As the impacts of climate change intensify across the globe, one sector stands particularly vulnerable: agriculture. More than one billion people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, many of them in rural regions that are increasingly exposed to droughts, floods, and shifting weather patterns. Renewable energy technologies offer promising solutions to help these communities adapt—but only if implemented with a deep understanding of local needs.
This is where a community-centred approach becomes not just valuable, but vital.
Beyond Technology: The Human Dimension of Adaptation
Too often, renewable energy interventions are treated as purely technical deployments—install the solar pump, deliver the biodigester, and move on. But the reality on the ground is far more complex. Technology alone cannot transform agricultural livelihoods or climate resilience if people cannot afford it, don’t trust it, or aren’t trained to use it.
Recognizing this gap, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in partnership with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), has developed a new practical framework to guide renewable energy interventions aimed at building agricultural resilience. At its core is a simple but powerful idea: solutions should be built with communities, not just for them.
Introducing the Community-Centred Framework
Unveiled under the “Empowering Lives and Livelihoods” initiative, the framework combines the latest insights from climate adaptation, agricultural development, and energy access. It aims to help practitioners—governments, NGOs, project developers, investors, and local stakeholders—design projects that are sustainable, inclusive, and impactful.
The framework consists of six steps, each designed to place community engagement, feedback, and empowerment at the heart of energy adaptation planning:
- Start with the People: Understand the community’s unique social, economic, and environmental context. Map out who is vulnerable, who holds influence, and how climate change is already affecting daily life.
- Design for Local Needs: Bundle technologies with financing mechanisms, training, and supportive policy environments to ensure solutions are accessible and effective.
- Implement and Adapt: Pilot projects should be flexible, incorporating continuous feedback loops to allow adjustments as needed.
- Observe What Works: Evaluation should focus not just on outputs (e.g., number of solar pumps installed) but outcomes—how resilience is actually changing on the ground.
- Measure Types of Resilience:
- Absorptive: Ability to cope with short-term shocks like droughts or price fluctuations.
- Adaptive: Capacity to adjust farming or livelihood strategies to changing conditions.
- Transformative: System-level change that shifts power, resources, or mindsets over the long term.
- Tell the Story of Resilience: Communicate results not only in terms of technical success, but how lives are improving—especially for the most vulnerable, such as women, youth, and smallholder farmers.
Scaling with Equity
One of the framework’s most compelling insights is that inclusive processes lead to more durable outcomes. For example, introducing a solar-powered irrigation system without affordable financing may help a few large landowners, but marginalize smallholders who can’t afford it. A community-led design, however, might result in a shared irrigation cooperative, where all benefit.
Similarly, energy solutions should be paired with services like agricultural extension, weather forecasting, or access to markets. These complementary measures are often what make or break the success of renewable energy in driving genuine adaptation.
From Framework to Field: The Road Ahead
This new model will be showcased and tested at the upcoming International Off-Grid Renewable Energy Conference (IOREC) in Botswana. The goal is to refine it through real-world application in diverse geographies, laying the foundation for smarter investment and policy decisions.
What sets this approach apart is its balance of rigor and humility. It recognizes that every community is different, and that resilience is not a fixed metric but a lived, evolving experience.
Conclusion: Empowerment Is the Engine of Resilience
The climate crisis demands urgency, but not at the expense of inclusion. If renewable energy is to play a transformative role in agriculture, it must be implemented in a way that empowers those who depend on the land. The community-centred framework from IRENA and IIED offers a practical, scalable path forward—one that combines clean technology with social equity, adaptive learning, and long-term resilience.
In the end, it’s not just about watts delivered—but futures transformed.
Read the full article here: https://www.irena.org/News/expertinsights/2025/Feb/Why-Community-Centred-Approach-is-Key-to-Scale-up-Renewables-Based-Adaptation-Efforts-in-Agriculture