Measuring Energy Access

To better understand household energy use and its impacts, and in response to the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy’s recommendation to improve the availability and quality of energy data, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) developed a set of “ Core questions on Household Energy Use.” The questions improve upon previous surveys by not only establishing whether a household has electricity access and what the main cooking fuel is, but also assessing the type of electricity access; the quality of access; impediments to access; the type of fuels and devices used for cooking, heating and lighting; and important safety and livelihood impacts of household energy use.

This Guidebook, “Measuring Energy Access: a Guide to Collecting Data Using the Core Questions on Household Energy Use,” provides step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate the Core Questions into existing household surveys, administer the questions, and use the data collected to calculate key indicators related to household energy use. The Guidebook is an important tool that can help ensure that policy-makers have the data needed to make more informed decisions on prioritization and investments in household energy.

The Guidebook was designed to help countries collect and analyze data to monitor progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), indicators 7.1.1 (proportion of the population with access to electricity) and 7.1.2 (proportion of the population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technologies). It draws from the experience of the Multi-tier Framework (MTF) energy access project developed by ESMAP, which captures the multidimensional nature of energy access at the end-user level, along with the range of technologies that can provide such access, while accounting for the wide differences in user experience.

The goal of the Guidebook is to improve the quality and utility of the data resulting from enhanced surveys to better inform development and implementation of effective policies to address energy access gaps and promote clean cooking, heating and lighting. Measuring every little step that brings the world towards SDG7 will help the global community get closer to achieving it.

WHO has also produced a training video to introduce the Core Questions and to help policy makers to incorporate them.