From lighting in streets and in the home, to power for water pumping, cooking, and basic processing and communications, access to energy enables people to live better lives. It also transforms health-care provision – enabling vaccines to be refrigerated, implements to be sterilized and diagnostic equipment to be powered. Generating international attention and action on energy for community services is vital in order to address the fact that an estimated one billion people are served by health facilities and more than 50% of children in the developing world go to primary schools without any access to electricity. The Poor people’s energy outlook (PPEO) 2013 focuses on the contribution that improved energy access can make to vital community services such as health, education and infrastructure services including water and street lighting.