SELCO & IKEA Foundation To Usher Solar Solutions For 25,000 Healthcare Facilities

SELCO & IKEA Foundation Usher Solar Solutions For 25,000 Healthcare Facilities

With an aim to transform the public health infrastructure for improved sustainability, SELCO Foundation and IKEA Foundation, in partnership with India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and various State Health Missions, have launched an initiative called ‘Energy for Health’.  The program sets sights on climate adaptation and mitigation at the center to all efforts to upgrade the public health facilities across the world.

Speaking about the significance of this program globally, Dr. Maria Neira, Assistant Director-General, Division of Healthier Populations, and Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, at the World Health Organization said, “Reliable electricity in health-care facilities is essential to save lives and to provide quality healthcare. And yet, one billion people around the world are still served by healthcare facilities without reliable electricity or with no electricity access at all. Decentralized renewable energies represent a key opportunity to accelerate electrification of health-care facilities, including in remote areas. I congratulate the Government of India and our partners from SELCO Foundation and Ikea Foundation for this critical program, which will have a transformative impact on strengthening the health system.”

The initiative will bring solar energy solutions with medical and electrical equipment to 25,000 healthcare facilities in 12 states by 2026. The 12 states under the program will boast of a diversity in terms of topography, socio-economic vulnerabilities, disease burden and climate. This diversity across selected geographies will contribute to this programme serving as a showcase globally- innovating on approaches, models and processes relevant for similar contexts in other parts of the world.

Per Heggenes, CEO of IKEA Foundation said, “At the IKEA Foundation, we strongly believe caring for the health of people and our planet must go hand-in-hand. This initiative will improve healthcare outcomes and reduce emissions, by providing reliable and renewable energy to thousands of clinics. Our hope is that the success of this programme can serve as a model for building effective and efficient health systems globally.”

Reflecting on India’s leadership in the effort, Dr. Harish Hande, CEO of SELCO Foundation said, “Affordable and equitable access to healthcare is a function of two aspects- one, resources required to deliver healthcare, and two, cost of accessing health care. Through this program, SELCO Foundation and IKEA Foundation, along with India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and various State Health Missions, will showcase at scale how sustainable energy can be used to make health services affordable at the doorstep of the poor.”

Beneficiaries of Initiative
The ‘Energy for Health’ initiative paves the way to usher positive impacts across the spectrum of stakeholders- for last mile communities in their access to timely healthcare; for health facility staff in ensuring a conducive work environment to provide quality services; for health sector in reducing energy and equipment-related costs as well as avoiding wastage of vaccines and other critical resources; reinforcing climate resilience building and carbon mitigation efforts while ensuring positive health outcomes for all citizens.

The initiative aims to reach over 170 million people across the 12 states and improve working conditions for over 160,000 front line health staff at these health facilities.

Community Support
Supported by IKEA Foundation, through this initiative, SELCO Foundation along with Government of India will create systems and processes that entail ownership, management, and regular maintenance of the energy systems and appliances. Together, through the 25,000 public health facilities, technical knowledge and capacity, as well as guidelines and policies that enable health staff at different levels to plan for public health infrastructure in a sustainable manner will be improved. The program will also improve the local technical network for solar energy, which could potentially also have indirect impacts on local economies and boost adoption of solar energy across other sectors as well.

The initiative will help in creating a paradigm shift on how health targets can be achieved for resource constrained communities across the world in an efficient manner.

Accelerating Net Zero Goals
Across the 25,000 public health facilities, 100 MW of solar energy capacity in the country will be added, with over 3 million tonnes of CO2e emissions mitigated over a 20 year period. These will directly contribute to India’s Net Zero targets.

SELCO Foundation develops holistic solutions that use sustainable energy as a catalyst to address poverty alleviation alongside ensuring environmental sustainability. Recently, SELCO Foundation, and Urmul, an organisation which works towards social and economic change in Rajasthan, joined hands to empower the dairy entrepreneurs and camel herders to bring down the transaction costs and wastage of milk.

The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant making efforts on tackling the threats of poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted more than €1.5 billion. In 2021, the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions.