Social Impact Assessment of Bboxx in Uganda

SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF BBOXX IN UGANDA

89, rue Réaumur - 75002 Paris I +33 (0) 1 82 83 83 83 I www.enea-consulting.com

DECEMBER 2012

http://www.enea-consulting.com/

2 SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF BBOXX IN UGANDA


Table of contents 3


Table of contents

Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... 3

1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 5

1.1 Context and main objectives ....................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Means ........................................................................................................................................ 5

2 ENEA’s methodology for social impact assessment .............................................................. 6

2.1 Description ................................................................................................................................. 6

2.1.1 Approach............................................................................................................................................................ 6

2.1.2 Indicators ........................................................................................................................................................... 7

3 Scope of the field evaluation in Uganda ............................................................................... 8

3.1 Value chain & stakeholders ......................................................................................................... 8

3.2 Products ranges ........................................................................................................................ 10

3.3 Areas visited ............................................................................................................................. 11

4 Results of the study ........................................................................................................... 12

4.1 Impact on stakeholders among the distribution structure .......................................................... 12

4.1.1 Employment among the value chain stakeholders .......................................................................................... 12

4.1.2 Great Lakes Coffee partnership ....................................................................................................................... 14

4.2 Impact among customers .......................................................................................................... 15

4.2.1 General results ................................................................................................................................................. 15

4.2.2 Economic impact.............................................................................................................................................. 17

4.2.3 Social impact .................................................................................................................................................... 22

4.2.4 Performance and satisfaction .......................................................................................................................... 29

Table of figures ........................................................................................................................ 30

References ............................................................................................................................... 30

Appendix: Impact categories and indicators ............................................................................. 31



Introduction 5


1 Introduction

1.1 Context and main objectives

BBOXX launched its Ugandan franchise in April 2012 and wants to analyze the social impacts of its different products in the local market. BBOXX would like to have a concrete framework to assess the social impacts of its products in local communities, which will help to optimize its designs and commercial strategies.

ENEA Consulting observed the lack of systematic tools to assess energy access projects; building them is the objective of its R&D program, in particular regarding the evaluation of social impacts. ENEA Consulting is currently working on standardizing a methodological framework in order to assess the social impacts of energy access projects.

The goal of this study is to conduct a field evaluation of BBOXX Uganda (8 days in September 2012).

The interpretation of the field evaluation provides a synthesis and analysis of the relevant social indicators.

1.2 Means

During the upstream phase, ENEA has developed a preliminary version of a social impact assessment tool, thanks to the following steps:

Definition of a methodological frame and categories of impacts suited for the social impact assessment of ener-gy access projects. This work includes a bibliographical study on the existing methodologies as for instance the social life cycle analysis [1] or the social return on investment (SROI) [2].

Definition of indicators and development of a tool for impact assessment suited to various project types (energy use, stakeholders,…). This work includes field feedbacks from energy access projects and a bibliographical re-view.

A field survey on BBOXX Uganda aimed at:

The definition of the value chain and the stakeholders involved in the project The adaptation of ENEA Consulting’s evaluation methodology to the local context, and the selection of indica-

tors suited for the social impact assessment The collection of data required by the assessment, through stakeholder interviews

Finally, the data analysis led to the assessment of current social impacts of the project and to the recommendation of indicators and good practices for further monitoring.



2 ENEA’s methodology for social impact assessment

2.1 Description

2.1.1 Approach

ENEA’s methodology for social impact assessment goes through the whole value chain of the considered energy ac-cess project. Indeed most of energy access projects focus on the users, but other stakeholders of the project could be significantly impacted either positively or negatively. Therefore the first step of a social impact assessment is the defi-nition of the project value chain with associated stakeholders.

ENEA’s methodology for social impact assessment focuses on local stakeholders. Therefore, none of the stakeholders of the project operating outside the geographical area are included in the assessment.

The identified categories of stakeholders that can be significantly impacted by an energy access project are:

The project holder (NGO, social business,…) Suppliers

- Raw materials - Technology/Equipment

Distributors (with possible after-sale service or maintenance) External workforce required for each step of the project End user of the product or the service

It should be noted that the project value chain can include these stakeholders for both the energy product (cooking, lighting or power device) and the fuel (biomass, coal, oil, gas).

A positive social impact on a stakeholder could be defined as the improvement of its life conditions. But it has been noticed that a development project does not improve people’s life conditions only, it also increases the ability of these people to improve their life condition by themselves. Therefore, a social impact assessment should aim at evaluating these two types of changes. However it is often difficult to ensure accurate results in such assessments since several changes are related to qualitative aspects, and rely to a certain extent on the memory of the persons interviewed. Furthermore, social impacts are multi-factorial and can have several causes, which means that’s some changes can be noticed even though they are not caused by the project.

In order to increase the social impact assessment accuracy, complementary parameters are included in the assess-ment. They can be called levers of social impacts and they are used as markers to track how the project is responsible of the measured impacts or to identify a possible improvement in people’s life without being able of measuring the final impact.

Finally, a wide range of indicators can be used to measure the direct social impacts of the project and the levers it has pulled and that will likely create social impacts. This overall approach for social impact assessment is represented in Figure 1 bellow.

ENEA’s methodology for social impact assessment 7


Figure 1 – ENEA’s approach for social impact assessment

2.1.2 Indicators

2.1.2.1 Main categories

In accordance with the approach described above, ENEA has identified indicators to cover the wide range of impacts and levers pulled by energy access projects. These indicators are under development and are classified by main cate-gories and sub-categories. The main categories of indicators are given in the list below:

Project Performance Local Economy Empowerment Lifestyle & Poverty Health, Safety & Security Education

A detailed overview of indicators identified by ENEA is given in the Appendix in the form of indicator trees.

