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People
> Shaping Sustainable Markets research group

Ben Garside

Principal researcher, Shaping Sustainable Markets

Ben Garside currently leads IIED's work on energy access and renewable energy, with a particular interest in pro-poor and inclusive business models that improve impacts for the poorest. This includes building cross-sector problem-solving processes that tailor energy services to better suit local needs and contexts.  
Full biography

Ben also works on understanding how 'social learning' – co-learning for change – approaches can help catalyse solving the complex problems associated with climate change and food insecurity. His experience spans across the fields of energy, agriculture, information and communication technologies, and climate change adaptation. He has worked in low-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

 

Expertise

Access to energy and renewable energy; climate change adaptation; pro-poor business models; building dialogue for change across diverse stakeholders; community-level participatory research; monitoring and evaluation for impact; inclusive information and communication technologies; and the roles of aid in leveraging business for sustainable development.

Before IIED

Engineering background with extensive experience in ICT consultancy and telecoms; postgraduate degree in development management at the London School of Economics.

Current work

Pro-poor energy – more access, better impacts (people-centred energy transitions; energy policy analysis and advocacy; productive uses of energy); renewable energy and climate; social-learning and climate uncertainties.

Interviews

IIED expert interviews: Ben Garside
Ben Garside's picture
Telephone: 
+44 (0) 20 3463 7399
Email: 
ben.garside@iied.org
ResearchGate
 
Languages: English, Spanish (intermediate)

Ben Garside's projects

Woman silhouetted in front of gas flare

SUNGAS: Ensuring sustainable energy access in Nigeria

Project, Oct 2020
A group of people line up in front of a mountain background.

Building green and inclusive energy

Project, Oct 2020
Men and women sitting around a table, writing on poster-like papers

Inclusive and integrated energy planning in Kitui County, Kenya

Project, Sep 2020

Latest publications

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

Small business, big demand: facilitating finance for productive uses of energy in Tanzania

Small business, big demand: facilitating finance for productive uses of energy in Tanzania

Energy for all: Better use of subsidies to achieve impact

Accelerating energy access with aggregation

Moving more money: can aggregation catalyse off-grid financing?

View more publications by this author

 

Ben Garside's blog posts

Woman weighing a bag with a scale.

Equipped and productive: better financing for community businesses in Tanzania

Blog, Nov 2020
A local blackout in Dar Es Salaam. Power outages in Tanzania's capital are often caused by old cables and transformers (Photo: jay grandin, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Improving Tanzania’s power quality: can data help?

Blog, Jun 2018
A community workshop. Social learning processes were a key element of a successful 10-year collaboration between the International Potato Centre (CIP) and indigenous communities in the Peruvian Andes (Photo: IIED)

It's the process, stupid 

Blog, Mar 2017
Sixty-two-year-old Elizabeth Mukwimba has a solar-powered lighting system. She no longer has to buy expensive kerosene and has been able to use the savings to re-roof her house (Photo: Russell Watkins/Department for International Development)

Electricity supplies in Tanzania: putting people first

Blog, Dec 2016
In the absence of electricity, students in Bangladesh are given charger lights so they can study at home (Photo: G.M.B. Akash/PANOS)

Ensuring an Energy Sustainable Development Goal delivers for poor people and the planet

Blog, Mar 2014
A pot with bubbling food sits cooking on an open fire.

Sustainable energy: can a new initiative succeed where Rio+20 failed?

Blog, Jun 2012
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International Institute for Environment and Development, 235 High Holborn, Holborn, London WC1V 7LE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399

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