Bringing light to displacement settlements: The role of solar lamps

The UNHCR’s 2025 Mid-Year Trends report puts the number of forcibly displaced people around the world at 117.3 million. Many of these people live in camps or informal settlements with little to no access to reliable electricity. This lack of electricity directly affects their safety, protection, education, health, and dignity.

While energy access is increasingly recognised as a foundational humanitarian need, research indicates that at least 80% of displaced people in camp settings do not have access to electricity for lighting. This leaves them to rely on candles, kerosene lamps, or disposable batteries for light.

The risks of inadequate lighting in displacement settings

In the humanitarian sector, light is a primary consideration as it underpins protection outcomes, enables service delivery after dark, and supports a sense of normality.

Sphere, an organisation that aims to improve the quality and accountability of the humanitarian sector, has a handbook which sets minimum standards for humanitarian responses. In its handbook, Sphere explicitly recognises lighting as essential for safety and dignity in shelter and settlement settings.

The consequences of inadequate or unsafe lighting are well documented, they include;

Protection risks: Poorly lit pathways, latrines, and communal areas increase the risk of gender-based violence and injury.

Health impacts: Kerosene lamps emit toxic fumes, contributing to respiratory illness and increased fire risk.

Education disruption: Children and students are unable to study after sunset.

Economic constraints: Lack of light limits productive activity and income generation.

This is why portable solar lamps have become part of core relief items which are distributed to refugees in the emergency phase of a displacement. BRIGHT’s SunBell solar lamp was the first solar lamp to be included in the UNHCR’s Core Relief Item (CRI) kits in 2014.

Solar power as a practical humanitarian energy solution

Solar lighting has emerged as one of the most practical and scalable solutions to address the lack of energy in displacement camps. Unlike diesel generators or grid-dependent infrastructure, solar lamps and solar streetlights:

• Operate fully off-grid
• Can be deployed rapidly at scale
• Reduce long-term operating costs
• Eliminate fuel dependency
• Lower environmental and health impacts

Proven impact: safety, education, and community

Improved safety and protection

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and partner organisations, consistently link lighting interventions to improved protection outcomes, particularly for women and children. Access to reliable lighting significantly improves personal safety after dark. Well-lit communal areas and household lighting reduce reliance on open flames while enabling safer movement at night.

Education and learning

Portable solar lamps enable children to study after sunset, and support adult learning and vocational training. Studies have shown that solar lamps increase total study time per day for children; particularly before exams; with some showing evidence of their role in improving children’s exam results

Health and wellbeing

Replacing kerosene lamps with solar lamps significantly reduces indoor air pollution and lowers exposure to harmful particulates and fire hazards. The World Health Organization points out that it is essential to expand access to clean technologies, like solar, in order to reduce household air pollution.

Procurement considerations: What humanitarian buyers need to evaluate

For procurement teams, selecting solar lamps for displacement camps requires balancing performanc, durability, sustainability, and and total cost of ownership.

Key procurement criteria include:

1. Durability and international standards

2. Reliability and lifestyle cost

Lifecycle costing (total cost of ownership) increasingly matters in humanitarian procurement, particularly for large-scale, multi-year operations. Short-lived products increase replacement costs and waste. Repairable designs with replaceable batteries reduce long-term expenditure and support more sustainable deployment.

Procurement teams should weigh costs based on the expected lifetime of the solar lamp, and not just the initial procurement cost. For example, a higher initial price for a product that lasts 4-5 years is more cost-effective than a cheaper lamp that fails within a year.

3. Sustainability and e-waste management

Portable solar products introduce new waste streams if end-of-life planning is ignored. Electronic waste (e-waste) is becoming a growing concern in displacement settings like refugee camps. The UNHCR has published a report that provides guidance on management of e-waste from portable solar lamps in displacement settings.

Humanitarian organisations are increasingly addressing the e-waste challenges through circular economy approaches which ensure solar lamps can be repaired and refurbished to extend their lifespan once they reach their end-of-life. This approach involves working with suppliers who can provide spare parts, training, and tools to ensure that their products are designed to be easily maintained by communities.

It is crucial to work with suppliers that offer products made with sustainable materials which can be easily recycled. One way to do this is by looking for suppliers that conduct life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of their products.

LCAs track the environmental impact of a product from raw material extraction and production to usage and end-of-life disposal or recycling. This information is often provided by suppliers through environmental product declarations (EPDs) which provide third-party verified data on the environmental footprint of a product across its entire life cycle.

From emergency response to long-term

When deployed at scale, and designed for longevity, solar lamps support:

• Community resilience
• Reduced operational costs
• Lower environmental impact
• Improved dignity and quality of life

The most effective humanitarian energy programmes integrate lighting into broader approaches to shelter, protection, education, and livelihoods.