The Oil for Development (OfD) Programme offers assistance to developing countries in their effort to manage petroleum resources in a sustainable manner. Oil and gas play an important role in an increasing number of developing countries, and has the potential to generate economic and social development. In several cases, however, it has proven difficult to translate the resource into improved welfare for citizens of those countries.

The Pan-Arab Strategy for the Development of Renewable Energy, 2010–2030 adopted at the third Arab Economic and Social Development Summit by the League of Arab States (LAS, or the Arab League) in 2013 created a foundation for regional co-operation to drive renewable energy deployment in the Arab world. Leaders committed to increasing the region’s installed renewable power generation capacity from 12 gigawatts (GW) in 2013 to 80 GW in 2030.

Time is running out. At current emissions levels, the IPCC tells us that a safe 1.5°C “carbon budget” will be exhausted in 7 years. Africa is uniquely vulnerable to climate disruptions. For each additional degree of global temperature rise above the present level, one billion people will find themselves living in areas uninhabitable for humans, cattle and crops, as those areas will be as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara Desert. Many of those places are located in Africa.

Since 2014, Power Africa is making a difference across all sectors, from health and education, to gender and agriculture. As of July 31, 2019, 56 of Power Africa’s 124 financially closed projects are up and running and turning more Lights On by producing 3,486 MW of new electricity that transforms businesses, economies, and livelihoods. More than 68 million people in sub-Saharan Africa now have first-time access to electricity thanks to the 14.8 million new home and business connections facilitated by Power Africa support.

Universal energy access is one of the driving forces in alleviating poverty and ensuring sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The IEA World Energy Outlook, however, shows that close to 600 million people remain without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. This number rose in 2020 due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, reversing progress observed in recent years. A delayed recovery would see the number of individuals without access to electricity increase from almost 600 to 630 million by 2030.

The Power Africa: Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia (BGFZ) is an ambitious multi-year program aiming to increase energy access, improve livelihoods and catalyse economic activity in rural and peri-urban areas. The BGFZ aims to bring modern energy services to at least 167,000 households – translating to one million Zambians – by 2021.

The Private Sector Development Programme has five components: the Business Enabling Environment Programme (BEEP), the Malawi Oilseeds Sector Transformation Programme (MOST), the Business Innovation Facility (BIF), and the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund (MICF) and the Monitoring and Evaluation component. The first four programmes were hampered in some way by external factors during the year under review, including a near total rain failure during the 2015/2016 cultivation season, power shortages that resulted in daily blackouts lasting up to 16 hours.

PIDA is a continent-wide program to develop a vision, policies, strategies and a programme for the development of priority regional and continental infrastructure in transport, energy, trans-boundary water and ICT.  The Program’s Sector Studies, which are to be supported by the requested IPPF Grant, will prepare detailed analysis of strategic options for the development of the continental infrastructure in Transport, Energy, ICT and Trans-boundary Water based on a common vision to emanate from consultative/validation workshops at sector, regional and continental levels.