Mobilizing Local Assets for Sustainable Energy Management: An Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Approach in Rural Nepal

Abstract

The energy insecurity is a recurring issue in rural communities despite their rich natural resources in Nepal. This paradox has not been resolved with traditional interventions from the top down, and requires approaches that go from the bottom up, tapping local strengths and community assets. This study aims to identify potential of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach on sustainable energy management in the context of utilization of local assets, practice of renewable energy, economic changes, and institutional mechanisms in the rural community of Bhume Rural Municipality, Rukum East, Nepal. An integrated research approach of mixed method: case study approach consisting of census household survey (n=512), key informant interview (n=10), and focus group discussion (6-8 participants per group) was used. Descriptive statistics, cross tabulations and thematic analysis was conducted for quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The Leaky Bucket tool used local expenditure retention analysis to determine economic changes. Local assets such as forests, water, solar energy, agricultural residues and local skills are also underutilized, with utilization gaps of 5.3% for forest biomass to 65.8% for agricultural residues. The traditional biomass continues to be the main energy source (89.5%), and the use of micro-hydro (18.4%) and biogas (12.6%) is still small. Households with renewable energy projects kept 62% of energy costs within their communities versus 28% for those households who relied on imported fuels. The main success factors identified are community ownership and participatory mechanisms, but there are many challenges to overcome, such as technical knowledge (68.4%), financial resources (62.8%) and policy gaps (54.2%), as well as institutional coordination (48.6%). The ABCD approach provides a promising bottom-up tool for sustainable energy management in rural Nepal as it has proved that it can deliver tangible economic benefits in terms of energy savings and local livelihood generation. To realize the full potential of ABCD, local institutions need to be strengthened, technical capacity needs to be built, and ABCD needs to be incorporated into the energy planning of local governments, along with supportive policy frameworks. This research adds empirical data to the growing body of community energy research and offers information for community energy policy and practice in rural Nepal.