2.1.2.2 Type of indicators

At the current stage of development of its methodology, ENEA has ranked the indicators by level of priority (see indi-cator trees in the Appendix). The level 1 is given to indicators identified as fully relevant for energy access projects targeted in this phase (cooking and lighting use of energy). These indicators have been developed by ENEA and can be used in the current assessment. The level 2 is given to indicators assumed as relevant for energy projects but without sufficient development to be fully applicable. The level 3 is given to indicators that have not been developed yet by ENEA.

Each indicator aims at measuring the evolution of a parameter. Depending on the indicator, this evolution will be measured either in a “punctual” manner or in an “evolution” manner:

Some indicators will be called “punctual” because they imply the evaluation of a parameter in a baseline situa-tion and in a monitoring situation in order to assess its evolution.

Some indicators will be called “evolution” because they imply the direct evaluation of the evolution from base-line situation, as it is perceived by the concerned stakeholder. These indicators are based on semi-quantitative scales that include objective elements in order to avoid varying interpretations.

These two ways of measuring an evolution are complementary. One is based on the comparison of two situations and the other gives directly the relative change. And finally both types of indicators are necessary to assess social impacts.

Stakeholders- Project organization

- Materials suppliers

- External workforce

- Product users

Levers pulled- Time

- Money

- Work productivity

- Local economy

- …

Impacts- Lifestyle & poverty

- Health, safety & security

- Education & empowerment

- Local economy

Indicators

1. Stakeholders

pull levers

2. It creates

impacts

3. And modifies

stakeholders conditions



3 Scope of the field evaluation in Uganda Uganda is a stable country where around 85% of the population doesn’t have access to electricity. People are well aware of solar technology and many Chinese and Indian solar players are already established. The main hurdle is to crack the physical access of the solar products around the country and the financing to the end customers.

BBOXX started selling its products in April 2012 in Uganda. At the time ENEA Consulting realized the field evaluation in September 2012, the penetration rate of BBOXX products in the local market was still low. Therefore, the field evalua-tion enabled to set up a first baseline and analyze some short term outcomes of BBOXX in the country.

3.1 Value chain & stakeholders

As illustrated in Figure 2, the key stakeholders of BBOXX value chain in Uganda are:

The BBOXX structure in Uganda, whose role is to: - Support the local partner (the franchisee) during the first phase of local deployment (marketing support,

distribution channels logistics, etc.) - Coordinate and develop the East African BBOXX activity (building partnerships, opening new markets,

testing innovative services or products, etc.) The local franchise, U-Trade, who has an agreement with BBOXX that grants it exclusive rights to sell BBOXX’s

products in Uganda. At the moment, U-Trade is selling products to retailers and also directly to end customers, but aims at selling exclusively to retailers later.

The retailers, who cover specific areas in the country and propose BBOXX products in their stores. Retailers are in direct contact with the end-customers for whom they are the main interlocutor.

The end-customers, who are composed of: - Households - Business holders (farmers, resellers, etc.) - Public institutions (schools, health centers, etc) - …

Figure 2 - BBOXX value chain in Uganda

The main objective of the survey is to assess the social impact of BBOXX on end customers. Thus, the logistic of the field evaluation was customers-oriented, with a focus on rural households which compose the larger share of BBOXX sales in Uganda, as shown in Figure 3.

Franchisee Retailers End-customersBBOXX

Scope of the field evaluation in Uganda 9


Figure 3 - Interviews conducted during the field evaluation

As mentioned in section 3.3, most of the customers interviewed were situated in remote rural places .The difficulty in reaching customers and the time limitation for the field evaluation (8 days) both explain the relatively limited number of interviews.

Note: Regarding the relatively recent deployment of BBOXX on the Ugandan market, the evaluation methodology was adapted to assess the most relevant short term impact and to define a baseline:

Most of the retailers have only sold a limited number of BBOXX’s products when the evaluation was conducted, and BBOXX is still a small share of their sales.

Most of the end-customers have only been using the product for less than a month.

Whereas the assessment of long term impact seems irrelevant, the baseline analysis has certainly been facilitated, especially for end-customers. The recent acquisition of the product by customers interviewed makes the retrospective methodology (how was it before?, and how is it now?) well adapted in this case, since memory distortions are likely to be limited.

Households; 7

School hostel; 1Medical engineer; 1

Pulping stations

(coffee producers cooperative); 2

Coffee cooperative manager; 1

Retailers; 4

Franchisee; 1

17 interviews conducted :

6 interviews of stakeholders among the value chain

11 interviews of end-

customers



3.2 Products ranges

This study focus on BBOXX Solar Kits range which had been mainly sold at the time of the evaluation:

The BB 7 kit, with a 15W solar panel The BB 17 kit, with 50W solar panel The BB 38 kit, with 120W solar panel The BB 120 kit, with a 180W solar panel

BB17 at Mafarini’s store in Jinja, BBOXX, 2012

Those kits are often sold by retailers with additional BBOXX accessories (TV, additional light bulbs, etc.). Moreover, retailers provide their clients with technical installation services, and charge them for that most of the time. Table 1 shows the classic features of the solar kits sold, with an estimation of the average end-customer’s costs, given in US dollars and in Ugandan shillings (UGX).

