"I have 12 years of work and that at this point in my life I have to continue working in conditions of a few centuries ago. The quality of life is low when teachers work in schools without power. The situation of unease and discomfort is constant – only the joy of children encourages me."

Ms Reque, a teacher at the Challa Chico School in rural Bolivia.

From lighting in streets and in the home, to power for water pumping, cooking, and basic processing and communications, access to energy enables people to live better lives. It also transforms health-care provision – enabling vaccines to be refrigerated, implements to be sterilized and diagnostic equipment to be powered.

Generating international attention and action on energy for community services is vital in order to address the fact that an estimated one billion people are served by health facilities and more than 50% of children in the developing world go to primary schools without any access to electricity.

The Poor people’s energy outlook (PPEO) 2013 focuses on the contribution that improved energy access can make to vital community services such as health, education and infrastructure services including water and street lighting.

The concept of Total Energy Access is central to the PPEO 2013. This is Practical Action’s approach to achieving universal energy access and it requires an understanding of who has access to energy across households, businesses and in the community, and how that energy is used.

The report also contains a refined and developed version of Practical Action’s Energy Access Ecosystems Index which was first proposed in our PPEO 2012. This Index is an exciting tool as it enables us to understand the environment in which change can happen. The PPEO 2013 provides improved indicators that can be used to measure an individual country’s progress towards achieving Total Energy Access.

Find out more about the Energy Access Ecosystems Index