In Tajikistan, 29 percent of households live below the poverty line. This figure increases to 35 percent in rural areas. Energy poverty is an essential component of multidimensional poverty, with consequences for nutrition, health and income.
Limited access to fuel combined with low energy performance of buildings contribute to high energy vulnerability for many households. During winter, families spend up to 25 percent of their monthly budget on energy. Heating practices also have a high impact on wood resources, leading to deforestation; time poverty, in particular for women; and indoor air pollution.
Affordable energy-saving solutions based on passive solar and bioclimatic architecture do exist. Combined with eco-friendly practices, they can contribute to improving thermal comfort and tackling energy poverty by allowing up to 50 percent energy savings. They also contribute to a reduction in air pollution, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, time spent on heating chores, and contribute to better living conditions and better health.
The project aims to develop and pilot energy and resource efficient, and climate resilient housing improvements for existing rural houses in Tajikistan, and to identify options for scale-up.
The project is led by Geres Tajikistan, with the support of Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and Fondation Abbé Pierre.
BASE is supporting Geres to identify potential business models for future scale up of the energy and resource efficient and climate resilient housing improvements. Access to finance and financial inclusion are critical challenge in Tajikistan. Financial resources are expensive and unaffordable for a large proportion of households, and insufficiently accessible for large parts of the rural population. This project will identify potential financing mechanisms or business models for potential future development, as part of an upcoming phase to this project.
The project is expected to directly benefit 300 rural households, or 1500 individuals in 4 districts of Tajikistan with improved living conditions; better job opportunities for skilled labor and building masters; and higher awareness of sustainable housing solutions among local authorities, and communities.
