Our Pathway to 500 million

UNDP and partners have pledged to catalyze partnerships, knowledge, innovation, and finance to increase energy access to 500 million more people by 2025. To reach this ambitious target and explore solutions, UNDP’s Sustainable Energy Hub aims to drive forward a holistic approach in its support to countries on sustainable energy. Ongoing and future projects range from on-grid and off-grid renewable electricity to sustainable fuel-wood management and biogas valorization, among other innovative and clean energy solutions. 

Our work in Africa offers a critical starting point to scale up global efforts on energy access. UNDP’s Africa Minigrids Program, to be implemented across 21 countries in Africa, is deploying innovative approaches to improve the commercial viability of mini-grids in the region. On the back of this significant program, UNDP has launched a series of pre-feasibility assessments in 13 countries (in 2022) to identify critical policy, technological and financing gaps that serve as opportunities for joint programming among development partners, the private sector, civil society, and governments. These joint programmes may focus on rural or urban electrification, clean cooking, nexus approaches linked to governance, gender or health aspects, or policy/institutional capacity building of the energy sector, to name a few areas. These assessments will ultimately identify “action opportunities” that are tailored to country-specific needs and will offer a basis for UNDP to mobilize the right partnership to close the energy access gap both in Africa, and globally.