To: 10/12/2015
Location: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Overcoming "energy poverty" is one of Africa's great challenges. Over 591 million Africans do not have access to energy. This deficit affects all segments of society. Small businesses suffer as a result of lack of power. Children cannot easily study in the evenings. Rather than go to school, girls spend hours collecting firewood for fuel and lives are at risk in hospitals because of lack of electricity. Improving Africa's energy situation is therefore central to the fight against extreme poverty.
The African Development Bank's new President, Akinwumi Adesina, has promoted energy as one of the Bank's top priorities. Under the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Initiative, the World Bank Group and the United Nations have also committed to achieving universal access to electricity by 2030 with a particular focus on Africa.
Success hinges on the extent to which development actors are willing to learn from experience to shape future projects, programs, strategies and policies. Specifically, the event will identify priority actions that will contribute to lighting up and powering Africa by 2025, and new ways in which both organizations can improve their partnership to achieve common objectives in the energy sector.
Using two energy evaluations from both the AfDB and the World Bank, participants will explore what factors lead to successful energy projects, why, and under what circumstances. From these findings, participants will draw lessons to improve the effectiveness and success of future interventions.
Background:
World Bank Group Support to Electricity Access, FY2000-2014: An Independent Evaluation
Evaluation of the AfDB Assistance in the Energy Sector - Approach Paper
World Bank Group Support to Electricity Access, FY2000-2014: An Independent Evaluation
Blog: The Electricity Access Challenge - Starkly Centered in Sub-Saharan Africa
About Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the AfDB
IDEV, the Independent Development Evaluation, is an independent and autonomous unit tasked with enhancing the development effectiveness of the African Development Bank's operations. By conducting independent evaluations and proactively sharing best practices, IDEV ensures that the Bank and its stakeholders learn from past experience and plan and deliver development activities to the highest possible standards. IDEV carries out independent evaluations of Bank operations, policies and strategies, working across projects, sectors, themes, regions, and countries. In addition, IDEV oversees the self-evaluation of projects conducted by operations departments.
About Independent Evaluation (IEG) at the World Bank
The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is charged with evaluating the activities of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (the World Bank), the work of International Finance Corporation (IFC) in private sector development, and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency's (MIGA) guarantee projects and services. The Director-General of IEG reports directly to the World Bank Group's Board of Directors. The goals of evaluation are to provide an objective assessment of the results of the Bank Group's work and to identify and disseminate lessons learned from experience.
