Modern, high-quality off-grid lighting and energy products can transform lives. Over the last decade, a concerted global push has created thriving markets for these products, demonstrating that off-grid solutions can complement sustained grid electrification to accelerate the rate of bringing electricity to the roughly 1.1 billion people who lack this service. Starting in Africa and later expanding to other regions, ESMAP has provided technical and financial support to fuel this revolution. It has helped leverage millions of dollars in World Bank investment, strengthen policies, and engage the private sector to accelerate off-grid electrification.
Lighting Global is a flagship initiative of the World Bank Group that aims to build sustainable markets for off-grid solar products for households, productive, and community use. The initiative collaborates with Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA), manufacturers, distributors, governments, and other partners to develop the modern off-grid energy market. ESMAP is renewing and continuing its support to Lighting Africa and has expanded the World Bank support for off-grid energy activities in other regions such as South and East Asia. Read IMPACT Story
TIMELINE OF ESMAP Support
Launch (2009)
Þ Designs Lighting Africa conceptional framework
Þ Develops global product Quality Assurance Standards
Growth (2010)
Þ Conducts consumer surveys in 10,000+ off-grid households
Þ Uses consumer data to improve product design and other aspects of the market
Þ Works with governments to integrate off-grid lighting into rural electrification programs and remove policy bottlenecks
Expansion (2012-Present)
Þ Helps Lighting Africa expand its reach and supports Lighting Global
More than 1 billion people currently live in urban slums and informal settlements. These communities often lack access to legal, safe, and affordable electricity. With rapid urbanization occurring in developing countries and cities expected to house about two thirds of the world’s population by 2050, dedicated efforts on urban electricity access are needed to meet universal electricity access by 2030.
Bringing safe and sustainable energy to the poor living in urban slums is not only critical for reducing poverty in these communities, but also for achieving universal access by 2030. ESMAP’s Energy Access for the Urban Poor program provides customized solutions to countries to help increase energy access to the urban poor, bridge knowledge gaps, and work with communities to raise public awareness of electrification options.
RESULTS
As part of the World Bank Kenya Slum Electrification Project, a survey based on ESMAP’s Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) is being carried out in the slum areas of Nairobi to help understand the drivers of success in slum programs and the quality of energy access in these communities.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the initiative helped to promote social and urban integration of the Villa 31 settlement under the World Bank’s Metropolitan Buenos Aires Urban Transformation project. With the help of ESMAP’s Energy Efficiency program, public buildings were supported and government capacity in deployment of solar thermal and photovoltaic has been increased through training.
In Haiti, the program assisted the power utility, Electricité d’Haiti, to regularize informal connections in selected areas and improve access to street lighting in the low-income neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince under the World Bank’s Rebuilding Energy Infrastructure and Access project.