Solar Kit Key product features

+ additional features included by retailers Costs

average retailers costs

BB 7

Battery box with a 15W Solar panel Grid charger / 2x LED bulbs / USB Phone Charger + 8 inches BBOXX TV + 1 additional bulb + installation

US$ 340 850 000 UGX

BB 17

Battery box with a 50W Solar panel Grid charger / 2x LED bulbs / USB Phone Charger + 8 inches BBOXX TV + 1 additional bulb + installation

US$ 530 1 325 000 UGX

BB 38

Battery box with a 120W Solar panel Grid charger / 2x LED bulbs / USB Phone Charger + additional bulbs and tubes + installation

US$ 866 2 165 000 UGX

BB 120

Battery box with a 180W Solar panel Grid charger / 2x LED bulbs / USB Phone Charger + additional bulbs and tubes + installation

US$ 1 334 3 335 000 UGX

Table 1 - BBBOX products range included in the scope of the study

Scope of the field evaluation in Uganda 11


3.3 Areas visited

The areas visited are situated in the north-east of Kampala (Jinja, Mbale and Lira), and in the west of the country (Masaka). In each area, the objective was to interview the local retailer and a panel of end-customers, who were most of the time situated in remote rural places, in off-grid villages or isolated houses.

The field evaluation consisted of an 8 days journey, which took place in 5 different areas (as illustrated Figure 4): Kampala / Jinja / Mbale / Lira / Masaka.

Figure 4 - Field evaluation journey

BBOXX’s vehicle on the road to Mbale, BBOXX, 2012



4 Results of the study

4.1 Impact on stakeholders among the distribution structure

4.1.1 Employment among the value chain stakeholders

Considering that BBOXX started selling its products in Uganda 3 months before the field evaluation, the impact of BBOXX’s business on local economy is hardly assessable yet. A complete analysis would demand to evaluate the global amount of jobs created or destroyed which are directly attached to the stakeholders among the value chain (retailers, subcontractors, etc.) or indirectly connected to them (parallel income generating activities, community organizations, etc.). At this stage of development, this survey just points out in Figure 5 the connection between local employment and the stakeholders of the distribution channels.

Figure 5 - Jobs connected to BBOXX among the value chain stakeholders

The global amount of jobs connected (directly and indirectly) to BBOXX is estimated at 50 to 100 among the value chain stakeholders, which largely match with the employment within end-retail business. This number has to be put into perspective with the share of BBOXX sales in retailer’s activity: for now, BBOXX’s sales do not exceed 10% of the overall sales in retailers’ stores. As a result, the development stage is too upstream to assert that those jobs are en-tirely dedicated to BBOXX business, or that any of those jobs have been created since BBOXX’s products are available in stores. Nonetheless, the observations made during the interviews with retailers and customers suggest that BBOXX would significantly improve retailer’s activity in the future:

Solid business relationships have been created between BBOXX Uganda (or the franchisee U-Trade) and some of the retailers:

- BBOXX remains flexible for its distribution scheme, adapting the supply and the terms of payment - Retailers staff was trained by BBOXX’s or U-Trade’s employees - BBOXX provides retailers with marketing features to highlight BBOXX’s brand awareness inside and out-

side stores The marketing effort is shared between retailers and BBOXX’s / U-Trade’s employees, which may improve

BBOXX’s brand awareness in Uganda and boost the sales growth

Example: The retailer Mafarini Energy Co. has forged strong links with BBOXX and aims to deploy its activity with the support of BBOXX. Mafarini already has 2 stores in Uganda (in Jinja and in Soroti) and employs about 20 people. In September, Mafarini opened a new store in Mbale, for which BBOXX is willing to be the main supplier.

BBOXX Uganda

3 employees

in September 2012

1/3 are local

12 employees

in September 2012

3/4 are local

Franchisee

∼ 10 retailers

in September 2012

For each retailer:

5 - 10 employees

all are local

Retailers

50 to 100 direct and indirect jobs are connected to BBOXX

local value chain

Results of the study 13


Mafarini’s store in Mbale, BBOXX, 2012

For the retailer’s business, the employees’ salaries are most of the time in the average level of the area, for the cate-gory of jobs concerned:

Electrical technicians / engineers Sales persons Marketing team Administrative work (secretary, etc.)

The survey didn’t permit to gather relevant data to find out the accurate average wages. The first elements in our possession suggest that an estimated average of US$ 100 /employee/month (250 000 UGX) shouldn’t be very far from the actual situation. For information, the average monthly household incomes in 2009/2010 were US$ 89 (222 600 UGX) for rural areas and US$ 264 (660 000 UGX) in urban areas, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics [3].



4.1.2 Great Lakes Coffee partnership

Great Lakes Coffee is a coffee producers’ cooperative that federates thousands of farmers all around Uganda. BBOXX Uganda has established a partnership with Great Lakes Coffee to electrify their pulping stations and start distributing BBOXX products to members of the coffee cooperative.

