part of informing the debate on rural decentralized energy supply. A number of copies went to rural libraries in Nyanga and Matabeleland, as well as to the Rural District Council and rural schools. The Yellow Pages component of the Zimbabwe project resulted in the team feeding into the production of a national Zimbabwe Yellow Pages, called the Zimbabwe Renewable Energy Directory. This was produced with contributions from the Energy Forum, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), the Department of Energy, and the Solar Energy Industries Association of Zimbabwe (SEIAZ). Sri Lanka In contrast to Zimbabwe, the importance of Sri Lankan NGOs in rural development processes is very marked, and the Sri Lanka project team therefore naturally acted through these channels. The NGO sector in the country collaborates efficiently with private sector activities; indeed, the boundary between the two is often blurred, and the process of producing the manuals benefited from this link. The banking sector is more removed from the arena of rural development, but with the advent of the World Bank Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project, this has changed, to the benefit of the work carried out under this project. As in Zimbabwe, the Sri Lanka Energy Forum played a key role throughout the development of the manual. This grouping of key stakeholders in the Sri Lankan energy sector includes members from government agencies, NGOs, and the private sector. The Forum was responsible for managing the development of manuals, and provided a vehicle for enabling widespread stakeholder involvement. At the outset of the project in Sri Lanka, there was a feeling that project success was likely to depend more on effective institutional co-ordination and action, than on establishing planning processes at a village level.

10 18 Development of the guidelines Sri Lanka country context Sri Lanka, an island off the South of India, has a population of 18 million with a land area of square kilometres. Its GNP per capita is US$814. Over 80% of the population live in rural areas, and agriculture accounts for 36% of the labour market. Sri Lanka has been fighting a civil war with the minority Tamil population in the north of the country for the past 30 years. It is estimated that 7 8% of the GDP is spent on this conflict, which affects government expenditure on other services. Sri Lanka has no indigenous supplies of fossil fuels. Its energy resources come from biomass (57%), imported diesel and oil (26%) and hydro-power (17%). Over 90% of grid electricity comes from large-scale hydro-power. However, most of the large-scale hydro-power is already being exploited, and thermal plants will start to dominate the system. The total demand for electricity has been growing at about 10% per annum without the necessary additions to the power generation capacity. There was a power generation crisis in 1996, resulting in shortages and prolonged periods of black-outs across the whole country. At present around 45% of the population do not have access to electricity and it has been estimated that 40% will never receive grid electricity, and these are mostly in rural areas. Until recently the government-owned utility, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), had a monopoly over generation. However, private generation is now allowed and the CEB is in the process of being restructured and privatized. Most of the large-scale hydro-power potential is being exploited, but there is still considerable scope for small-scale and micro-hydro-power, especially for stand-alone schemes at the village level. Sri Lanka has a long history of microhydro-power, especially in the tea and rubber plantations. Wind power on the coast and solar power are also feasible options. In Sri Lanka there were two outputs, namely: A village-level planning manual a manual to be used by a facilitator in conjunction with end-users in a rural community, to assist them in making key decisions about the planning of an off-grid electricity project. Institutional and financial guidelines aimed at mainstream financial institutions, with the objective of increasing: confidence in decentralized energy technologies and schemes for rural communities confidence in the capabilities of rural communities in the development of rural energy schemes awareness of the infrastructure that already exists in rural communities that can support the implementation of energy schemes. This was a very different approach to the institutional guidelines from the Zimbabwe case, where the focus had been on raising awareness among end-users of the type of institutional support available to them. Unlike in Zimbabwe, the Yellow Pages a directory of suppliers was not produced as a separate document, but was included as part of both the village manual and the financial manual. Village-level planning manuals The first draft manual was written in consultation with a number of energy experts to produce the technical options and case study elements of the manual. However, with the benefit of hindsight, an error was made at this stage by not consulting

