Independent Completion Report - Lighting Vanuatu

Executive Summary: Lighting Vanuatu commenced on 1 May 2010 as a two-year project. It sought to address Vanuatu’s “energy poverty” by increasing access by rural householders to handheld solar lanterns, thereby reducing household dependency on the use of kerosene for lighting.

Lighting Vanuatu aimed to deliver at least 24,000 solar lanterns through the use of a supply-side subsidy. This subsidy aimed to:

• Improve upstream finance;
• Make solar lanterns more affordable;
• Reduce the geographic challenges posed by remoteness;
• Increase consumer awareness; and
• Improve product quality.