Initially, coffee producers simply benefited from the BBOXX Solar Kits that have been provided to the pulping stations. The next step consists in using those pulping stations as new distribution points where farmers could buy BBOXX products. This system may generate several outcomes:

Creating a new income generating activity for pulping stations, with potential new jobs created to manage the retail, the supplying or the technical support

Facilitating the deployment of BBOXX in the farmers’ households market, who are most of time living in remote areas and far from the closest city where they can find a BBOXX retailer

Developing a convenient distribution channel and a structure that can provide support to customers easily

Figure 6 - BBOXX and Great Lakes Coffee: implementation of a new distribution channel

GREATLAKESCOFEE

Partnership

Pulping stations(retail points)

End-customers(coffee producers)

Cooperative



4.2 Impact among customers

4.2.1 General results

In most cases, customers did not have access to electricity before purchasing BBOXX. They often live in rural remote areas, and are not connected to grid. Therefore, almost 90% of customers interviewed were using kerosene for light-ing purpose. For households, the BB17 to BB120 range improves both the lighting quality and the lighting time availa-ble to carry out related activities. Therefore, BBOXX isn’t just a substitute to the old lighting solution, but gives access to new use for customers:

Inside lighting is improved and used for various domestic activities (household chores, reading, socializing, etc.) Outside lighting is not switched off by night for security purpose Lighting is used for small business activities, especially for the preparation and selling of goods (farming prod-

ucts as maize or coffee, water selling, etc.)

BBOXX is also widely used to charge small electrical devices, especially mobile phones. Without electricity, most of the customers couldn’t charge their phone at home before: they had to go to the closest town or village with a charging station, and pay for the phone charge, which cost them both time and money. With BBOXX, they can not only charge their own phone, but also create small businesses from phone charging.

Finally, BBOXX provides customers with new leisure activities, such as watching TV or listening to the radio. For the most part, customers decide to complete their purchase of a BBOXX product with the acquisition of a TV.

Figure 7 - Main uses of BBOXX by households customers

The increase of lighting time is one of the main advantages of BBOXX for customers. They can use the system as long as the battery charge is sufficient, without paying any additional costs. Concerning inside lighting, most of the addi-tional time is used in the evening. Some people also wake up earlier in the morning, often for goods preparation or household chores for women. With BBOXX, the customers benefit from approximately 2 additional hours of quality inside lighting per day. By night, household customers keep permanently one or two light sources that are never switched off, and no time limitation has been noticed due to an empty battery.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Phone charging - domestic / personal

Lighting - Security purpose

Leisure appliances (Radio or TV)

Lighting - Household chores (cooking, cleaning)

Lighting - Studying / Reading (kids)

Lighting - Social activities

Phone charging - business

Lighting - Preparation or selling of goods

Lighting - Reading (adults)

Lighting uses

Phone charging uses

Use of BboxxMain uses for households

Other electric appliances uses



BBOXX’s light bulb outside a house between Jinja and Mbale, BBOXX, 2012

In comparison, customers often complain about the lighting time limitation with their previous energy source, mostly due to the cost of energy, or technical restrictions in some cases:

Cost of fuel for kerosene lamps Cost of batteries for torches Cost of electricity in the rare cases where customers are connected to grid and have a subscription with the

provider (Umeme) Discharge of the battery with low quality solar systems

Figure 8 - Impact of BBOXX on light-time

6:00 am0:00 am 12:00 am 6:00 pm 12:00 pm

Household’s light-time before purchasing Bboxx

Household’s light-time after purchasing Bboxx

2h24

3h54

0h

0h36

2h12 per day of lighting time increase with Bboxx

0h36 increase in the morning1h18 increase in the evening

Impact of Bboxx on light-time (inside lighting)

Outside lighting all night long

for security purpose



4.2.2 Economic impact

4.2.2.1 Economic impact on households

4.2.2.1.1 Customers expenditure savings

A first step to evaluate BBOXX’s outcomes on households’ budget is to assess the expenditures that have been substi-tuted by the acquisition of a solar kit. As mentioned above, most of the customers interviewed were off-grid with no access to any electrical power at home. The use of kerosene for lighting purpose is widespread among households, followed by the purchase of batteries for torches and the purchase of candles in some cases.

Figure 9 shows the distribution of savings per month for households after the purchase of BBOXX. A usual household saves about US$ 16/month (40 000 UGX), which consist of:

Direct expenses for the purchase of energy: - The avoided costs for the purchase of kerosene, considering that an usual household uses between 0.25

and 1 liter per day, purchased at a cost of between US$ 1 and US$ 1.4 per liter (between 2600 and 3600 UGX)

- The avoided cost for the purchase of batteries in some cases - The avoided cost for charging, considering that there are two mobile phones in a usual household,

charged at least once or twice a week for US$ 0.16 / charge (400 UGX) Indirect expenses:

- The cost of transport to purchase energy: this cost highly depends on the remoteness of the house from the closest trading center or shop. In the case where the customer lives in a very remote area, the cost of energy purchase can be insignificant compared to the cost of transport to reach the trading center. In other cases, there is no need to pay for it. Moreover, the journey devoted to energy purchase is also used by customers to buy or sell usual goods. Most of the time, the acquisition of a domestic solar sys-tem involves a decrease in trips frequency.

- The cost of medical treatment to cure respiratory diseases caused by kerosene fumes (cough, flue, asth-ma or tuberculosis in some cases). This data has to be observed with precaution, considering the difficul-ty for people interviewed to give an accurate answer. Regarding the approach of this survey, the correla-tion between the use of kerosene and the health issues cannot be asserted.

Figure 9 - Savings for households after the purchase of BBOXX

Note: One of the customers interviewed was connected to the grid, and decided to switch for solar energy with BBOXX. The subscription cost for electrical grid power amounted to US$ 56 per month for the household, with frequent exceed-ing costs to cover due to overconsumption

Kerosene

$9.3

Batteries (for torch, radio, etc.)