11 Development of the guidelines 19 sufficiently with villages and community-based organizations (CBOs). The team did not have the advantage of a parallel Community Energy Project, as was the case in Zimbabwe, to enable the development of the material through experience in the field. As a result, on the first field testing, the first draft of the manual was found to be far too complicated for the target audience. On revision, the manual was taken to two villages in Galle and Matara districts. The Sri Lankan project team chose to guide the community through the project cycle by using a cartoon depicting a story based in a rural community around a leader named Sunil. The cartoon (Figure 2) simplifies the process by breaking it into stages that are easy to follow. The cartoon is followed in the manual by a description of the technology options, including a comparison of financial costs. The Sri Lankan trials of the manual showed that participants were eager to learn about off-grid electricity options. Difficulties were found, however, because: different participants had different reactions to the manual, and acted as individuals and not as a community most of the participants were biased towards solar photo-voltaic systems because they had seen this technology in nearby villages Figure 2: Extract from Sri Lanka manual, showing Sunil cartoon

12 20 Development of the guidelines participants in general found it difficult to grasp the cost comparison calculations to compare technologies. It became clear as the project progressed that communities will need external intervention to guide them through each stage of the process. Over two years, further field testing of the manual was carried out with 12 CBOs, representing, in all, six different districts. These CBOs were identified by IT Sri Lanka, and all agreed to participate. A workshop was held in October 1997 in order to receive feedback on the manual from the CBOs. Their comments were as follows: All agreed that the manuals are very useful The cartoons are not serious enough, and should be replaced with a true story, preferably with photographs It would be better to have one section, or even separate manuals, devoted to each technology, including case studies and costings. Further field testing with CBOs was then carried out, and a workshop was held in January 2000, to finalize the manual. Manual for financial institutions The manual that was produced describes the technical options available for providing off-grid electricity services, including some case studies of existing projects. There is also a section on existing rural organizations that already handle rural credit. In many cases in Sri Lanka, the main organization for rural credit schemes is the Death Benefit Society, but the manual also describes other organizations. The booklet also discusses rural income patterns. Extracts from the manual are shown in Box 5. As part of the process of developing the guidelines, informal discussions were held with various individuals representing banks, consultancies and NGOs on their perceptions of rural communities. In discussing hypothetical situations of funding rural community-based energy projects, many banks were cautious due to their inexperience in rural lending. The World Bank Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project played a key role at this point (see Box 6 for more information on the ESD project). There were six leading commercial and development banks participating in the ESD project (known as Participating Credit Institutions, or PCIs). Through the administrating body for the ESD loan scheme, the draft manual was circulated to the PCIs, and their comments were incorporated into a revised draft of the manual. A workshop was then held in May 1998, attended by the PCIs and an NGO, The Thrift and Credit Co-operative Societies (see Box 5). The aim of the workshop was to discuss the funding of rural projects and to feed into further development of the manual. The manual was then finalized to incorporate the output from the workshop.

13 Development of the guidelines 21 Box 3: Village micro-hydro power in Sri Lanka Electricity Consumer Societies (ECS) The concept of establishing the Electricity Consumer Societies (ECS) was developed by ITDG for the development of village hydro projects. In Sri Lanka, nearly 30 micro-hydro projects have been developed since ITDG provides leadership and management training to an ECS to enable it to manage the operation of a scheme independently after a project has been developed. The management structure of a typical ECS consists of a president, secretary and a treasurer. The post of the president is held usually by the leader of the village, who invariably has initiated the village hydro project. Membership of the ECS consists of the beneficiaries of the electricity service from the project. However, non-beneficiary members also exist. The ECS usually meets once a month and each member is expected to attend. If the registered member is unable to attend, a representative from the household can attend. Some ECSs have expanded to other activities and have formed separate committees to deal with women s, children s and other welfare issues. The success of an ECS is indicated by the regularity of meetings, attendance, the regularity of tariff payments and the ability to resolve conflicts. Tariffs are collected as a membership fee to the ECS and not for the sale of electricity as that requires the ECS to obtain permission from the Ministry of Irrigation and Power. Some ECSs have already obtained registration of their organization with local government authorities. Box 4: Phatavita village micro-hydro scheme, Sri Lanka Phatavita village is an off-grid village in the Matara District of Sri Lanka. The micro-hydro project there took place in two stages stage 1 was in 1992, with the installation of a 3.8 kw unit, and stage 2 led to an increased capacity to 8.5 kw. The installation supplies electricity to 220 households, mainly for lighting, TV and radio. Stage 1 was funded by a local charity the Rotary Club. The expansion was funded by a commercial bank loan, under the World Bank ESD project, on the basis of a financial proposal and business plan from the village. The project was initiated and implemented by IT Sri Lanka. The total cost of the expansion was US$ The community made an equity contribution of 10%, both in cash and labour. The tariff paid is high enough to cover operation and maintenance, and repayment of the loan. The scheme is therefore sustainable in the long term, and is not dependent on outside support. The operation and maintenance cost is set at US$42 per month, which includes a payment of US$14 per month for a trained person in the community to maintain the system on a routine basis. US$7 per month is allocated for an inspector for the project, whose role is to ensure that the members do not use more than their stipulated 85 watts of power. For instance, a clothes iron that requires a high current could be used only during the day, when the household demand for lighting and TV is at its lowest. The role of IT Sri Lanka in the project was to: assist in the design and concept after the initial request came from the village mobilize the community provide training to the community to support them in technical and financial planning, implementation, and the management and operation of the system. Before the project was developed, a village-level Electricity Consumer Society (ECS) was established. One of the key reasons for the past and present success of this project is very strong leadership and co-operation within the community.

