CONTEXT

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with an electricity infrastructure that reaches only 12.5 per cent of all Haitians. Access to sustainable energy in Haiti is crucial to fostering improvements in the living conditions of the poor, to provide economic opportunities, to improve health and to support educational goals.

Tapping into the USD 1.5 billion of remittances sent to Haiti each year from migrant workers residing in the US can offer a sustainable and empowering way to overcome the challenge of energy poverty. The Haitian economy relies heavily on remittances, which constitute about 26 per cent of the country’s GDP.

PROJECT

The project was implemented with the support of the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, and in partnership with Arc Finance. The project developed a locally relevant and self-sustaining business model that enables migrant workers from Haiti, who live and work in Miami (US), to direct part of their remittance payments towards sustainable energy solutions for their communities and families at home.

This business model pilot enables Haitian emigrants residing in Miami to purchase solar energy products at a remittance agent affiliated with Food Express, a Haitian-owned remittance company with an extensive network. The products are then sent directly to the receiver through the vast network of SogeXpress – a major Haitian MTO with 56 flagship stores across Haiti – who obtains the products at the wholesale price from a local distribution partner. The distributor also provides warranty fulfilment, which is critical to consumer satisfaction and market sustainability.

OUTCOME

The project in Haiti was launched in April 2012, and by the end of the two-year project implementation period, over 5,000 small solar PV home systems had sold and the model was self-sustaining on the local market. By 2015, the model was already self-sustaining, and over 43,000 renewable energy products were sold, saving local families money on other more costly and more polluting energy sources. With this, the pilot successfully presented remittances as a viable means to finance clean energy.