Solar suitcase for safe childbirth wins UN grant

A solar suitcase that provides light for health workers delivering babies in developing countries on Monday became the first ever winner of a one-million-U.S.-dollar UN renewable energy award.

"The lack of reliable electricity (is) part of the reason that half a million women (are) dying every year from pregnancy related complications," said Laura Stachel, co-founder of We Care Solar, a non-profit U.S. company, on receiving the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs's Powering the Future We Want energy award.

We Care Solar won the award for their innovative work providing midwives and medical doctors with suitcases containing portable solar panels and essential equipment such as headlamps and cell phone rechargers.

Stachel said that sustainable energy has been overlooked as a simple yet powerful solution to the problems facing many health workers in developing countries every day.

"In hundreds of thousands of health facilities around the world, health providers show up to work in clinics without power or power that goes off when they need it the most, at night," she said. "I have listened to midwives who have cried as they have recounted mothers and babies lost when there was no light in the labor room or no way to charge a cell phone to call for emergency help."

The inaugural Powering the Future We Want energy award will help We Care Solar build capacity in sustainable development -- they have already distributed the suitcases in Africa, Asia and Central America. Other organizations honored at the event included Masdar, a United Arab Emirates company which generates over one gigawatt of clean energy a year.

"Achieving Sustainable Development Goal seven will be essential to meeting the other Sustainable Development Goals," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said at the ceremony to present the award. "To achieve sustainable energy for all, we will need action from all -- governments, businesses, scientific and technological communities, and civil society groups."

"These individuals are being recognized today for their hard work and innovation in seeking practical solutions to increase the access to modern sustainable energy," said Sam Kutesa, president of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wu Hongbo, the UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, said that the finalists all deserved the UN's deep gratitude. "You have demonstrated through your actions on the ground how you are contributing to the sustainable energy commitment."

Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, is goal number seven of the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals -- a set of economic, social and environmental goals expected to by adopted by all UN member states later this month.

Patrick Ho, the secretary-general of the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) which provided the one million dollar grant money for the award, said "there is enough energy to go around for all of us, and for our children."

"Each and everyone of us has the duty to use energy sparingly, wisely and responsibly," Ho said.

The award, initiated by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and in collaboration with the CEFC, a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organization. Entitled "Powering the Future We Want," the initiative offers a grant in the amount of one million U.S. dollars to fund capacity development activities in energy for sustainable development. It is awarded to an individual, institution or partnership based on past and current achievement in leadership and innovative practices in advancing energy for sustainable development.

For its first award, the UN-DESA Energy Grant received more than 200 applications, and the winner has been selected through a rigorous review and objective assessment, which was undertaken in multiple stages and guided by an Advisory Council and a High-Level Committee. The initiative will be implemented annually, according to organizers. Endit