Energy services for local development: integrated and inclusive planning for county governments in Kenya

Access to reliable, affordable, sustainable and safe energy is recognised as an enabler of many development objectives. Yet energy infrastructure is often planned as standalone investment, from a purely economic and technological standpoint and in a top-down way that does not take into account the needs of end users. To realise the full benefits of energy as an enabler of different development objectives across sectors more inclusive and integrated approaches are needed. This working paper presents an innovative technical approach for inclusive and integrated energy planning for local governments by applying the the Energy Delivery Model (EDM) planning approach developed by IIED and CAFOD. 

IIED and CAFOD, with local partners Caritas Kitui and the Kitui County government in Kenya, applied EDM in Kitui to develop investment-ready solutions for the Kitui County Energy Plan (CEP). Kitui County has a population of more than one million people. To address this scale of planning, the application of EDM outlined in this paper includes two stages: 

• Stage 1: Sector-level planning: first applied at a sector-level, with the energy sector being seen as an enabler for other development sectors 
• Stage 2: Initiative-level planning: a rapid process applied following the CEP where priority investments are identified to move fast to implementation.

The work in Kitui is currently at the end of stage 1, and this working paper focuses primarily on introducing the steps taken to develop energy service solutions for the CEP. In stage 2 the priority investments identified by county government in the CEP will be taken to implementation. IIED and partners also plan to scale the EDM approach by supporting counties across Kenya to develop their respective CEPs, and strengthening local and national capacity for undertaking inclusive and integrated planning where energy will be seen as an enabler for achieving development goals.