Argentine food. In the grill or the oven? Neither!

Every Sunday, thousands of argentines do one of the things they love most: ‘asado’ (o ‘parrillada’). Grilled meat can be considered the number one passion for Sundays, besides futbol. It is more than a meal. It is a tradition that dates at least two hundred years and makes people from all ages and backgrounds come together for a few hours of conversation by the grill (and smoke). I grew up with those asado Sundays, watching the start of the fire until it becomes charcoal and the preparation of the sauce (chimichurri) and salads to accompany the juicy cuts. Even in the Netherlands, asado seems to be quite popular. Bright signs announce every other block in downtown Amsterdam an “Argentijnse Restaurant,” featuring mostly meat in their menus.

I always took for granted the pieces of charcoal that we used, or the natural gas oven when it was too wet and rainy for fire. I lived in the second biggest city of the country, and wood, charcoal and natural gas were all usual commodities. The first time I saw an electric grill in the early nineties, aside from suspecting whether asado would taste the same on it, I wondered how we could trust the electric grill with the many power cuts. However, I could not imagine that a few kilometers away, people were struggling to find ways to make asado. No wood, no natural gas, and no electricity, even if unstable, readily available. Trips with my family, my scout and youth movement groups and then my studies allowed me to get hold of the huge urban-rural disparities in my own province, country, and region, and not only regarding energy solutions. How could we in the city have so many options and others, just none? What could be done to improve this? I decided to study social work. My work took me to the most rural areas in the north of my province, Córdoba, where people still cook, heat and light homes with kerosene. I was simply a social worker and I was there to evaluate some children nutritional programmes. Still, the lack of energy solutions stuck with me. With no proper energy to cook, study, access medical care and most importantly, key information, improvement of life conditions seemed certainly an unattainable aim.

Today, years later, I have the opportunity to share this experience to try to bring awareness to the fact that, while the situation in many cities continues to improve, including having the privilege and possibility to choose between different sources of energy, still one in four people in the world have no access to electricity. Wood, kerosene, dung, trash, are used to serve basic energy needs. But are not helping to bring better health, education, or business. It is simple, no energy, no development.

The Energy group of the Third Chamber is proposing that to tackle poverty, local energy solutions are a keystone. The group proposes that it can be done by working together with local entrepreneurs, identifying the local needs and solutions, developing further research for local energy generation and storage, advancing technology to make it affordable, and promoting south-south learning and sharing for further cooperation and local policy influencing.

I fully endorse this recommendation, particularly, for its stress in the local solutions. As we know, in the development sector, there is not a recipe for solving all problems, and there is particularly one aspect continuously overlooked in development proposals: local capacities’ strengthening and building. Energy can bring change and provide the basis to work towards further improvements. However, setting up equipments from outside is not enough.

A few months ago, a solar panel was found abandoned in an empty field in Chaco, one of the most impoverished areas of northern Argentina. Apparently, whoever was who received it did not know how to use it. Fortunately, Julio Laciar, the director of an NGO in rural Córdoba that supports children awaiting adoption, found the panel, load it into his truck, and took it back to Córdoba where he figured out how to make it work. The children and youth living in their shelter are now learning to make “solar” asado, as you can appreciate in the pictures. This is a small story in a small town in a rural area that can teach us a lot and that makes this recommendation so reasonably and so important. Solutions have to be rooted in the place they are supposed to attend to, and the people to benefit need to be part of it. We keep repeating this once and again in the development sector. It is time we move from discourse to action, and the energy sector can be a leader in this approach.

As Argentina marks the bicentenary of its first government this week, on May 25th, I am still much aware of a country full of disparities and inequalities between rural and urban realities. I trust this experience can help understand why is important that we work on supporting energy access for all, particularly in rural areas. Solar ‘asado’ is just a start.