$0.6

Phone charging

$1.5

Transport to purchase energy

$2.4

Medical treatment

$2.6

After purchasing BBOXX, an household* saves on average

US$ 16/monthor 40 000 UGX/month

* household not connected to grid

Savings for households* After purchasing Bboxx



4.2.2.1.2 Revenues from small business

In addition to expenses savings, BBOXX also offers customers business opportunities that can generate additional revenues for approximately 70 % of the households interviewed. Two distinct scenarios are mostly observed (as shown in Figure 10).

With lighting quality improvement and time extension of lighting time, customers benefit from better conditions to practice income generating activities. The usual activities consist of preparation or selling of goods, with average addi-tional revenue of $US 45 per month (112 500 UGX) for 43% of households interviewed:

For farming activities, the additional lighting time is used for harvest processing, packing or selling. The main outcomes are a more flexible schedule for those activities, and a better productivity associated with a growth of revenues.

For general goods selling (groceries, water, etc.), customers also benefit from additional time to prepare and sell their goods and by this way increase their revenues.

Beside of lighting, BBOXX offers the potential to charge a substantial number of phones every day. Therefore, 57% of the households interviewed have created a phone charging business, with an average additional revenue of US$ 52 per month (129 000 UGX), which corresponds with approximately 10 phones charged per day.

BB17 used for phone charging in house near Mbale, BBOXX, 2012

Note: To complete this analysis, those figures should be put in perspective with the overall incomes of customers. However, it’s always a hard task to get even a reasonable estimation of people incomes, for various reasons:

People don’t know themselves how much they earn every week, month or year Revenues are often split up between various activities, which are in most cases irregular People don’t want to give this information during the interview, and they usually underestimate their income

because other people are listening beside them.

An accurate estimation of customers’ incomes would require time to scan all the sources of income and estimate it with exactly the same method for every customer. Such work was not possible in the frame of this social impact as-sessment. That is why the level of incomes of BBOXX’s users is a missing data in the results.

As mentioned in section 4.1.1, we can at least compare these figures to the average monthly household income in Uganda: US$ 89 (222 600 UGX) for a rural household and US$ 264 (660 000 UGX) for an urban household in 2009/2010, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics [3].



Figure 10 - Income generating activities impacted or created thanks to BBOXX

4.2.2.1.3 Affordability

Promoting an energy product at an affordable price is a prerequisite to reach vulnerable people. Customers inter-viewed seem to have purchased BBOXX at a relatively affordable price. However, it seems that most of them had already saved money before purchasing BBOXX. Indeed, 71% of them have paid up front, whereas 29% have benefited from a 3 months installment provided by the end-retailer (as shown in Figure 11).

Figure 11 - Means of payment of BBOXX's customers

An accurate method to assess the affordability of BBOXX would have been to compare the cost of the solar kit to overall expenditures and revenues of the customers, but this data was not accessible (see box here before). Without any additional data, we can at least pick up some clues showing that BBOXX’s products affordability remains a big challenge:

One of the main feelings during the field study was that the first BBOXX’s customers were some of the richest household in each areas visited (qualitative feeling), even if these areas where relatively poor (and off-grid)

73% of BBOXX sold were BB7 & BB17, the cheapest ranges of products (as shown in Figure 12) A lot of potential customers couldn’t afford even the BB7 range, but they were declaring that they could have

paid upfront the BB5 (not available in Uganda at the time the survey was conducted)

57% of the households

interviewed have created a

phone charging business

The average additional revenue for a household is


71% of the households interviewed benefit

from additional revenues after purchasing BBOXX

Gender of the owner

75 %of women

25 %of men

43% of the households

interviewed have improved a

goods selling activity

The average additional revenue for a household is


Gender of the owner

33 %of women 67 %

of men & womenshared activity

Up-front payment : 71 %

Installment payment (3 months): 29 %

Means of payment of BBOXX customers



Figure 12 - Type of BBOXX sold among customers interviewed

BBOXX’s next challenge will certainly consist in providing customers with financing solutions. That’s one of the pur-poses of the future BBOXX Capital structure, whose details were studied when the study was conducted.

If financing solutions are provided, the operational affordability shouldn’t be an issue for customers. Indeed, no addi-tional costs are paid during the solar kit life-time (3 years for the battery before it has to be changed). Thus, the sum of expenses savings and additional revenues may allow customers to make their investment profitable quickly. A sim-ple calculation for BB7 and BB17 ranges among customers interviewed shows a payback time of 7 month for an aver-age household.

4.2.2.2 Economic impact on business

As explained before, most of the customers interviewed during the survey were households. The analysis of the eco-nomic impact on what we called “small business” (phone charging, goods selling activities) is carried out in section 4.2.2.1.2.

Only 3 interviews were conducted with customers that can be defined as “business users” (BBOXX use entirely dedi-cated to business purpose).

Pulping stations (2 pulping stations interviewed) “Travelling business” (with the example of a medical engineer)

4.2.2.2.1 Pulping stations

Great Lakes Coffee cooperative has provided pulping station with BB 17 solar kits. Two pulping stations were visited during the survey, in order to interview coffee producers who benefit from BBOXX.

During the harvesting season, which lasts 3 months per year and starts in October, coffee producers come at the pulp-ing station to sell, to process or to pack their harvest. This activity is often carried out by night, from 7:00 pm to 12:00 pm (time range before the purchase of BBOXX), because the daytime is dedicated to field work.

Note: At the moment of the field evaluation, the harvesting season hadn’t begun yet and the coffee producers hadn’t been using BBOXX in concrete conditions. The impact of BBOXX described in this section pertains to the feeling of peo-ple interviewed.

