Light Library Project Report - Summer 2013
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Light Library
Project Report
Summer 2013
a project funded by
I. Introduction
The Light Library Project is a project designed and delivered by SunnyMoney – the social enterprise of
SolarAid, funded by World Bank/LightingAfrica and implemented in partnership with the Senegalese Rural
Electrification Agency (ASER) and Ministry of Education (MoE). The objectives of the project were to
increase access to, and use of, solar lights, and increase awareness of benefits of using these lights in rural
Senegal through public schools.
II. Project Delivery
a. Overview of the project
- SunnyMoney delivered a ‘library’ of solar lights – a Luminothèque – to selected public schools in
rural areas to enable students to study after dark at home. The lights were donated to the Ministry
of Education, are managed by the school and community, and provide access to, awareness of, and
exposure to, pico-solar lights.
- With a token charge per night for borrowing the lights (less than $0.01 for the smaller lights), the use
of the library is available to all with the added benefit that the school can raise a small fund to
replace the lights (at the end of their lifespan), add additional lights, or build a storage area for the
library.
- All students have equal access to the lights. Whole families will gain awareness of solar and the
benefits through their use and due to SunnyMoney’s hands-on distribution method.
Map of Senegal with selected Light Library project regions highlighted
b. Solar lights and schools selected
- SunnyMoney ran a competitive procurement procedure and selected five approved solar lights that
we felt would meet the needs of the project and users. A combination of entry-level lights; lower-
cost and lower-functionality, and mid-level lights; more expensive and with phone-charging
capability, were selected.
- 4,798 solar lights were donated to the Senegalese Ministry of Education in this project.
- We selected the regions of Kaolack and Kaffrine for the project due to low electrification rates, high
population, poverty and school enrolment rates.
- 58 public schools in total were selected to participate in the project; 34 in Kaolack region and 24 in
Kaffrine region. This represents around 6,115 students having access to the solar lights for study.
- With large average family size it also means an estimated 55,000 people will have direct exposure to
the technology with many more community members also gaining exposure through friends.
- In addition to the lights given for student use, each school received four solar lights for teachers to
use when preparing lesson plans and work at home.
c. Project design
- An appropriate model was developed to distribute the lights to the schools. After selection, each
school head-teacher was contacted to explain the project, to ask for their assistance and interest to
participate; teachers had to show a willingness to commit to the delivery of the project. The
SunnyMoney field team then visited the school to train the teachers and school committee
members. Following this, a parent and community meeting was held to ensure full understanding
and engagement with ultimate beneficiaries.
- Posters with additional information were given to each school to display and each school was given a
comprehensive folder including a Light Library manual, letters for parents, registers for monitoring
use and product manuals.
- The schools were asked to form a Light Library Management Committee and elect a Librarian to
manage the library at the school.
- It was communicated to all schools that the lights were to remain the property of the school for the
use of the students alone. Head-teachers and the elected Librarian were required to sign an
agreement to this effect. It was impressed upon the Village Chiefs present at community meetings to
reiterate this objective and the very purpose of the community meeting was to ensure that there
was community engagement to ensure the project was used and managed as intended.
- To ensure that warranties on solar products are honoured, in a sense, a replacement stock of lights
(8%) was left with the Light Library Project Management Committee to ensure that faulty lights at
schools could be replaced.
d. Sustainability and accountability
- SunnyMoney created a Light Library Project Management Committee at the national level who
inputted into project design and implementation and who now oversee the running of the project as
handed over from SunnyMoney at the end of the project. This Committee is made up of members of
representatives from Ministère d’Éducation (MoE), l'Agence Sénégalaise d'Électrification Rurale
(ASER), Comité Intersectoriel de Mise en Œuvre des Synergies entre le Secteur de l’énergie et des
autres Secteurs Stratégiques pour la Réduction de la Pauvreté (CIMES), Ministère d’Énergie, Centre
d’Etudes et de Recherches sur les Energies Renouvelables (CERER) and LightingAfrica.
- Local level Ministry of Education staff also play a critical role in the monitoring and management of
the Light Libraries at the local level.
- By having a community meeting, asking the schools to create a Light Library Management
Committee and having signed agreements we believe that the Libraries will remain the property of
the school and will be used to provide opportunities for students to study after dark for many years
to come.
