Energy access is a critical and under-served need among the 134 million people in need of humanitarian assistance today. In July of 2019, the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) Humanitarian Working Group will host two consecutive events – the SAFE Workshop & the Humanitarian Energy Conference – to convene the broad community of stakeholders engaged in providing energy solutions to crisis-affected people. Both events will take place over four days (two days each) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On behalf of the SAFE Working Group, the Clean Cooking Alliance and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) invite you to complete a brief survey to help shape and refine the content of both events.

See below to learn more about both events. You can also visit the event webpage and address any questions to info@safefuelandenergy.org. Registration will open in April. In the meantime, please share the survey with relevant colleagues and partners who may be interested to attend one or both events!

About the Events

The SAFE Workshop is a small training event designed to strengthen the knowledge and capacityof actors who provide (or are interested to provide) fuel and energy solutions to crisis-affected people. Recognizing that basic training is still an acute need in this sector, among both humanitarian and non-humanitarian practitioners, this year’s SAFE Workshop will be limited to individuals who are new to the topic and/or who have never attended a SAFE workshop before. The workshop will:

• Introduce the concept of safe access to fuel and energy (SAFE) and why it is needed in humanitarian settings;
• Discuss how energy impacts other aid sectors, including health, protection, food security, and others;
• Highlight key features of working in humanitarian settings, including an overview of core principles, standards, and how humanitarian situations differ from normal market or development contexts;
• Discuss key challenges in providing energy access to crisis affected people;
• Teach best practices and principles for deciding when, whether, and how to intervene with an energy solution.
• Direct participants to public tools and resources where they can find additional information.

The Humanitarian Energy Conference is a new, large event that aims to capture and expand on the networking and knowledge-sharing components of previous SAFE Workshops. Its name is a recognition of the fact that the humanitarian energy community has rapidly grown in the past few years, encompassing not only humanitarian agencies and host governments, but also private businesses, research institutions, donors, investors, and others. As in past SAFE Workshops, the Humanitarian Energy Conference will be critical opportunity for this diverse community of actors to:  

• Learn about the overall state of the humanitarian energy sector, from the top down. This will include an overview of global initiatives and frameworks that currently focus on this issue, as well as their counterparts at the national and local levels.
• Exchange knowledge on successes and failures – what approaches have worked in bringing energy to crisis-affected populations and which remain challenging. 
• Discuss common topics of interest, such as market-based solutions, working with the private sector, innovative financing options, national policies on displaced people, developing agency-wide energy strategies, and more. Take our survey by March 13th to help formulate the 2019 agenda!
• Identify opportunities for coordination and collaboration through networking and peer learning.
• Access public tools and resources where they can find additional information.

Both events will be hosted by the Clean Cooking Alliance and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on behalf of the SAFE Working Group. They will take place consecutively over four days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in mid-to-late July of 2019. Specific dates forthcoming in a few weeks. Registration will open in April. Visit the event webpage to learn more, and address any questions to info@safefuelandenergy.org.