In the same way it was observed for households’ business activity, coffee producers consider they will benefit from both lighting time extension and lighting quality to work at the pulping station by night. The main outcomes should be:

A more flexible schedule for coffee producers Better working conditions, especially in term of process quality (no need to move with a lamp in the room or to

refill kerosene for example) Less accidents due to kerosene use (fire incidents, fall of kerosene into coffee) More time for coffee pulping, packing or selling (at least 2 hours more of night work)

BB 7: 18 %

BB 17: 55 %

BB 38: 9 %

BB 120: 18 %

Type of BBOXX sold among customers interviewed

The BB7 & BB17 customershave an average payback time of

7 months



The final expected outcomes of electrification are a better productivity associated with a growth of sales and reve-nues. People interviewed at the pulping stations mention a doubling of coffee sales for the next season, thanks to BBOXX. However, this feeling will require a new assessment after the season to get realistic data.

4.2.2.2.2 Travelling business

One of the customers interviewed was using BBOXX during his business trip, carrying a BB17 in his car. More precisely, the customer was a medical engineer who was travelling across the country for medical equipment maintenance in health centers or hospitals. He had to work by night most of the time, in remote areas with no access to electricity. Even when the area is electrified, power cuts can sometimes last several days.

More generally, BBOXX can be a good solution for people who travel for work, with a real impact on their business:

A back-up solution for phone or laptop charging, especially in remote areas. For business for which communica-tion is a basic need to keep in touch with clients or to reach new ones, BBOXX provides a good solution to pow-er equipments during trip, and to improve the customers’ management efficiency.

A lighting solution for night time work, which provides both lighting time extension and lighting quality. Portable internet access equipment when a 3G modem is powered by the box.



4.2.3 Social impact

4.2.3.1 Impact on lifestyle

4.2.3.1.1 Level of access to electricity

The purchase of BBOXX is a first step to access to electrical appliances, starting with simple lighting up to regular pow-er appliances. The level of electricity access was assessed both as a baseline and after the purchase of BB7 / BB17 / BB38 / BB120 ranges.

The baseline assessment was relatively easy regarding the recent deployment of BBOXX in Uganda. Most of the cus-tomers interviewed hadn’t access to electricity before purchasing BBOXX. Basic lighting (kerosene lamps / batteries torch / candles) is defined as the level 0 in the electricity access scale, comprised between 0 and 4 (see Figure 13). The study reveals that 71% of households had only access to basic lighting before the purchase of the equipment. In con-sequence, basic electrical appliances (phone charger especially) weren’t available at home for most of the people interviewed.

The level of electricity access after purchasing BBOXX is presented distinctly for the different products ranges:

For the BB7 and BB17 ranges, an average level of 2 was observed. This level corresponds to the access to elec-trical lighting and low power appliances, such as phone charging or low power TV. A significant improvement has been noticed with the purchase of BB7 and BB17, which made a radical change in energy access level.

BBOXX’s 8 inches TV in a house near Jinja, BBOXX, 2012

For the BB38 and BB120, the levels reach 3 or 4 on the scale. These levels correspond to the access to electrical lighting and medium to regular power appliances, such as standard TV, Hi-fi or even flat screen TV. Indeed, BB38 and BB120 customers often purchase additional electrical devices beside BBOXX’s products.

These results are showed in Figure 13.



Figure 13 - Level of access to electricity of BBOXX's customers

4.2.3.1.2 Impact on domestic comfort

A significant improvement has been observed in the domestic comfort feeling of BBOXX’s customers. The main reason of this improvement is the access to electrical lighting, which increases lighting time available and improves lighting quality:

The lighting quality of LED is much better than that of kerosene lamps. Indeed, a standard kerosene lamp emits less than 10 lumens, compared to several hundred of lumens for BBOXX’s LED bulbs (depending on the power ratings).

Customers benefit from approximately 2 hours more of inside lighting per day (see section 4.2.1). This time ex-tension often benefits to women who declare having more flexible schedules for their domestic activities.

New night-time activities are made possible by outside lighting (kids playing outside, social meetings with friends and families, business activities, etc.)

The simultaneous acquisition of a BBOXX TV with the solar kit also explains the feeling of a radical change of the do-mestic comfort conditions. Generally, the domestic improvement feeling doesn’t depend on the product range con-sidered. As shown in Figure 14, no negative change has been noticed in domestic comfort.

Figure 14 - Impact of BBOXX on domestic comfort

4.2.3.1.3 Impact on social cohesion

80% of the customers interviewed have noticed an improvement in term of social cohesion, notably due to the arrival of electrical lighting in the off-grid villages visited. This socialization effect often consists of neighborhood meetings or family visits in the evening. However, this impact on social cohesion is concretized by the creation of a specific social activity only 20% of time. This social activity was for example a mini market that has been created in front of a cus-tomer’s house thanks to the outside lighting provided by BBOXX. Thus, BBOXX benefits others than the one that paid for the device.

71 %

0 %

29%

0 %

0 %

0

1

2

3

4

0 %

0 %

71 %

14 %

14 %

No electricity access

Kerosene lamp / Candle / Torch or Radio with batteries

Electric lightingElectric bulb / Tube

Low power appliancesImproved lighting / phone charger/ small TV

Medium power appliancesStandard TV / small Hi-Fi / DVD player

Regular power appliancesFlat screen TV / Hi-Fi / fridge

Customers’ baseline without Bboxx

Bboxx customersBB7 / BB17 / BB38 / BB120

0%

0%

13%

50%

38%

-2 : High deterioration of domestic comfort Negative radical change in the household

-1 : Deterioration of domestic comfort

0 : No change

+1 : Improvement of domestic comfort

+2 : High improvement of domestic comfort

Positive radical change in the household



Finally, this improvement in social cohesion does not only concern households, but all the categories of customers. Indeed, even the business or farmers customers were appreciating the “socializing power” of electrical lighting.

