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Rural Energy Foundation (REF) aims at improving the quality of life of African rural households by facilitating access to renewable energy. The most efficient and sustainable way to achieve this is by developing a commercial market infrastructure. This is exactly what REF is doing. REF is supporting the establishment of new service- and sales points for renewable energy products. An effective supply chain with good and affordable products is a pre-condition for growth. Further REF implements large-scale awareness campaigns and village demonstrations to boost demand. Finally, REF implemented a number of end-user credit schemes, to also facilitate lower-income households to meet the upfront investment costs of renewable energy products, such as solar panels, solar lanterns, pico-hydro systems and cookstoves. REF maintains the lowest possible overhead. The operational costs are covered from institutional and private donors. We invite new donors or sponsors to support our work.  REF's head office is located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and managed by Willem Nolens, a seasoned microfinance and renewable energy expert. Karel Prinsen is REF' Controller. The head office oversees the implementation in the various countries. Each country office is managed by a Country Coordinator, who supervises 3-5 local business coaches. The Board of Trustees has final supervisory power. It meets every quarter. The Board is composed of: Wil de VleeschouÂwer (Chairman), Jan Otten (Treasurer), Peter van der Vleuten and Niek Ketting. The Board members do not receive any remuneration for their activities. For further details, please download our annual report of 2009 or 2008. In 2009, the Australian renewable energy consultancy GSES performed a mid-term review of REF's Solar.Now! program. The review supported the vision and the strategic direction of the program. The review can be downloaded here. |