Dr Pallavi Roy’s presentation to the Yar’Adua Foundation in Nigeria highlighted how our research could be used to achieve the aims of a just transition that delivers livelihoods and energy security for key sectors in the country.
Financial viability (‘sustainable’) and developmental viability (‘just’) depend on governance mechanisms that ensure policies are implemented in keeping with their aims and not captured. In other words policy design has to identify self-interest for those the policy is targeting, as well as deliver social benefit. In infrastructure investments finding and strengthening actors with the power and interest to enforce is particularly important because investments are large and so are potential gains from resource diversion (corruption). Both the SOAS-ACE projects on the electricity sector and artisanal oil refining identify this intersection of financial and developmental viability for greener energy, and where formal rules are likely to work better.
