In 2015, the world came together to chart a path for its development for the next 15 years. The seventh of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proclaimed countries’ determination to “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. The knock-on effects of achieving this goal for the other 16 SDGs, focused on education, health, sustainable economic growth and more, would be immense.
Unfortunately, our progress on SDG7 is deeply inadequate. A recent report has found that while 91 percent of us around the world have access to electricity, the number of people with no access is growing. The catastrophes of recent years, including COVID-19, the energy crisis, outbreaks of conflict and resulting mass displacements of people, have combined to put affordable, clean and reliable electricity beyond the reach of far too many.
Nowhere is this clearer, or more devastating, than on the continent of Africa, where all our progress after 2013 has effectively been wiped out by these compound crises. If current trends continue, of the 660 million people projected to remain without electricity access in 2030, a staggering 85 percent of them will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Words about the “African powerhouse” of the future will ring hollow if Africans in the here and now cannot access the electricity that their counterparts elsewhere take for granted.
In this scenario, inaction is not an option. The organization I work for, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), was founded by the United Nations in 2011. In 2020, SEforALL and our donors and partners established the Universal Energy Facility (UEF). What sets UEF apart from other development projects is its integration of market trends and the expertise of industry players, allowing us to attract the essential funding. We already have the likes of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet , the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Germany’s GIZ on board with us. Continuing to attract this financing from existing and new donors will allow us to turn the vision of an Africa with full electricity access into a reality.
UEF connects governments with the developers of solar-powered electric mini-grids to bring electricity to people in six African countries: Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Zambia. So far, with 9,000 connections made in Madagascar alone, 40,000,000 people are benefiting from reliable and renewable energy, with over 3,000 more connections awaiting the funding to be implemented. Behind these statistics are thousands of lives – of doctors and nurses, farmers, shopkeepers, teachers and more – which have been transformed by the huge advantages that mini-grids bring.
Last summer, I was able to visit one site in Madagascar, where UEF and Africa GreenTec are rolling out a mini-grid, to see for myself the difference being made to people’s lives. This was in the village of Mahasolo. Like over a third of Madagascans, the residents of Mahasolo have no access to the country’s national electricity grid. What electricity there is, is often provided by diesel-powered generators, which fill the air with fumes and noise, are expensive to operate and are far from environmentally friendly. Many people, from doctors in the village clinic, students and teachers in the school, and market traders and other business owners in Mahasolo, simply have to cease all their activity when night falls due to a lack of light.
During my visit, I witnessed the close cooperation between the developers, funders, government agencies and particularly local communities, that characterizes the work of UEF in Madagascar and everywhere else we operate. We showcased the achievements of SEforALL’s Powering Healthcare and Powering Education programmes, as well as our Integrated Energy Access Plan , which will close electricity and clean cooking access gaps and establish cold chains to preserve medicines and food. Following meetings with the mini-grid developers funded by UEF, I felt inspired by their drive and vision.
But the most rewarding encounters, of course, were with the people of Mahasolo. We were greeted in the village by excitement and smiles. From farmers to doctors and school students, we heard different stories, told with the same warmth, of how the mini-grids brought by UEF will immensely benefit their daily lives. Without the arrival of reliable electricity in their village, they might have soon joined the ever-increasing numbers who are migrating from rural areas to densely populated cities such as Antananarivo, where the country’s ageing electric grid can also struggle to cope. Instead, they can look forward to a future with green jobs and opportunities.
Of course, none of this happens overnight. Just getting a mini-grid to the village where it’s being installed can be a huge challenge, as I realized when traveling along Madagascar’s rural roads, often totally impassable during the country’s rainy season. A bigger hurdle, despite the generosity of our current donors, is the shortage of funds needed for the developers to deliver their full mini-grid pipelines. Donor funding has simply not kept up with local people’s demand for electricity.
The potential to bridge the energy gap in Madagascar soon is real, given an enabling environment, political will and the involvement of the leading mini-grid developers. However, funding is also vital to ensure that projects are actually delivered, and that the cost of electricity is affordable for local people. This is why UEF is just so important in Madagascar and the other countries where it operates.