Figure 15 shows that no customers have mentioned deterioration in social cohesion after the purchase of BBOXX, or the disappearance of a specific social activity. One important thing to be noticed is that women often benefit from this improvement in social cohesion, and appreciate to have more time to meet friends and family.

Figure 15 - Impact of BBOXX on social cohesion

4.2.3.2 Impact on Health, Safety and Security

4.2.3.2.1 Security conditions

The outcomes of the study show that 100 % of customers have purchased BBOXX for security purposes, notably due to permanent outside lighting. The study also reveals that customers haven’t been disappointed: 64% of them feel more secure with electrical lighting, while 36 % think that security violation cases (intrusions, stealing or attacks) have or will decrease (as shown in Figure 16). Most of the customers interviewed declare they never switch off outside lighting powered by BBOXX.

This feeling of security conditions improvement applies as much to households as to business customers. For house-holds, the main concerns consist of protecting goods as well as protecting family members, especially kids when they are playing outside by night. For businesses (or household’s small business), security conditions improvement has a direct economic impact. Indeed, most of the small shops or farmhouses visited have extended their night time activity because they feel more secure selling or preparing goods.

Finally, some of the customers feel a bit anxious of being burgled because of BBOXX, but no such cases had been no-ticed to date.

Figure 16 - Impact of BBOXX on security conditions

0%

0%

20%

60%

20%

-2 : Deterioration of social cohesion feelingand disappearance of specific social activities

-1 : Deterioration of social cohesion feeling

0 : No change

+1 : Improvement of social cohesion feeling

+2 : Improvement of social cohesion feelingand creation of specific social activities

0%

0%

0%

64%

36%

-2 : The customers feel less secure and they noticed

an increase of intrusion, stealing or attack cases

-1 : The customers feel less secure

0 : No change

+1 : The customers feel more secure

+2 : The customers feel more secure and they noticed

a decrease of intrusion, stealing or attack cases



4.2.3.2.2 Safety conditions

In most cases, customers were using kerosene for lighting purpose before purchasing BBOXX. Therefore, several do-mestic accidents regularly happened:

Burns Ingestion of kerosene by young child Fire incidents Etc.

These observations are the same for business customers, in particular for food processing activities. For example, the farmers who work in pulping stations for coffee processing were complaining about bad working conditions with kero-sene candles (kerosene falling into coffee, burns, etc.).

BBOXX solar kits are also considered as a safer solution than grid electricity. Indeed, domestic electrical installations are often made with a low level of equipments safety (apparent copper cables, unfixed sockets, etc.). High power AC electricity can be very dangerous for people living in the house, especially for kids who are not aware of shock hazard.

All in all, 81% of customers feel safer using BBOXX compared to their previous equipment, while 36% of them think that domestic accidents have or will decrease (as shown in Figure 17).

Figure 17 - Impact of BBOXX on safety conditions

4.2.3.2.3 Health

The main health issues for people using kerosene candles are indoor pollution diseases due to the particle matter exposure. Several respiratory diseases can be observed, from the most benign one to serious respiratory complica-tions:

Cough Tightness in chest Asthma Tuberculosis Etc.

2 main cases came across during the field evaluation:

In 36% of cases, people haven’t noticed any change in air quality, often because they didn’t stay a long time be-side the light source.

64% of customers feel the air quality has been improved since the purchase of BBOXX, and 45% have noticed that respiratory diseases are less frequent for people in their household, especially kids.

This indicator, shown in Figure 18, has to be observed as a first method to assess BBOXX impact on indoor air quality. However, a more accurate method should be implemented to assess the level of particle matter exposure, taking into account the type and number of light source, the rooms’ configurations and the daily time exposure of each person living in the house.

0%

0%

18%

45%

36%

-2 : The customers feel less safe using the new equipment and they noticed the frequency of domestic accident has significantly increased

-1 : The customers feel less safe using the new equipment

0 : No change

+1 : The customers feel safer using the new equipment

+2 : The customers feel safer using the new equipment and they noticedthe frequency of domestic accident has significantly decreased



Figure 18 - Impact of BBOXX on air quality

Grocery store enlightened by BBOXX near Jinja, BBOXX, 2012

A better lighting solution also impacts the conditions for daily household chores, for women in most cases. Indeed, the survey shows that lighting conditions improvement significantly benefits to women: 71% of them declare that house-hold chores are easier with BBOXX (as shown in Figure 19). The main advantages noticed are:

A more flexible schedule - Waking up earlier in the morning and benefiting from more free time in the evening - Having more time in the evening for household chores (after dinner)

The freedom to organize the different tasks - Cooking - Cleaning - Showering kids - Goods preparation - Etc.

0%

0%

36%

18%

45%

-2 : The customers feel the indoor air quality has been deteriorated and they noticed the frequency of breathing issues has significantly increased

-1 : The customers feel the indoor air quality has been deteriorated

0 : No change

+1 : The customers feel the indoor air quality has been improved

+2 : The customers feel the indoor air quality has been improved and they

noticed the frequency of breathing issues has significantly decreased



Figure 19 - Impact of BBOXX on household chores (for women)

4.2.3.3 Impact on Education

Lighting conditions improvements (time and quality) have a direct impact on education:

Kerosene candles provide a really bad lighting quality which make homework often impossible after sunset (at 6:00 to 7:00 pm). Therefore, most of the kids living in the households visited weren’t able to do their homework regularly before the purchase of BBOXX.

