How can we switch off light poverty?

While we’re learning how to print human organs, put self-driving cars on the roads, and land spacecrafts on comets, we still live in a world where 1.3 billion people lack access to electric light and where 1.5 million people die each year from kerosene lanterns. It does not have to be this way. Artificial light is crucial to human development: Light makes it safer for people and enables community life to flourish. Understanding this, the United Nations has proclaimed 2015 the International Year of Light. As a patron sponsor, Philips is committed to play a key role in this major development challenge. This focus on technology is key as it will allow off-grid populations to leapfrog to modern lighting solutions. Alongside the many solutions introduced, promising technologies already exist: Solar-powered LED lanterns can provide a single room with clean light and Community Light Centers can light up the surface of a football pitch and provide electricity services to surrounding populations. Light is so much more than illumination. We see an enormous potential in Africa that only asks to be unlocked. These creative, technology savvy and multilingual communities are important partners in sparking development and ending light poverty across the continent.