Know our partners

Contribution/Collaboration areas

WFP is working towards Zero Hunger by 2030. WFP delivers food, cash and other assistance in emergencies to around 90 million people every year. At the same time, we focus on sustainable development, promoting long-term change by tackling the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, and working in partnership with national governments and communities. The award of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to WFP is recognition that food security, peace, and stability go together. Energy is an enabler that contributes to WFP’s ‘Saving lives and Changing lives’ agenda. As most foods need cooking to be consumed, energy programmes go hand in hand with food assistance. WFP implements market-based, sustainable energy solutions not only to ensure consumption but also to strengthen resilience improving local food systems and value chains. Three areas of focus: (i) Increasing Access to Modern Cooking for Vulnerable Population: leveraging WFP’s deep field presence and systems for cash transfers to increase access and strengthen the local value chain for modern cooking. (ii) Energising School Feeding: advancing schools as community innovation hubs that deliver modern cooking solutions, electricity, digital learning and livelihood opportunities; (iii) Empowering Smallholder Farmers: supporting smallholder farmers and the agriculture sector through inclusive agricultural growth and the sustainable dissemination of energy equipment and services to boost food production, processing and preservation.

Contribution/Collaboration areas

Lifeline’s track record of success in implementing energy programs has won it the sponsorship and support of numerous international agencies (e.g., UNHCR, UNOCHA, WFP, UNFPA, IOM, and the Lutheran World Federation) and a variety of private and governmental organizations (e.g., GIZ, DAI, Chemonics, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation). Based on its extensive expertise and achievements in the field, Lifeline was enlisted both by USAID to contribute to its handbook for implementing energy programs in humanitarian settings and by WFP to assist in preparing its Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) toolkit. As an active Steering Committee member of the former SAFE Humanitarian Working Group, Lifeline spearheaded WFP’s SAFE initiative in Burundi from 2015-18 and has recently taken a leading role in the development of WFP’s country-wide strategy for refugee energy access in Ethiopia.

Contribution/Collaboration areas

Energy is a basic need and a key to overcome poverty and resolving environmental degradation. Restrictions on energy access negatively impact populations in humanitarian settings. A lack of safe access to adequate energy poses serious risks for displaced and vulnerable people. Well-planned energy interventions, on the other hand, can provide significant benefits associated with protection, gender equality, food security, water, sanitation and health, education, livelihoods, connectivity, and environmental protection. Access to energy is also empowering, enabling women to gain greater control over their lives and futures. UNHCR will promote sustainable household energy technologies, including the expanded use of renewable energy, to minimize the environmental impact of operations in a way that is inclusive of host communities and other stakeholders while improving the protection and wellbeing of refugees. Likewise, UNHCR aims to increase access to clean energy for schools, health centres and other institutions. It equally strives to complement UNHCR’s efforts to introduce comprehensive energy efficiency measures and equip its global office infrastructure with sustainable energy solutions. UNHCR leads the implementation of the UNHCR Global Strategy for Sustainable Energy, comprising the overall conceptual framework that aims to ensure that energy interventions contribute to enhance protection and dignified lives for refugees. UNHCR’s work in the area of energy will be guided by its protection mandate and a set of principles contained in the UNHCR policy on Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD), the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), the 2030 Agenda for UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the UNHCR Strategic Framework for Climate Action (SFCA), the Operational Strategy for Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability and the UN Climate Neutrality Strategy and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Contribution/Collaboration areas

UNITAR hosts the Coordination Unit of the Global Platform for Action on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA). Since the inception of the GPA in 2018, UNITAR has facilitated joint outputs on the GPA Framework Document recommendations between members of the GPA Steering Group and wider partners network in five thematic working areas of coordination, policy, innovative finance, capacity building and data. The GPA Coordination Unit is responsible for developing global collective impact strategies with the GPA Steering Group member organizations in the form of the GPA Work Plan, co-leading the Clean Energy Challenge with UNHCR as a global campaign for increased financial, political, technical and in kind support towards clean energy in displacement contexts, and supporting sector-wide knowledge sharing and operational coordination through facilitating the Humanitarian Energy Exchange Network (previously known as the SAFE Working Group). Please find the detailed work of the GPA here: https://www.humanitarianenergy.org/thematic-working-areas