4.2 Access to electricity and clean fuels and technology for cooking

This section analyzes the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of UNDP results in creating access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, and access to electricity for households and institutions that did not have it in 2018 or lost access over the period because of displacement or supply disruption. It also covers UNDP results in establishing or improving the enabling conditions for energy access, such as policies, investments and capacities, and describes the links between these and the options for scale-up.

Finding 5. Energy access. UNDP has contributed to the provision of clean fuels and equipment to households, and the provision of electricity to a range of facilities, services and businesses. The scale of single initiatives is in line with its intention to demonstrate models of access, rather than to provide substantial levels of access in contexts where the government cannot.

The evaluation reviewed 22 projects completed since 2018. Through these projects, UNDP and its partners have reached over 120,000 households (more than 600,000 people) with clean forms of energy. The projects cover all five UNDP regions, but with a slightly higher number in Africa and Asia-Pacific. Malawi has the single greatest combined contribution, though with a larger focus on cooking (25,536 households) compared to electricity supply (1,000 households). Afghanistan and Cuba jointly have the largest numbers for household electricity connections (10,000 each), and the country office in Afghanistan also provided cooking equipment for 4,400 households.79

Electricity access was provided to over 2,200 service facilities such as health centres, schools and street lighting, benefiting more than 6 million people per year. At least 2,700 businesses, including water systems for irrigation, market centres and stove manufacturing, were supported either with renewable electricity or biomass-related activities.

The potential impact80 pathways from these initiatives differ by the form of energy and equipment used, and whether support is provided for household activities, social services or income-generation activities. This typology is summarized in the following diagram, along with the numbers for UNDP project results.

In the projects reviewed, there is a tendency to underestimate the number of indirect beneficiaries and the impact. In Afghanistan, solar water systems were installed in 35 clinics and reported to benefit 1,400 people without further explanation. It is plausible that the number is much higher and may reach up to 500,000 people per year as the number of people using these services is described as much higher. Similarly, Mauritius has supported over 6 Mw of grid connection but claims 604 connections. This is approximately an eightfold underestimation, even if calculated on the assumption that these grid connections provide the highest quality form of access.81

79 In a limited number of cases (Côte d’Ivoire, India, Malawi), targets are not sufficiently disaggregated between households and businesses. In another case (solar PV in lebanon), targets are expressed in installed capacity and electricity generation. It is therefore difficult to assess the impact as the beneficiaries include households, social services and businesses. However, the size of the installed capacity in this case (2.4 Mw) and the number of villages suggest that there are tens of thousands of direct and indirect beneficiaries. 80 As described in finding 11, UNDP collects limited information on the impact of its access interventions, and therefore the evaluation has not been able to quantify the effect on incomes, local environments or service quality. 81 Estimate based on multi-tier framework approach.