Strengthening productive capacity in Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
through providing an enabling environment for investment
in sustainable energy development in support of graduation
Synopsis
This project sought to strengthen the national capacity of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to enhance their access to sustainable energy and their productive capacity, sustainable industrialization and socio-economic development. The project had two main outcomes: increased availability in LDCs of information on investment opportunities among public and private partners, and enhanced capacity and strengthened partnerships to improve access to sustainable energy in LDCs. The project entailed organizing and supporting LDCs participation to events to share policy options for financing sustainable energy in LDCs, developing a pilot investment prospectus at country level, facilitating partnerships, and delivering capacity building, and advocacy and communications tools. Through analytical work and public-private partnership building, the project provided a platform for stakeholders to engage in substantive collaboration and leverage technological know-how and attract investment in energy infrastructure.
Overall, the project substantially increased availability of information on investment opportunities in LDCs among public and private partners and strengthened capacity and partnership to improve access to sustainable energy in LDCs.
The project’s main deliverables include:
- Organization of a Global Conference on Scaling-up Energy Access and Finance in Least Developed Countries (30-31 May 2019 in Beijing, China), which was critical in highlighting the unique challenges of LDCs and sharing lessons on how these are being addressed.
- Development of an investment prospectus for the pilot country Malawi, which kicked off on 7 February 2019 at a meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi, with the Ministry of Energy and other partners, and was delivered on 9 October 2019 at a validation workshop in Lilongwe. It has been used by the Department of Energy Affairs to engage with development partners to garner support to the sector and to develop an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to replace the current IRP (2016-2020).
- Organization of one dedicated in-person training workshop on 26 January 2021 in Lilongwe for Malawi public and private sector stakeholders, and one virtual training session on 31 March 2021 to share lessons learned from Malawi with policymakers from 6 other LDCs.
- Advocacy and communications outputs including dissemination of results, the lessons learned and best practices in supporting an enabling environment for investment flows to LDCs, and a publication entitled “Opportunities for Achieving Universal Energy Access through the Energy Transition” for peer-learning (31 March 2021). These contributed to the LDC5 High Level Political Forum.
Spotlights
The project puts particular emphasis on multi-stakeholder partnership building, effective public-private partnership, and innovative and flexible financing schemes tailored to the local conditions of sustainable energy development in LDCs. To achieve this objective, advocacy efforts have been made to increase awareness on the impact that access to energy can have across the LDCs development, including an exhibition held during the 2018 HLPF as well as the publication of a magazine telling sustainable energy stories from least developed countries. The exhibition and the magazine were based on the competition UN-OHRLLS inviting journalist from LDCs to submit stories on how sustainable energy is affecting communities in their countries. The received submissions revealed stories of inspiring innovation, entrepreneurship and perseverance in overcoming, often, significant challenges. The initiative combined a focus on the SDGs with a support to journalists reporting on local realities from the ground: it directly linked efforts at international levels with micro actions on the ground.
