Fuel Freedom Foundation and Top European Business School Launch an Education and Capacity Building Program to Reduce Energy Poverty in Developing Nations

BARCELONA, SPAIN--(Marketwired - May 05, 2016) -  The Fuel Freedom Foundation and IESE Business School today launched an international education program to reduce energy poverty in developing countries, starting in Kenya, Africa, and will work together with IESE's partner in Kenya, Strathmore University, one of Africa's leading universities.

According to the International Energy Agency, modern energy services are crucial to human well-being and to a country's economic development; and yet globally 1.2 billion people are without access to electricity and more than 2.7 billion people are without clean cooking facilities. More than 95 percent of these people are either in sub-Saharan African or developing Asia, and around 80 percent are in rural areas.

The Fuel Freedom Chair on Energy and Social Development at IESE Business School will bring together executives, policy makers and community leaders and apply proven business cases to implement solutions to energy poverty. Research will examine how best to provide and promote alternative energy sources for four critical areas of energy consumption in developing nations: power and electricity, transportation, agricultural fertilizer, and cooking fuels.

"The world is facing an extreme energy shortage," said U.S.-based Fuel Freedom Chairman Yossie Hollander at today's launch of the new program at IESE Business School's main campus in Barcelona, Spain. "The majority of the population globally does not have sufficient access to the energy they desperately need for cooking, transportation, fertilizers and electricity. Ending energy poverty has been an elusive target, until now."

This program has three key success factors built in:

• It starts with the challenges, needs, infrastructure and resources of the host country
• It brings relevant, scalable and proven solutions that have been successfully implemented elsewhere and can be applied to that specific country
• It focuses on empowering local investors, business leaders and policy makers who have the motivation and wherewithal to implement these solutions in their own country

EmPOWERing Africa: Reducing energy poverty in Africa

The initial phase of the Chair's program will focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Labeled EmPOWERing Africa, this program was announced at the Clinton Global Initiative's (CGI) 2015 annual meeting in New York, and is included in CGI´s "Commitments to Action".

Led by Strathmore University in Kenya, the program focuses on mapping the country's existing infrastructure and needs, and bringing together the most relevant case studies from around the world. The first education session will be delivered in the 2016/17 academic year to Kenya´s business leaders, policy makers and influencers at Strathmore's Business School in Nairobi.

Subsequent programs will be delivered at the IESE School in Barcelona, with future expansion planned for other developing nations, in Africa and elsewhere around the world.

"Access to affordable fuels would create significant and positive change in developing nations, and is achievable by fuel diversification," Hollander said. "Fuel Freedom Foundation has amassed a wealth of knowledge in this area and we are thrilled to partner with IESE Business School to educate in-country business leaders on what we have learned."

About IESE Business School

IESE is one of the world's most international business schools, with campuses in Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, New York and São Paulo. Consistently ranked within the top ten worldwide, IESE has pioneered business education in Europe since its founding in 1958 in Barcelona. IESE seeks to develop business leaders with solid business skills, a global mindset and a desire to make a positive impact on society. The school distinguishes itself in its general-management approach, extensive use of the case method, international outreach, and emphasis on placing people at the heart of managerial decision-making. With a truly global outlook, IESE currently runs programs on four continents.

About Fuel Freedom Foundation

Fuel Freedom Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan U.S. organization working to break the world's crippling oil addiction by opening the market to cleaner, cheaper, locally produced fuels. The Foundation seeks to create market conditions that will enable cars to run on multiple fuels, clearing a path for cleaner-burning fuels to compete on an even footing with gasoline. Please visit www.fuelfreedom.org for more information, or follow Fuel Freedom Foundation on the following social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram.

About Strathmore University

Strathmore seeks to become a leading outcome-driven entrepreneurial research university by translating our excellence into a major contribution to culture, economic well-being and quality of life. Strathmore aims at providing all round quality education in an atmosphere of freedom and responsibility excellence in teaching, research and scholarship, ethical and social development and service to the society. Strathmore has been a pioneer in hands-on training for solar energy, and is pioneering relevant academic research in extractives and clean energy. More information about Strathmore University can be found at www.strathmore.edu.