Poverty Eradication and Community Empowerment (PEACE) is a microfinance institution founded in 1999 in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, whose mission is to serve the entrepreneurial poor by providing sustainable and quality services for employment and income generation, with the ultimate objective of enhancing household food security in rural and urban Ethiopia. PEACE currently offers loans, savings accounts and other products and services to more than 17,000 borrowers and 21,000 savers.

The purpose of this publication is to provide a methodological guide to expanding access to clean energy for poor people and micro-entrepreneurs through microfinance and strength- ened energy value chains. this guide is intended to support consultation processes that the un capital Development fund (uncDf) and the united nations Development programme (unDp)/global environment facility (gef) are undertaking in cleanstart countries. it may also serve as a useful tool for broader consultations by others seeking to advance the rio+20 commitments on energy.

This Policy Brief is divided in 3 parts. Part I provides an overview of current and anticipated trends in energy poverty and their impact on development. This part evidences the magnitude of energy poverty challenge vis a vis public resources and ODA, but also the significant opportunities related to emerging clean energy solutions. Part II discusses some of the key financial and non-financial challenges related to financing clean energy access for the poor. It highlights the critical contribution that MFIs can play in fostering clean en- ergy access, but also the need to address wider non-financial barriers, market and government failures that prevent clean energy uptake; lastly, Part III presents the most defining characteristics of CleanStart, an in- novative UNCDF-UNDP Program aimed at increasing poor households and micro-enterprises access to clean energy by addressing financial and non-financial challenges, supporting microfinance and the development of enabling environments for clean energy financing.

This discussion paper conceptualizes social protection as part and parcel of overall public service delivery, and examines the role that local governments can play in implementing social protection related policies. It aims to shed light on two important questions that have not been systematically addressed in the existing literature. First, what added value can local government bring to safety net programmes? Does 'going local' improve or strengthen the effectiveness of social safety net initiatives? Secondly, and, inversely, what can safety net programmes bring to local government? Are there advantages for local governments in being more involved in the management and implementation of safety net programmes?