11 May 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - The Humanitarian Energy Conference (HEC) will take place this year on Monday, 16 May 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda on the day preceding the SEforALL Forum. The HEC is co-hosted by the Steering Group of the Global Platform for Action on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA), Practical Action, and NORCAP with the generous support from the German Federal Foreign Office, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

The conference will bring together a diverse range of stakeholders to take stock of where the humanitarian sector stands in achieving access to clean energy solutions (SDG7) on sustainable energy for displaced populations and the host communities and contributing to SDG13 on climate action through improved clean energy supply. It will allow the humanitarian energy community to reflect on its goals, visions, and ways of working. The HEC will enrich humanitarian energy discussions through critical and informative dialogue on achievements and lessons learnt o to date.

Global impact leaders and climate advocates such as Damilola Ogungiyi, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy, and Jennifer Morgan, former Greenpeace International Executive Director, now Special Envoy for International Climate Action to the German Foreign Ministry, will open the conference, encouraging participants to consider energy access through a muti-disciplinary lens. Energy and humanitarian sector leaders Andrew Harper, Special Advisor on Climate Change at UNHCR and Mark Carrato, Coordinator of the USAID PowerAfrica Programme will discuss the challenge and opportunity of delivery clean energy in displacement contexts. Refugee, IDP and host-community-led discussions and speakers at the conference will facilitate a bottom-up understanding of the necessary sector changes to energy access approaches and inspire development-humanitarian practitioners with informed, alternative, and sustainable delivery models. During the event, there will be opportunities for deep dive learning on electricity access and clean cooking solutions in humanitarian settings, as well as facilitated discussions on finance, technical capacity building, and inclusive policies with international partners and host governments.

At the conference, the GPA will launch the first 'State of the Humanitarian Energy Sector Report', on how to raise ambitions to ensure that refugees, migrants, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people are not left behind in the clean energy transition. The report is a first-of-its-kind analysis and will publish key figures and statistics on the state of play of sustainable energy access for displaced people.

The GPA strives to ensure that displaced persons, host communities, and associated humanitarian response mechanisms have access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services by 2030. The mission of the GPA is to deliver collective change on energy in displacement settings by providing supporting services to mainstream sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy access for crisis affected communities and those that serve them