Our Mission
To improve the socio-cultural, economic, and environmental well-being of the poor in Mindanao by promoting the sustainable utilization and management of appropriate renewable energy sources and other natural resources.
Our Story
Power that Begins with People
For three decades, we’ve brought renewable energy to Mindanao’s most remote communities as a foundation they own and can build on.
The Origin
In March 1993, Yamog Renewable Energy Development Group, Inc., was created by a core team of seasoned community development professionals driven by the widespread energy/electricity poverty that continued to plague Mindanao’s rural communities.
With extensive experience and a long track record of impactful work - and expertise in pico and micro-hydropower design, engineering, construction management, and community participation and empowerment - they turned to renewable energy development as a way to serve the off-grid Indigenous communities of Mindanao. Work on the ground began in 1994.
.png)
The Problem
.png)
In the early 1990s, billions in development funding had reached Mindanao, yet the most isolated areas saw little change. Nearly half of all barangays had no electricity. Many were home to Lumad communities - Indigenous peoples who made up around 40% of Mindanao’s population - that energy providers had set aside as too remote and too poor to serve.
Without power, and without access to opportunity, families faced a difficult choice: remain without prospects, or leave their land, forests, and communities to seek work in the cities. The conventional development model offered no answer to this. Renewable energy did.
IN FACT
Absolute poverty still existed in off-grid areas, particularly in indigenous communities of Mindanao inhabited, at that time, by around seven million Lumad (indigenous peoples) who made up about:
40%
Mindanao’s population
Our Approach
At a time when few saw renewable energy as a tool for community development, Yamog built its entire approach around it.
A micro-hydropower system is never only about electricity - it powers homes, runs post-harvest and agri-processing facilities, and opens new local livelihoods that give people a reason to stay and build where they are. Energy is the entry point and a lasting community development is the purpose.
This is why Yamog builds systems with communities rather than for them - so that what remains is theirs to manage, sustain, and grow long after construction ends. And because energy cannot be separated from the rest of community life, the work extends into everything connected to it.
The result is an approach where a single system keeps delivering economically, socially, and environmentally. This is what sets Yamog apart: not energy alone, but energy as the foundation of communities capable of standing on their own.
History Timeline
Three decades of work, built one community at a time.
of
Mission, Vision, and Goals
These three decades of work are guided by a clear sense of where we are headed and why.
Our Vision
The formation of self-sustaining rural communities in Mindanao where men, women and the youth are capable of utilizing and effectively managing natural resources as vehicles towards sustainable community development. The members of these communities will have the means to adequately provide for their basic needs while paving the way for future generations to meet theirs, the collective capacity to chart their own future, and the enduring commitment to live in harmony with the natural environment.
Our Goals
To set up micro-hydropower, solar power and other renewable energy systems in off-grid areas in Mindanao in a manner that would boost environmental sustainability and empower poor communities to effectively fulfill their collective role in sustainable community development.
Core Values and Principles
Guiding this vision is a set of underlying transformative values and principles that serve as important guideposts in addressing the complex realities and problems in the areas where Yamog works:
Organized Community Participation
People Empowerment
Ecosystems Protection And Watershed Conservation
Responsible Utilization And Management Of The Natural Resource Base
Multi-stakeholders Partnership
Transparent And Inclusive Governance
Just And Equitable Economic Growth
Social Justice
Respect For Diverse Cultural, Ethical, And Spiritual Needs
Sustainable Development
The People Behind Yamog
Behind every system is a team that knows this work from the ground up. Yamog brings together a mix of professionals whose expertise spans the full breadth of this work - from engineering and technical design to community development and empowerment. It is a combination built for the realities on the ground in Mindanao.
This blend of technical skill and deep community knowledge is what allows Yamog to deliver systems that last, and communities that thrive.
Power the Future With Us
The most isolated communities deserve more than electricity.
They deserve the means to shape their own future
- and that work moves forward with the support of people who believe in it.