14 22 Development of the guidelines Box 5: Extract from Sri Lanka institutional guide Thrift and Credit Co-operative Societies Thrift and Credit Co-operative Societies (TCCS), better known as Sanasa in Sri Lanka, is a rural movement with 9000 societies island-wide. The organization originated in 1906 as a part of a drive to create co-operative activities in rural areas. The organization operates in three tiers. The foundation is the primary level societies in villages. These village societies form district unions at the regional level. The National Federation is formed of all the district unions. TCCS is a bottom-up organization. It is established first by people in the village. The village societies are democratic and elect their officials on a yearly basis. The village society has monthly general meetings where all decisions pertaining to the activities of the society are decided. The village-level societies have been very successful in most areas of Sri Lanka. Most of the funds that are saved in village societies remain in the village. Most of the loans provided to members are small, ranging from Rs2000 to Rs5000 (US$45 US$105), mostly for agricultural purposes. This restricts them from funding larger investments in areas such as energy. However, the success of TCCS illustrates the village-level capability to maintain organizations for the common benefit of the community. Each society acts as an independent entity and, as such, sets its own lending mechanisms. Therefore, areas such as interest rates and maximum lending amount are all determined at this level. In 1995, over 75% of the societies used self-generated funds and did not require outside funds from the district or the federation. The organization is also gender-sensitive, as 52% of the membership are women and 37% of the village societies are led by women. The total membership is people, with a total of 8340 societies. Box 6: The World Bank, Energy Services Delivery (ESD) Project for Sri Lanka This project finances investment in selected renewable energy resources by the private sector and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). It also provides funds for capacity building to enable the implementation of renewable energy projects. The ESD credit line provides medium- and long-term financing to private sector firms, NGOs and co-operatives to develop solar home systems, village hydro, mini-hydro, wind power and other renewable energy projects. The capacity-building component assists project promoters to develop bankable business plans and proposals. It also strengthens the expertise in off-grid project preparation, technical, financial, institutional and business development areas to ensure that the projects are implemented successfully. The project will also meet the global environmental objective to mitigate carbon emissions in Sri Lanka. Renewable energy use will reduce the current high usage of kerosene for lighting. A GEF grant component of 20% of the project cost is offered to project promoters who can reduce the initial cost of systems, lower the interest rates, or utilize the grant to meet the costs of implementing the projects. The total project cost to the World Bank is US$53.8 million. This is made up of US$7.3 million GEF Financing, US$11 million of Government/private sector counterpart financing, and US$35.5 million IDA co-financing. The project began in July 1997, and has a duration of five years. The pilot phase to install 300 solar home systems, is already under way with the NGO Sarvodaya. ITDG is developing a 60 kw village hydro and the CEB is developing a 3 MW wind farm.