Solar Public Lighting – Pemba

Safer streets and longer productive hours through 500 solar street lights

Public lighting shapes daily life in ways most visible by its absence. Poorly lit streets disproportionately affect women and girls, limiting their freedom to move safely after dark and to take part in evening commerce and community life. In Pemba, urban safety concerns led the Municipal Council to identify lighting as a critical security intervention for the provincial capital. International research shows that improved public lighting can reduce crime, with particularly strong effects in dense urban neighborhoods. Beyond safety, reliable public lighting extends the productive hours of markets, small businesses, and community life.

Sources: Welsh & Farrington (2008), Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime, Campbell Collaboration.

In response to a priority identified by the Pemba Municipal Council, the Foundation supported the installation of 500 solar-powered public light posts across the city, in locations chosen to ensure strategic coverage of areas currently without lighting. Twenty local technicians were hired and trained for installation and maintenance, creating technical capacity in the city and ensuring long-term sustainability.