ESMAP Annual Report 2024

In spring 2024, the World Bank and the African Development Bank made a bold commitment: the two organizations are partnering to provide 300 million more people in Sub-Saharan Africa with electricity by 2030. The World Bank’s ability to make this commitment is the result of years of preparatory work and previous operations focused on energy access in Africa, many of which benefited from significant ESMAP contributions. For years, ESMAP has been working closely with World Bank energy teams in Africa to build government capacity, collect and disseminate expert knowledge on renewable energy, prepare least-cost energy access plans, support changes in legislation, build the lending pipeline, and implement projects. During ESMAP’s FY2021−24 Business Plan alone, ESMAP’s electricity access programs supported 182 World Bank energy access activities, comprising a grant volume of $97.2 million.

During these four years, ESMAP also mobilized $19 billion in external financing and helped the installation of 16.5-gigawatt renewable energy generation capacity—roughly equivalent to eight to 16 natural gas power plants. The projects ESMAP supported during this time are likely to reduce 711 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions, about the same as the annual emissions of 154 million cars. An independent, external evaluation found that ESMAP’s grant-funded activities have been highly relevant to the global energy sector context (including SDG7), decarbonization, climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. By the end of the first two years of its business plan, ESMAP achieved about half of our results framework targets, with the other half in progress. About a quarter of the indicators exceeded their targets.

ESMAP’s FY2024 Annual Report provides insights on the program’s key achievements and impact this last fiscal year, as well as during the whole FY2021-2024 Business Plan.