Publication: An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Support to Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2015–24 (Approach Paper)
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2025-02-24
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2025-02-24
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This evaluation assesses the World Bank Group’s contributions to supporting electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa during 2015–24. Electricity access is an end user’s ability to use an energy supply for the desired energy services. As such, electricity access includes both supply and demand factors. This evaluation follows a 2015 Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation on the same topic (World Bank 2015) but focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa because the main electricity access gaps remain in that Region, and the Bank Group has renewed efforts to close the gap by 2030. The evaluation’s objective is to assess the Bank Group’s relevance, effectiveness, and coherence in supporting client countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in scaling up electricity access. The evaluation will be conducted in the context of the Bank Group’s goal to provide 300 million people with electricity connections by 2030.
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“World Bank. 2025. An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Support to Electricity Access in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2015–24 (Approach Paper). © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42854 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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The authors develop a geographically explicit framework and use spatial modeling and cost estimates from recent engineering studies to determine where stand-alone renewable energy generation is a cost effective alternative to centralized grid supply. The results suggest that decentralized renewable energy will likely play an important role in expanding rural energy access. But it will be the lowest cost option for a minority of households in Africa, even when likely cost reductions over the next 20 years are considered. Decentralized renewables are competitive mostly in remote and rural areas, while grid connected supply dominates denser areas where the majority of households reside. These findings underscore the need to de-carbonize the fuel mix for centralized power generation as it expands in Africa.
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