IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i11p4653-d1405636.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing Understanding through Data Visualization: What Can Available Data Reveal about Access to Energy in Displacement Contexts on the African Continent?

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Ronan Britton

    (Department of Community Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change, Technische Universität Berlin, Ackerstr. 76, 13355 Berlin, Germany
    Hudara gGmbH, Rollbergstr. 26, 12053 Berlin, Germany)

  • Philipp Baslik

    (Department of Community Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change, Technische Universität Berlin, Ackerstr. 76, 13355 Berlin, Germany)

  • Lena Anna Schmid

    (Hudara gGmbH, Rollbergstr. 26, 12053 Berlin, Germany)

  • Boris Heinz

    (Department of Community Energy and Adaptation to Climate Change, Technische Universität Berlin, Ackerstr. 76, 13355 Berlin, Germany
    Hudara gGmbH, Rollbergstr. 26, 12053 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

The extent of access to energy of displaced persons in settlements and camps on the African continent is largely unknown. A multitude of contextual factors, such as the location, the characteristics of housing, legal status, socio-cultural background, and the availability of humanitarian and public services, impact the living conditions and needed energy services. Limitations in accessing energy services have direct, multilayered, and far-reaching implications, including impacts on health, nutrition, education, protection, and livelihood. The objective of this article is to contribute to a more comprehensive overview of the current state of energy access in displacement contexts on the African continent by identifying and utilizing existing data. After screening the vast and various available information, setting up a database, consolidating the gathered data as well as assessing quality through a quality assessment method, the currently available information was visualized and discussed. Considerable differences in the access to energy for displaced persons across the countries were found. Access to both electricity and clean cooking ranged from nearly no access at all up to an access rate of 100%, though the averages are 94% of displaced persons without access to electricity and 81% of displaced persons without clean cooking. Overall, the results showed that besides South Africa and countries in the Maghreb region, the access to both clean cooking and electricity for displaced persons is very low. At the same time, the fragmented data availability, the poor data quality, and the inadequate expediency of available data allowed neither solid theoretical conclusions nor the planning of effective practical implementation measures. Novel interdisciplinary research, conceptual frameworks, and indicators are needed for the purpose of comparability and consistency. Future research has the potential to more comprehensively capture the current state of access to energy in displacement contexts and, subsequently, examine how energy is interwoven in the lives of displaced persons to derive a set of more detailed context-sensitive energy indicators. It is essential that displaced persons themselves are included in the research in a meaningful way.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Ronan Britton & Philipp Baslik & Lena Anna Schmid & Boris Heinz, 2024. "Enhancing Understanding through Data Visualization: What Can Available Data Reveal about Access to Energy in Displacement Contexts on the African Continent?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-39, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4653-:d:1405636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4653/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4653/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Setu Pelz & Shonali Pachauri & Sebastian Groh, 2018. "A critical review of modern approaches for multidimensional energy poverty measurement," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(6), November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bezerra, Paula & Cruz, Talita & Mazzone, Antonella & Lucena, André F.P. & De Cian, Enrica & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2022. "The multidimensionality of energy poverty in Brazil: A historical analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Choumert-Nkolo, Johanna & le Roux, Leonard, 2024. "Leaving the hearth you know: Internal migration and energy poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Ma, Cong & Cheok, Mui Yee, 2022. "The impact of financing role and organizational culture in small and medium enterprises: Developing business strategies for economic recovery," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 26-38.
    4. Mara Hammerle & Paul J. Burke, 2022. "Solar PV and energy poverty in Australia's residential sector," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(4), pages 822-841, October.
    5. Lin, Boqiang & Okyere, Michael Adu, 2023. "Race and energy poverty: The moderating role of subsidies in South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Shahzad, Umer & Gupta, Mansi & Sharma, Gagan Deep & Rao, Amar & Chopra, Ritika, 2022. "Resolving energy poverty for social change: Research directions and agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    7. Adrien Fabre & Thomas Douenne & Linus Mattauch, 2023. "International Attitudes Toward Global Policies," Working Papers 2023.01, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    8. Laldjebaev, Murodbek & Hussain, Azmat, 2021. "Significance of context, metrics and datasets in assessment of multidimensional energy poverty: A case study of Tajikistan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    9. Gu, Jiafeng, 2023. "Energy poverty and government subsidies in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    10. Qin, Jiangnan & Li, Wenjing & Zhang, Junbiao, 2024. "How can energy poverty affect farmers’ health? Evidence from mountainous areas in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    11. George E. Halkos & Panagiotis-Stavros C. Aslanidis, 2023. "Addressing Multidimensional Energy Poverty Implications on Achieving Sustainable Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-30, April.
    12. Hortay, Olivér & Kökény, László & Stefkovics, Ádám, 2021. "A szubjektív energiaszegénység mérésének problémái Magyarországon [Problems with measuring subjective energy poverty in Hungary]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 753-772.
    13. Lucas Richard & Cédric Boudinet & Sanda A. Ranaivoson & Jean Origio Rabarivao & Archille Elia Befeno & David Frey & Marie-Cécile Alvarez-Hérault & Bertrand Raison & Nicolas Saincy, 2022. "Development of a DC Microgrid with Decentralized Production and Storage: From the Lab to Field Deployment in Rural Africa," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-27, September.
    14. Pelz, Setu & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2020. "Measuring and explaining household access to electrical energy services: Evidence from rural northern India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    15. Ahmed, Abubakari & Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2020. "Multi-dimensional energy poverty patterns around industrial crop projects in Ghana: Enhancing the energy poverty alleviation potential of rural development strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Castán Broto, Vanesa & Baptista, Idalina & Kirshner, Joshua & Smith, Shaun & Neves Alves, Susana, 2018. "Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 645-655.
    17. Chang, Lei & Shi, Fanglan & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Saydaliev, Hayot Berk, 2023. "Information and communication technologies development and the resource curse," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Zhang, Ziyu & Shu, Hongting & Yi, Hong & Wang, Xiaohua, 2021. "Household multidimensional energy poverty and its impacts on physical and mental health," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    19. Pedro Macedo & Mara Madaleno & Victor Moutinho, 2022. "A New Composite Indicator for Assessing Energy Poverty Using Normalized Entropy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1139-1163, October.
    20. Bharadwaj, Bishal & Subedi, Mukti Nath & Malakar, Yuwan & Ashworth, Peta, 2023. "Low-capacity decentralized electricity systems limit the adoption of electronic appliances in rural Nepal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4653-:d:1405636. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.