On 29 September 2022, as part of the African Development Bank’s Evaluation Week, hosted by the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV), energy sector experts from the Bank met for a roundtable discussion with evaluation experts from IDEV and from Power Africa, a USAID-funded agency working closely with the AfDB on several large-scale projects. The challenge for Africa is twofold –providing energy access to the 600 million Africans who live without electricity, and climate change adaptation to build resilience against the growing number of climate-related disasters.
Dr. Yugi Nair, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, Power Africa, presented the importance of evaluation within the Power Africa ecosystem and affirmed that responding appropriately to Africa’s energy needs requires triangulating evidence, continuous reflection and adaptation. What is the evidence telling us, and how can it support our response to energy needs?
Power Africa evaluations pointed to an overall strategy for Africa focused on transmission and distribution, support for utilities, cross-sectoral engagement (health, agriculture, gender, etc.), and a journey towards self-reliance, with capacity development at country and regional levels.
One of the key recommendations from the evaluation evidence was to improve the sustainability of projects by working with local partners, regulators, and policymakers. In addition, utility transformation is paramount to increase the sector’s financial viability and attract private sector investment. Yugi Nair was then joined by IDEV’s Joseph Mouanda and AfDB energy sector specialists Monojeet Pal and Batchi Baldeh to discuss the challenges of rolling-out power infrastructure in the African context. They agreed that however fast technologies move, the underlying governance issue needs to be addressed. We need to reinforce the Bank’s support to Regional Member Countries through policy dialogue that transforms the business models of power utilities, enabling electrification on a viable Public Private Partnership model when possible. There is also a strong need for sector reform for efficient transmission and distribution through regional connections, where countries with large production capacity can broker their supply to those with low production. From the evaluation perspective, we should be mindful of adapting evaluation processes to the African context, where the layman’s account of realities is an important contribution to data collection and an important element in defining what is feasible to implement within complex and divergent African settings.
Batchi Baldeh added that the Bank has scaled up its assistance to its Regional Member Countries as they deliver the Nationally Determined Contributions component of the COP 21 Paris Agreement commitments. Support is offered through mechanisms such as the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which aims to address the climate adaptation financing gap, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, which aims to scale up the roll-out of renewable energy.
The panel discussion concluded on the over-arching theme of the African context and the need for a just energy transition that takes into account legacy infrastructure and economic constraints. The discussion between sector experts and evaluators was timely, given the mid-term review of the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa and the consultations of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy. They all agreed that a more holistic approach to development, for example, through integrated infrastructure investments and cross-border cooperation, is required to achieve results at scale.