EMPOWER CONSULTANTS LIMITED

Engineering Social Equity

WHAT

We are a development consultancy specialising in energy, environment and social development. Our primary focus is to assist communities to develop sustainable livelihoods through the introduction of sustainable energy and infrastructure technologies, and manage the associated social, economic and environmental benefits they can bring.

The company was formed in 1999 to bring together a team of experienced development practitioners with an integrated multidisciplinary approach to understanding of the nature and causes of poverty, and to helping communities to devise and apply sustainable alleviation strategies. We have experience in the energy, tourism, environment, health sector energy issues, drinking water and sanitation, and institutional development sectors. A strong focus is on technology transfer and training, working at micro-community level in rural areas.

Projects have covered all stages of the development cycle, from project identification and scoping through prefeasibility and feasibility to implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and development of management information systems.

WHY

Clean water and access to reliable energy are critical areas in the global development thrust. Empower seeks to improve access to both. In the New Zealand context energy is an issue rapidly gathering momentum and our focus here is cleaner and more efficient delivery of energy and its consumption. In the developing world our focus has been sustainable potable water treatment and reliable energy, frequently renewable, coupled with motivated and trained community management structures as a foundation resource in assisting the development process.

Though great progress has been made in poverty relief in some areas, the numbers of the world’s poor have actually grown in the past decade despite significant institutional and infrastructural investment. This indicates that a holistic approach is needed to understand the relationship between poverty and its various causes, and to develop approaches to alleviation that address and mitigate all causes simultaneously. The benefits of rural electrification, for example, are substantially increased if it is accompanied by simultaneous introduction of the employment, education, health, and environmental advantages it can deliver. This integrated approach is not only desirable in the interests of social equity, it is also more efficient.

In New Zealand, our approach is to promote the responsible use of energy, involving not only energy management leading to more efficient use, but also by increasing the use of renewable energy resources together with more efficient energy production technologies.

Empower’s personnel work together to improve the effectiveness of their projects through integrating planning and performance of services, not only with each other, but also with local counterparts and stakeholders.

WHO

Peter Cole

Peter Cole is an energy specialist with Empower Consultants Ltd. He is a mechanical engineering by qualification and has over 30 years experience as a consultant, mainly in the energy sector in New Zealand and overseas.

Much of his energy sector consultancy work has been in rural/renewable energy and in the natural gas and LPG sectors. In New Zealand, he has extensive experience in the gas sector and in energy management and supply, particularly in respect to hospital buildings. His overseas work ranges from the preparation of a master plan for LPG distribution in Yemen to small-scale rural energy projects in Asia.

Peter has worked in a number of developing countries in south-east Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific. Clients include NZAid, ADB and UNDP/ESCAP as well as district health boards, gas distribution companies and government departments in New Zealand.

Gillian Dias

Gillian Dias is a social scientist by training and professional experience. She has an Honours Degree in Sociology from London University and completed a Masters Degree in South East Asian studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. She has been involved in development projects for over 25 years. She has extensive field experience and has lived and worked in a number of developing countries in Asia including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan. Gillian has also worked in Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia. She has been involved in all stages of development programmes – from project identification, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies through to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Most recently Gillian was part of a team to develop a major strategy for NZAID’s engagement in Asia. Much of her work has been in the community component of integrated development projects. More recently Gillian has been involved in integrated conservation and development projects in Asia. Her role focussed on community participation in resource management, alternative livelihoods and poverty issues.

Gillian has been working with Empower Consultants Limited for more than 2 years providing social and environmental input into a number of community-based energy infrastructure projects in rural areas in the Asia Pacific region. In this role, she provides technical assistance with the design of survey methodologies, data analysis, social and environmental impact assessments and project facilitation.

Ann McLean

A social anthropologist, Ann specialises in social development in integrated energy, infrastructure and community development projects. Much of her work for the past ten years has been in Asia and the Pacific, working with poor communities principally in remote areas to help them to use their natural, human and physical resources to create sustainable livelihoods. The focus of her work is cross-sectoral, integrating water and sanitation, health, education, communications, agriculture, forestry, tourism and other inputs in association with infrastructure development to maximise benefits for participating communities.

Tony Woods

Tony Woods has 8 years experience in the field of rural energy and infrastructure development in a range of developing countries in Central, South and East Asia and the Pacific. He has formal university qualifications in engineering, business management and is presently enrolled in a Masters of Development. Tony has participated on 22 overseas assignments in this period, typically in a community consultation, training and implementation role, in order to ensure that any technical inputs fit with community needs and capacities.

On the technical side he specialises in the design and installation of community scale infrastructure projects, particularly utilizing wind, solar and micro hydro energy resources and the community service and support structures needed to sustain them. Many of the projects that Tony has worked on have a poverty alleviation focus.

Tony is a Director and Consulting Engineer to Empower Consultants.