III. Lessons learned: what worked and challenges
There were many lessons learned during the design, planning and deployment of this project.
a. What worked
- The model and concept itself worked well; it is a great way to raise awareness of and exposure to
solar technology at a local level, without undermining the market by donating lights to individuals.
Whole families are able to experience the technology while child education is supported and
encouraged. Young children are a great target audience for new technology and also a key
investment focus for families.
- The Light Library Project Management Committee made up of key people at relevant
ministries/agencies meant that the project benefited from collaborative decision-making and
relevant input; this is key for sustainability of the project.
- Charging a token amount for the use of the lights in the Light Library meant that parents, students
and community members valued the lights and also allowed the schools to raise funds to replace
lights and/or arrange storage facilities.
- The field teams visited each and every school and while this was time-consuming and resource-
heavy, it was very successful. It meant there was a real opportunity for interaction and engagement
with the community, parents and teachers. This is important to ensure the ongoing running of the
Light Libraries at the schools.
- Running a competitive procurement procedure to source lights was a good opportunity for
SunnyMoney as an organisation to test out lights that had not been used before and for selecting
the most appropriate (and high quality) lights for the project.
- We benefited from the support of GVEP International who work in Senegal; they were on hand to
support with initial set up which was invaluable since SunnyMoney had not worked in Senegal
before.
- We also benefited from the support of SEM Fund; our project manager, field team and support staff
were seconded from SEM Fund. This partnership was critical to the success of the project meaning
that we could offer additional relevant training to staff that had experience in this sector and
country.
b. Challenges
- The timing of the project was not as well-matched to the school timetable as it could have been as
distribution was done in the weeks leading up to school holidays. This means that there was less
chance for the project to be embedded into school processes before time off and also meant that in
many of the schools the lights weren’t available for the exam students of this school year.
- If the sole aim of the project was to improve education outcomes then it would be advisable just to
have entry level lights (without phone charging capability) as the phone charging function has the
potential to undermine the purpose and use of the lights (for child study at night).
- SunnyMoney had originally intended to deliver our traditional School Campaign programme
alongside the Light Library project – selling lights to those who express interest. However, due to the
intense and short nature of the project, SunnyMoney decided to focus on the Light Library
component. This means that the project raised awareness and exposure to the lights and significant
demand but then there was little subsequent access to those wishing to buy solar lights. We’re
looking to rectify that now though.
- Due to the short nature of this project, follow up evaluation commenced much sooner than ideal,
after just three weeks of project implementation. This enabled us to capture initial successes and
challenges of Light Library activity, changes in awareness of, and opinion on, pico-solar products but
limited our ability to assess longer-term changes due to exposure and awareness i.e. impact on
health of household members or changes in spending on lighting alternatives; as these changes
require time for differences to be recognised and behaviour to be adjusted. We’re working on a
longer-term evaluation now though.
IV. Outcomes and results
a. Key findings
Baseline market study
- SunnyMoney conducted a baseline market study in Kaffrine and Kaolack regions prior to
implementation to ascertain the initial level of awareness, supply, and demand for pico-solar lights.
We visited markets across the two regions and conducted market observations, interviews with the
public and talked with traders/shopkeepers.
- Nearly three-quarters of the public that we interviewed had no access to electricity, of these 85%
used battery lights/torches as their main source of lighting and spent, on average, around 5% of
monthly income on this.
- Fewer than 5% of respondents had a solar light, only a quarter knew someone (else) with one and
only one in five were aware of pico-solar lights in particular. Nine in ten people we talked to said
they would be interested to buy a pico-solar light (after being shown one) but only 5% knew where
they could purchase one.
- Of shopkeepers, only a quarter had heard of pico-solar lights and only two shops (out of 66) sold
them. Three quarters of the shopkeepers felt that customers would be interested to buy these lights
and were interested to stock them.
Interviews with parents, teachers and school committee members
- SunnyMoney also conducted baseline and follow up interviews with parents, teachers and school
committee members at Light Library schools to gather information on attitudes towards,
awareness of, and opinions on pico-solar lights, as well as to record reactions to the project
including concerns and opportunities expressed, to better deliver in future.
- The follow up interviews were conducted 2-3 weeks after the Light Library project implementation.
We didn’t expect to be able to make strong assertions as to the success of the project at this early
stage but wanted to get an understanding of initial reactions.
- Most of the parents we followed up with had had a chance to use the lights in the library. Over
nine in ten parents said their child is studying for longer; in fact, children who used the solar light
did one hour extra study a night, on average.
