Oluchi Obinegbo

Designing sustainable interventions to address energy poverty for the 600 million sub-Saharan Africans without energy access requires an interdisciplinary approach grounded in the continent's realities. Research has shown that understanding energy equity is important for addressing energy poverty, as it informs more nuanced and effective strategies that consider the availability, accessibility, affordability, and reliability of energy across diverse populations. However, existing dimensions of energy equity are shaped by Western notions, limiting our assessments of energy poverty in the region. My Ph.D. research adopts a participatory approach, evaluating factors such as the region’s infrastructure, political institutions, and informal markets to design metrics with more comprehensive dimensions and tailored indicators of energy equity for the region. This will provide stakeholders with a more relevant framework for evaluating the equitability of their decisions, leading to more effective interventions that provide greater benefits to communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.