The EDM project in Indonesia was a collaboration between CAFOD, IIED and the Jakarta-based Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR). It began in 2015 with research on the enabling environment for energy access in Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia and stakeholder workshops to discuss the findings.
After the Indonesia workshop, NTT Province in Eastern Indonesia was chosen to pilot EDM. This was because it had the highest levels of energy poverty in the country, and accelerating energy access was a government priority. After further research and analysis, Boafeo community in Flores Island, NTT, was selected as the target location, working with local partner organisation the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN).
Boafeo is in a remote, mountainous area with poor road access. The community had 122 households. Nearly 70 per cent of families had a direct kinship relationship. The village administration system is democratic, with structures for coordination and participation. The villagers are subsistence farmers. They also grow candlenuts, coffee, cloves, and cocoa as cash crops. The village had no access to grid electricity. Cooking was done using traditional three-stone fires.
