Papers employing both quantitative and qualitative methods address an average of 3.1 criteria. Interrelated with this point is that the extreme values of number of different criteria are heavily biased towards one type of research method. On the one hand, 85% of the articles addressing only one criterion use quantitative methods, for example a cost optimisation that is not complemented by environmental or technological simulations. On the other, all six identified articles that employ all five different criteria feature a significant amount of qualitative analyses. A possible reason for this is that social and political criteria are easiest addressed in a qualitative matter. For example, Barry (2011) in an extensive qualitative study covering et al. eight case examples from Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania find a total of 13 factors that need to be taken into consideration in energy planning [287]. These 13 factors map well onto the 5 high-level criteria in Table 4. Such an implementation analysis is insightful and constitutes valuable feedback for energy planners to incorporate them into future approaches. Time trend in number of criteria used in quantitative research Figure 4 plots the temporal development of the number of different criteria used in quantitative research included in this review until the year 2015. It depicts a slight upward trend with an average of 2.1 criteria used in the period between 2011 and 2015. This reflects the growing importance of environmental and social criteria besides economic ones in electricity planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Several researchers call for a growing inclusion of criteria. For instance, policy analyses have frequently concluded that policy shortcomings in many cases were due to a sole focus on economic criteria. Pineau (2007) argues that the electricity sector reform in Cameroon failed to provide long-term sustainability, as it focused solely on financial returns in the short-term and lacked any kind of integrated energy-environment planning [49]. Writing about South Africa, Gaunt (2005) argues that before the 1980s there had been only an economic objective in electrification planning [207]. When it became clear that large parts of the country could not afford electricity, social and political objectives were added to electrification plans with – an important role after the end of apartheid. voters’ appeal playing Figure 4: Average number of criteria used by reviewed quantitative articles until 2015 (N=132)
Papers employing both quantitative and qualitative methods address an average of 3.1 criteria. Interrelated with this point is that the extreme values of number of different criteria are heavily biased towards one type of research method. On the one hand, 85% of the articles addressing only one criterion use quantitative methods, for example a cost optimisation that is not complemented by environmental or technological simulations. On the other, all six identified articles that employ all five different criteria feature a significant amount of qualitative analyses. A possible reason for this is that social and political criteria are easiest addressed in a qualitative matter. For example, Barry et al. (2011) in an extensive qualitative study covering eight case examples from Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania find a total of 13 factors that need to be taken into consideration in energy planning [287]. These 13 factors map well onto the 5 high-level criteria in Table 4. Such an implementation analysis is insightful and constitutes valuable feedback for energy planners to incorporate them into future approaches. Time trend in number of criteria used in quantitative research Figure 4 plots the temporal development of the number of different criteria used in quantitative research included in this review until the year 2015. It depicts a slight upward trend with an average of 2.1 criteria used in the period between 2011 and 2015. This reflects the growing importance of environmental and social criteria besides economic ones in electricity planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Several researchers call for a growing inclusion of criteria. For instance, policy analyses have frequently concluded that policy shortcomings in many cases were due to a sole focus on economic criteria. Pineau (2007) argues that the electricity sector reform in Cameroon failed to provide long-term sustainability, as it focused solely on financial returns in the short-term and lacked any kind of integrated energy-environment planning [49]. Writing about South Africa, Gaunt (2005) argues that before the 1980s there had been only an economic objective in electrification planning [207]. When it became clear that large parts of the country could not afford electricity, social and political objectives were added to electrification plans – with voters’ appeal playing an important role after the end of apartheid. Figure 4: Average number of criteria used by reviewed quantitative articles until 2015 (N=132)