Impact Of Renewable Energy On Poverty Alleviation In Rural Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has a huge potential for renewable energy resources,particularly biomass,hydroelectricity,solar,and wind energy.Access to energy is crucial in rural areas of developing countries,as it raise s the standard of living of the rural population by promoting the fight against poverty.Governments and non-governmental effort to implements renewable energy project will improve the living standard of Sierra Leoneans in both rural and urban areas,creating job facility,improve health facility and also promote economic activities and education which will eventually alleviate poverty.This inclusive research reveals the role of both government policy and communit y support of renewable energy potentials towards poverty alleviation in Sierra Leone.Due to the country's endowment with lots of renewable potentials,the role of government support and community support towards implementing renewable energy project in Sierra Leone continues to play a pivotal role.In lieu of this,the study tends to unearth the role of both the government and the community in implementing renewable energy projects towards poverty alleviation.Extensive literature has been reviewed to enr ich the research.A case of Mambolo and Kukuna was selected as a result of the ongoing renewable energy project in those areas and data was collected primarily through questionnaires and interviews,based on the objectives of the study.In collecting the d ata,200 questionnaires were distributed to the targeted respondents,of which 182 were filled completely and returned to the researcher translating to ninety-one percent(91%)response rate.After validating for sample adequacy and data validity and reliability,the study tested for relationships hypothesized in the study using robust statistical tools and models.The hierarchical regression revealed a positive association between renewable energy potential and government support and community support on poverty alleviation.This implies that by implementing renewable energy projects that can alleviate poverty,the government and communities are likely to be perceived as offering high levels of support for the project.The results of this study accentuate the role of government support and community support towards poverty alleviation via renewable energy potential.The findings supported the hypothesized relationships via infer ential statistics.Results from the interviews also show improvement in the lives of the people due to the implementation of the renewable energy project.The study is essential as it provides in-depth insights on community support and government support towards poverty alleviation.The study also offers key specific policy recommendation for renewable energy and poverty alleviation in rural Sierra Leone.