ENFOCA project

The ENFOCA project, promoted by the NGO ANAN in collaboration with the University of Catalunya and SERMIG, Arsenal of Peace, was created in response to a daily, concrete, and often invisible need in the rural areas of Benin: the difficulty of charging mobile phones due to limited and uneven access to electricity.

In many villages, even where a connection to the national grid exists, power outages are frequent and can last for hours or even entire days, making access to electricity unstable. In this context, the mobile phone plays a fundamental role in people’s lives: it is an essential tool for maintaining family contacts, carrying out economic activities, accessing information and services, and staying connected to the territory. The inability to charge it easily often forces residents to travel long distances to larger towns or rely on costly and unsafe solutions.

The ENFOCA project does not aim to solve the broader issue of access to electricity, but instead deliberately focuses on a specific and immediate need by creating mobile phone charging stations powered by photovoltaic energy. This choice reflects a context‑sensitive design approach that avoids disproportionate or unsustainable interventions, favoring simple, replicable solutions that can be effectively managed by local communities.

The initiative includes the installation of three solar charging points in two villages of the Commune of Lalo and one village in the Commune of Bassila. Each point will consist of a small dedicated structure equipped with a photovoltaic system, an energy storage unit, multiple charging outlets, and safety devices. The systems are sized exclusively to meet the demand for mobile phone charging, avoiding oversizing that would make them more complex to manage and maintain.

Collaboration with the University of Catalunya and SERMIG ensures qualified technical and scientific support in the design of the systems, guaranteeing quality, technological appropriateness, and sustainability. At the same time, the project integrates a significant training component aimed at students of the Lycée Technique et Professionnel “Estir Diesel” in Pahou. Through training sessions on the principles of photovoltaic energy, system operation, and the importance of maintenance, the project contributes to developing local technical skills and encourages the active involvement of young people in professional fields related to renewable energy.

«A targeted, replicable intervention: simple technologies, manageable by the communities, calibrated to the real needs of the territory.»

The expected results include the availability of accessible charging points for the population, reduced time and costs required to charge mobile phones, and improved communication opportunities within communities. In the medium term, the initiative may indirectly support local economic and social activities, increase resilience to shortcomings in the power grid, and serve as a simple, replicable model for other villages.

The ENFOCA project meaningfully reflects the approach of the NGO ANAN, based on a constant presence in the territory and on interventions tailored to the real needs of communities, avoiding welfare‑based logic or top‑down solutions. In this sense, the initiative does not merely provide a service but helps build conditions for autonomy, sustainability, and local expertise, in line with a vision of cooperation that aims to support without creating dependency.