Ensuring access to electricity and minimum basic electricity needs as a goal for the post-MDG development agenda after 2015

Abstract

Lack of access to electricity is linked to poverty and human development. In 2009, the number of people without access to electricity exceeded 1.3billion, about one-fifth of the world's population. More than 99.8% of this total lives in developing countries, and more than 84% lives in rural areas. The eight current United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) and their respective targets do not include any target or indicator associated with energy. Many studies, however, have concluded that access to electricity must play a variety of vital direct and indirect roles in achieving the MDGs. As the MDGs are due to be met in 2015, the Member States of the United Nations have, since 2010, been debating and formulating a new framework for the post-2015 UN development agenda. The aim of this study is to argue, based on a review of statistical data on energy use and the normative rationales of the MDGs, that ensuring access to electricity and meeting minimum basic electricity needs of the energy poor should be considered by governments and the international community as a goal for the post-2015 UN development agenda.