We saw in section 4.2.1 that BBOXX’s customers benefit from 2 hours more of light time per day: the study re-veals that kids spend approximately 40 minutes more for studying at home per day. In actual fact, this data is the result of 2 binary cases :

- Half of the customers interviewed declare that BBOXX have no impact on homework time. In some case, this can be explained by the specificity of the family situation (children only comes back at home in the weekend or for holidays).

- Half of the customers interviewed declare that kids spend from 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes more for studying per day.

Children playing beside BBOXX’s vehicle near Mbale, BBOXX, 2012

0%

0%

29%

71%

0%

-2 : Household chores are harder and

the health troubles are more frequent

-1 : Household chores are harder

0 : No change

+1 : Household chores are easier

+2 : Household chores are easier and

the health troubles are less frequent

With Bboxx, kids spend

42 minutes more

for studying per day



Beyond the increase of quality light time for homework, BBOXX will certainly have a long term impact on education level. However, most of the customers interviewed had purchased BBOXX 1 or 2 months ago, which makes a long term evaluation impossible. A comprehensive assessment of education impact would require the analysis of the school results of children several years after the purchase of BBOXX, even if the interpretation would still be tough since other factors can impact school results.



4.2.4 Performance and satisfaction

4.2.4.1 Reliability & Technical optimization

In most cases, customers are satisfied by the technical performance of the product:

No light time limitation noticed due to an empty battery At least 2 or 3 light bulbs can be plugged without any problems, even with the BB7 range Fast charge of cell phones (with the DC sockets)

However, recurrent complaints have been picked out during the survey:

Impossibility to get a signal with TV. Customers often think that the TV doesn’t work, whereas the problem comes from the situation of the house. Specific precautions should be taken by end-retailers before they sell a BBOXX TV with the solar kit (TV are often included in the kits by the retailers).

Some of the customers who use BBOXX for phone charging exclusively complain about the limited number of DC sockets on the box. They often use the AC socket with an inverter, which lowers the efficiency of charging.

Customers would like to have switches for every light bulbs, even if those switches are often provided by retail-ers

Finally, most of the customers have an optimal use of the box. In some cases, especially for BB38 or BB120 customers who exclusively use the solar kit for lighting, a flexibility capacity remains to maximize the equipment use.

4.2.4.2 Customer support

In general, customers don’t complain about the difficulty of using BBOXX. Indeed, most of the retailers provide an initial training, as well as installation and maintenance services. Here again, the only issue seems to come from the TV which remains difficult to understand for people who are not used to this type of equipment. Several customers ask for an easier manual to use the TV.

The long-term customer support couldn’t be analyzed in the frame of the survey. According to BBOXX, the battery would need to be changed every 3 years, and would cost approximately a third of the overall cost of solar kits. BBOXX provides a 1 year guarantee for every product sold.

4.2.4.3 Global satisfaction

The study shows excellent results in term of customers’ general satisfaction: 100% of customers declare being satis-fied after purchasing BBOXX. The high level of satisfaction comes from a mix between all the elements pointed out in this report:

Expense savings and new revenues (phone charging in particular) Improvement of lighting conditions (time and quality of lighting) Improvement of domestic comfort and lifestyle and access to new appliances (TV, socializing effect) Improvement of security & safety conditions Impact on health conditions Easier working conditions and household chores

100 % of customers

declare being satisfied after purchasing Bboxx



Table of figures Figure 1 – ENEA’s approach for social impact assessment ................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2 - BBOXX value chain in Uganda ............................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 3 - Interviews conducted during the field evaluation .............................................................................................. 9 Figure 4 - Field evaluation journey ................................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 5 - Jobs connected to BBOXX among the value chain stakeholders ...................................................................... 12 Figure 6 - BBOXX and Great Lakes Coffee: implementation of a new distribution channel ............................................. 14 Figure 7 - Main uses of BBOXX by households customers ................................................................................................ 15 Figure 8 - Impact of BBOXX on light-time ......................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 9 - Savings for households after the purchase of BBOXX ...................................................................................... 17 Figure 10 - Income generating activities impacted or created thanks to BBOXX ............................................................. 19 Figure 11 - Means of payment of BBOXX's customers ..................................................................................................... 19 Figure 12 - Type of BBOXX sold among customers interviewed ....................................................................................... 20 Figure 13 - Level of access to electricity of BBOXX's customers ....................................................................................... 23 Figure 14 - Impact of BBOXX on domestic comfort .......................................................................................................... 23 Figure 15 - Impact of BBOXX on social cohesion .............................................................................................................. 24 Figure 16 - Impact of BBOXX on security conditions ........................................................................................................ 24 Figure 17 - Impact of BBOXX on safety conditions ........................................................................................................... 25 Figure 18 - Impact of BBOXX on air quality ....................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 19 - Impact of BBOXX on household chores (for women) ..................................................................................... 27

References

[1] PNUE, SETAC, Life Cycle Initiative, "Lignes directrices pour l'analyse sociale du cycle de vie des produits," 2009.

[2] the Cabinet Office / the SROI Network, A Guide to Social Return on Investment, 2009.

[3] Uganga Bureau of Statistics, "Uganda National Household Survey 2009/2010," 2010.

Appendix: Impact categories and indicators 31


Appendix: Impact categories and indicators



Appendix: Impact categories and indicators 33




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Social Impact Assessment of Bboxx in Uganda