In September 2021, the Panama Secretary of State for Energy and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) launched the “Innovation for connection” challenge. The first edition of this open innovation contest had the objective of bringing visibility to the challenge of achieving the full electricity coverage, as well as promoting a culture of impact solutions in Panama, a country where there are more than 93,000 households without access to the electricity.

acciona.org having this opportunity presented Luz en Casa; in Panama, the programme is being developed in the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous region, where it benefits more than 1,400 families (about 8,000 people) with access to the electricity basic service, through the projects carried out in partnership with AECID. Nineteen proposals were presented, being the proposals of the acciona.org team and additional 11 teams chosen to pass the first phase. Then, these teams participated in a bootcamp, where subjects such as legislation, impact measurement, gender, entrepreneurship or business models were studied in several theoretical-practical sessions.

The bootcamp ended on December 15th with a public session where the proposals were presented by the teams to be evaluated by a jury of experts. This evaluation together with the votes of the attendees resulted in Luz en Casa being one of the four winning solutions of the first “Innovation for connection” challenge. The four winning teams will receive a prize and they will have access to advice, networking and other supporting opportunities for the implementation of their projects.

More information on Luz en Casa in Ngäbe-Buglé (Panama) at https://acciona.org/panama/luz-en-casa-ngabe-bugle/