Household Energy Insecurity, Health and Sustainable Livelihoods in Colombia

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Energy access is at the heart of human development and intricately linked to the achievement of the sustainable development goals related to poverty reduction, gender equality, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being, and climate change. However, household energy insecurity (HEINS) which is the lack of access to adequate, affordable, reliable, acceptable and clean sources of energy for a healthy and sustainable livelihood poses a challenge to many households. Our ability to measure energy in(security) is limited to macro indices, few variations of energy poverty indices, and measures developed for high income countries. There is currently no way of measuring energy insecurity or quantifying its sequelae at the household level in low income countries where access to modern forms of energy is scarce and clean energy transition is incomplete. Thus, the scientific objective of this application is to measure HEINS and examine its role in the poor health outcomes among women, infants and children (WIC) in Colombia. The central hypothesis is that HEINS is detrimental to WIC in disease, economic, nutrition, and psychosocial domains, in ways distinct from food and water insecurity. To do this, the proposed project launches the first phase of a longitudinal study to examine the cumulative health risks and disadvantages of HEINS for the first 1000 days of life. This pilot study will focus on three specific aims. First, develop a scale for measuring energy insecurity at the household level (aim 1); psychometrically evaluate and validate the scale (aim 2); third, assess the prevalence and sequelae of HEINS (aim 3). Methodology. This study will use a mixed-methods research design employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. Methods will specifically include qualitative study of women in Colombia to understand their lived experiences of HEINS, identification of relevant HEINS indicators from existing scales in developed countries, assemble and pilot scale questions for developing settings, develop and psychometrically validate scale questions, and assess statistically the effect of HEINS on the health of WIC. Significance. This exploratory study to understand the experiences of energy insecurity, develop and validate a scale, will facilitate our ability to develop the very first scale on HEINS in Latin America. The ability to measure energy insecurity at the household level will be transformative in advancing our understanding of the causes of a range of adverse health outcomes and their consequence, health inequity. It will also be useful in developing interventions, identifying scalable technologies and policies to mitigate HEINS, and initiate the primary steps to develop a cross-culturally validated scale.