The Global Village Energy Partnership: U.S. Contribution

Additional information: Global Village Energy Partnership Website

Purpose of Initiative: The Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) seeks to increase access to modern energy services to those in developing countries around the world, in a manner that enhances economic and social development and reduces poverty. GVEP partners include developing countries and industrialized governments, multilateral organizations, private firms, NGOs and other interested stakeholders. GVEP is one of three programs under The Clean Energy Initiative (CEI): Powering Sustainable Development from Village to Metropolis, launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in August 2002. The CEI aims to provide millions of people in the developing world with access to affordable, reliable, clean, healthy, and efficient energy services.

Partners: As of June 2003, more than 180 organizations (government, industry, and civil society) have committed to the Partnership's Statement of Principles, thereby becoming GVEP partners. Please see the website for a complete listing of partners. Partnership Efforts to date: GVEP is pursuing a number of activities in each of its five service lines -- Action Plans, Knowledge Management, Capacity Building, Financing Facilitation, and Results and Impact Monitoring and Evaluation. The partnership is also continuing to develop its governance and operation. Some of the partnership’s first year of operation key benchmarks and accomplishments, within key geographic regions, across some service lines, and in governance and operation, are discussed below. A number of these activities are seeding future activities. 

• Africa Energy Poverty Workshops and Follow-On In-country Consultations. Conducted Regional Energy-Poverty workshops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia addressing the Anglophone countries of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Ethiopia (October 2002); Dakar, Senegal covering the Francophone countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Togo and Senegal (February 2003); and Douala, Cameroon spanning the Central African countries of Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Niger (July 2003). These workshops brought together stakeholders from governments, private sector, NGOs, development organizations, investors and financiers to outline plans for scalable energy-poverty projects, programs and investments. Follow on national consultations are planned in several of these countries (Uganda, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, Mali, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo). In addition, early planning is underway for a fourth workshop to focus on Southern Africa in fall 2003.
• Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Conference. The partnership held a regional conference in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, July 23-25, 2003, which assisted developing countries in Latin American and the Caribbean in the design and implementation of their national energy action plans. In preparation of this conference, in-country facilitators from Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Peru gathered to discuss these linkages and share experiences within their respective countries. The GVEP-LAC conference was conducted in two parts: Part I addressed lessons learned, best practices and approaches to increase energy services across the region, with a particular emphasis on identifying development linkages between energy and other sectors (i.e., agriculture, health, enterprise development) and poverty reduction; Part II focused on the development and implementation of energy-poverty programs in the participating countries. USAID also sponsored a complementary Media Workshop on Access to Modern Energy during the GVEP-LAC conference to inform senior/managing editors and reporters from these same participating countries about the partnership, issues associated with providing access to modern energy services, and the links between energy and other important sectors in a developing economy. The media workshop participants also attended Part I of the GVEP-LAC conference. The initial draft action plan PowerPoint presentations presented at the conference are posted on the website. The country delegation participants are taking measures to further develop these draft Action Plans.
• Asia Activities.  A number of activities are underway or planned in Asia. These included convening stakeholder consultations in Andra Pradesh, India (November 2002), New Delhi, India (June 2003), and Sri Lanka (June 2003), which brought partners and stakeholders together from government, NGOs, private sector, financial institutions and the donor community to discuss the goals, objectives and activities of GVEP and explore possible areas of collaboration. Outcomes of these consultations led to increased interest and understanding of how GVEP objectives will contribute to countries’ development goals. GVEP partners continue to work with those countries that have indicated interest. A similar consultation in East Asia to take place during the fall/winter of 2003 is being discussed.
• Financing Facilitation. On April 23-24, 2003, GVEP sponsored a workshop in Berlin, Germany to seek input on the partnership’s financing facilitation service line. The purpose of the workshop was to determine whether GVEP should develop a Pre-Investment Fund to facilitate the expansion of modern energy services, as well to elicit input on other GVEP financing activities and to share lessons learned and best practices. Approximately 40 representatives attended the conference from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America. The workshop findings were that there is not a need for a global GVEP fund, but rather a need for working at the country level to support both pre-investment and investment activities for providing modern energy services. Other financing activities underway include: developing an Internet-based financing portal, in conjunction with the Basel Agency for Sustainable Development (BASE); to identify potential sources of financing for rural and peri-urban energy programs and projects; and development of risk mitigation instruments (including loan guarantees).
• Capacity Building.  A South Asia Practitioners Workshop was conducted from June 2-4, 2003 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, attended by over 50 practitioners from the South Asia region, including from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This forum provided an opportunity to obtain a broader cross-country perspective of issues during project design and implementation, to share existing good practices and constraints with respect to off-grid service provision, and the need to continue to develop more scalable energy service delivery approaches. Other capacity building activities include: (1) conduct of a renewable energy operation and maintenance training workshop in China (December 2002), and (2) planning for a micro-credit financing workshop in fall 2003, still to be determined.
• Outreach and Dissemination.  An on-line GVEP biweekly newsletter is produced and disseminated monthly to over 3,000 recipients by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (formerly the Village Power newsletter). The GVEP website now includes partner project profiles. A consultant registry, best practices materials and case studies are under development.
• Results and Impact Monitoring.  A Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Workshop was conducted in May at the World Bank to explore different approaches being undertaken to track and monitor progress on energy and related projects and programs. The meeting included representatives from a number of international organizations and bilateral organizations. EDF, the World Bank, and other donors shared their views and experiences on M&E, and how to develop a common framework for M&E of energy service delivery. The GVEP Technical Secretariat is in the process of creating a GVEP M&E framework to be completed in fall 2003. The Secretariat is developing a GVEP Annual Report (December 2003), which will also be available online.
• GVEP Governance. The GVEP partners elected the first Board consisting of 11 individuals representing the broad partner constituency, including Dr. Griffin Thompson of USAID. The first Board meeting was held on May 13, 2003 in Washington, DC. An outcome of this meeting was the creation of two additional Board seats; one seat would be for the organization hosting the GVEP Technical Secretariat (currently the World Bank) and the other from a developing country government. The election process for these two positions was completed in August. Ms. Gayathri Ramachandran, who has over 30 years experience in government and NGOs in India and now serves as Director General of the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, was elected into the developing country government position. Dr. Anil Cabraal, who has over 20 years experience in rural and renewable energy development and is Senior Energy Specialist, Energy and Water Department at the World Bank, was elected into the GVEP Technical Secretariat host position. The Board also agreed to develop a plan for transitioning the GVEP Technical Secretariat from its interim home to a more permanent venue; the report analyzing options will be completed by December 2003.
• Secretariat Funding.  A 3-year GVEP work plan has been developed and circulated to donors for funding. To date, about $1.9 million in financial commitments have been received from several donors, ensuring the continued operation of Technical Secretariat activities in support of the Partnership. An additional $1-1.4 million has been committed from the donors, bringing the total for GVEP support in 2003 to $2.9-3.3 million.

U.S. Points of Contact:  Agency for International Development (USAID): Dr. Griffin Thompson (Telephone: 202/712-1864; E-mail: gthompson@usaid.gov).

Website:  A complete list of partners and detailed meeting descriptions and outcomes are available on the GVEP web site: www.gvep.org.