- Parents were asked why there was a change in
student study hours. To the right, is selected data
for this question; a world cloud is formed from the
data which gives greater prominence to words
that appear more frequently in the source text.
This gives an idea of the qualitative data that we
have and what it shows us.
- In addition to this, the majority of parents
interviewed had more hours of lighting each night
when they borrowed a solar light from the library
and significantly, all parents said they were saving
money from reducing expenditure on batteries,
candles and kerosene.
- More than nine in ten were willing to buy a solar “The children are more motivated [to study],
light at a market price given; more than this, many which is new.”
schools are collecting lists of people who want to Keba Kane, Nioro, Kaolack
buy and most of the calls to our call centre were
teachers and parents asking how and where they
can buy these lights. “My children are studying for longer now
- There were also many other more social benefits because other lighting products would not
that were recounted to the SunnyMoney team allow them to study for a long time. I am no
that the project brought about; one head-teacher longer buying batteries for them. It is a very
reported that there had been increased good initiative, we are very grateful.”
enrolment as the project meeting was the first Bourry Sarr, Nioro, Kaolack
time many of the Islamic community members
had visited the government school. At other
schools the project helped to bring the
community together to manage the lights and “I know [the children] are studying in better
encourage commitment from the parents for their condition and results are better than the first
child’s education. semester.”
- Overall, the teachers and school committee Alphouseny Sane, teacher at Efa Santhie
members felt the project was going well, that the Mamou Ndary school in Kaolack
community had responded positively and that
they were managing it as expected.
- In general, the feedback from teachers was
around improved results. While the lights have “[The Library is having] positive effects since
only recently been deployed, the arrival of lights the students are motivated. Last exam session
coincided with the period of revision before end was better than the previous one which were
of year exams. held before the arrival of the lights.”
- More detailed information is available on Thierno Ndiaye, teacher at
methodology and results. Velingara Ndemene school in Kaolack
V. Recommendations
From our experience designing, delivering and managing this project, we have some recommendations to
share for future roll-out.
- Ensure project timing is in line with the school calendar; our lights were delivered in the weeks
running up to holidays which meant some schools could use them straight away for exam level
students but others couldn’t get into the swing of things before the end of term; this may affect
longer term management of the project.
- Have ready supply of solar lights for parents and teachers to have the opportunity to buy; either as
part of the project or information on existing distributors; there was large demand for this but no
corresponding supply.
- Have a higher student: light ratio – we found that enrolment numbers were lower on the ground
than recorded and therefore the ratio of students to lights was quite low (1.4 students to every
light). It would have been good to have delivered libraries to more schools to provide less frequent
access to more people; this would have provided wider awareness-raising and exposure to this
environmentally-friendly technology.
- Ensure key actors are part of the design phase so that they feel ownership over the project,
contribute key local-level relevant context, as well as, are familiar enough to take over longer-term
monitoring/management.
- Ensure that local level MoE staff are engaged and involved in the project; ultimately it is they who
will monitor and manage the project at the local level, going forwards.
- Lobby governments to reduce high import tariffs on solar lights. This will encourage distribution and
ensure availability for those that want to buy, as well as more affordable prices.
- Ensure Light Libraries are not implemented in isolation from other market development activities
and, specifically, provide the rural communities with the opportunities to buy lights. We recommend
that future Light Libraries are followed up with light sales which offer quality solar lights to students,
teachers and their families.
VI. SunnyMoney’s future in Senegal
- SunnyMoney are currently scoping out the opportunity for us to have a longer-term presence in
Senegal looking at funding, taxes, partnerships, approval and the investment environment.
- We aim to deliver a small-scale School Campaign, our traditional model from east Africa, in both the
Light Library project region and a comparative region. This will allow us to make lights available for
purchase for parents who expressed interest during our Light Library project implementation as well
as test out whether awareness and exposure to these solar lights increases uptake. We believe this
will be the case as families in the Light Library project region will have had a chance to test the
technology and product and it is then less of a risk to invest in this new technology.
- We will also be conducting a fuller impact evaluation; more rigorous follow up research to
understand the longer-term impact of the Light Library project and enable SunnyMoney to produce
a fuller report to advise on best practice for replication of the model.
For more information on SunnyMoney or SolarAid’s work, please visit www.solar-aid.org. If you would like
to find out more the Light Library Project, please contact Kat Harrison on kat.harrison@solar-aid.org
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