INSTITUTE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES AND SELF-SUSTAINABILITY (IDEAAS)

IDEAAS, founded by Ashoka Fellow Fabio Rosa, succeeded in its very first attempt to raise the living standards of low-income rural families by taking cheap electricity to their homes and farms. The first experiment took place in Palmares do Sul, a rural community in the southernmost Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Sul. It is now being implemented in 23 more communities. The state boasts the most electric service in Brazil, but half of its 400,000 rural properties have no electricity. This means that as many as one million rural residents of the state have no refrigeration, indoor-plumbing, water pumps for irrigation, or other common household and farming electrical appliances.

The pilot project, from 1984 to 1988, changed that situation for 400 rural families. Not only did low-cost electrification stop the flow of residents to cities, it reversed the flow. A study two years after the project's implementation showed that one in every three beneficiaries was someone who returned from the city to resume living in his former rural area. This was in large part because of the newly affordable electric service. "The moment they have better living conditions in their native rural areas, people return from the cities," Fabio notes. These results substantiate IDEAAS contention that poor people are not lured to the city because it is better; they're expelled from the countryside because it's unlivable for them.

The greatest challenge faced by IDEAAS, in the replication of this model, is the financial resources to do so. As a result, IDEAAS is proposing a long-term cost recovery structure that will both pay for replication of services, while also generating income for the organization. This funding will be channeled through "Fundo IDEAAS " (the fund was created especially to finance the target populations).

Subscribers to IDEAAS' services will pay Fundo IDEAAS a monthly fee to use electric energy, provided by IDEAAS installed equipment. This fee is comparable to a family's already predetermined budget for fossil fuels (diesel, kerosene, etc.).

This investment will break even after seven years. The equipment has a life-span of 30 years, thus the organization will be financed by the subscribers' fees for the following 23 years.