Bulletin June 2016

Since 2005, the European Union and its Member States have been pledging to increase their collective ODA to 0.7% of EU Gross National Income (GNI). However, economic recessions and budgetary constraints in several member states have hampered the sufficient implementation of these targets. But new, preliminary figures published by the European Commission show that the EU and its member states continue to keep their place as the world´s leading aid donor in 2015, providing more than half of the total ODA reported last year by of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-DAC). In fact, EU collective ODA has increased to €68 billion in 2015, representing 0.47% of EU Gross National Income (an increase from 0.43% in 2014) whereby five member states including Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom exceeded the 0.7% ODA/GNI mark. Detailed information on the preliminary figures and Official Development Assistance can be found under the following links: European Commission Press Release, European Commission Fact Sheet, OECD press release.

Increasing Support for Development Aid amongst EU-citizens

The support for international cooperation and development across the 28 member states has reached a new high in 2015. As figures show, nine out of 10 citizens across the Union support development assistance (89% - a 4% increase since 2014) whereby more than half of the people say that promised levels of aid should be delivered by the EU, with further 16% claiming that aid should be increased beyond the levels that are already promised. Detailed information from the Eurobarometer Survey can be found here.

European Commission appoints new Director-General for DG DEVCO

On May 4^th the European Commission appointed Stefano Manservisi as the new Director-General of its department for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) as of 16 May. Detailed information on the appointment and Mr Manservisi´s career in the European Commission can be found here.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

SE4All Advisory Board meeting to take place in Brussels, 15-16 June 2016

The next SE4All Advisory Board (AB) Meeting will take place in Brussels on the occasion of the European Development Days, 15-16 June 2016. AB co-chairs Ban Ki-moon and Jim Yong Kim will be present. The main objective of the meeting will be to discuss and endorse SE4All’s Strategic Framework for Results 2016-2020. The Strategic Framework will lay out the direction and priority actions for the SE4All partnership through 2016-20. It is being developed in a consultative manner, together with the Advisory Board, countries, the private sector, key partners (e.g. regional and thematic hubs, High Impact Opportunities (HIOs)), and Civil Society Organizations (CSO). Key questions for discussions include SE4All objectives, priority actions and milestones for the next 2 and 4 years.

A business plan for SE4All’s Global Facilitation Team will be developed in the second half of 2016, for approval by the Administration Board. The European Commission’s Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), as EUEI Secretariat, will represent the EU together with other member states of the AB and is open to input from the EUEI group.

Please refer to the following link to download the list of AB Members, documentation from past AB meetings and the AB’s Terms of Reference.

Tracking of SDGs and SE4All goals- update

The UN Statistical Commission agreed on a global indicator framework for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets. The global indicator framework is proposed by the 28 national experts of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group for SDG indicators (IAEG-SDGs). The indicators proposed for SDG7 are closely tied with those developed by the Sustainable Energy for All Global Tracking Framework (GTF). The UN also produced a preliminary SDG Index and Dashboard to identify the current status of SDG achievement by country.

During the February 2016 SE4ALL Africa hub workshop in Abidjan the World Bank announced that global surveys related to the multi-tier model will be performed in 15 countries worldwide. This process will last until Dec 2017. During this same workshop many partners stressed that the statistical results of the multi-tier system should be at least made directly compatible to the simpler "binary" model to measure access.

To find more information on the multi-tier framework and Global Tracking Framework, please follow this and this link.

The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI)

The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) is designed in order to accelerate and scale up the harness of the continent´s huge renewable energy potential. One of the core objectives of the initiative is to set up at least 10GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020 and mobilizing the African potential to generate at least 300 GW by 2030. More information on the initiatives’ objectives, framework and action plan can be found on the website www.arei.org.

New cooperation and support agreement between ADFD and IRENA

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have entered a new phase of intensified collaboration by signing a four year agreement of mutual cooperation and support, foregrounding the promotion and the support of renewable energy projects in developing countries across the world. The agreement which embraces the provision of effective allocations of $350m of funds pledged by ADFD for renewable energy projects integrates itself into the already existing IRENA/ADFD Project Facility which in turn has already allocated $144m worth of funds towards renewable energy setting up 15 energy related projects across the globe. In the centre of the agreement stands the increasing support of the ADFD towards IRENA in order to provide financial, technical and administrative expertise towards eligible countries in order to raise awareness and further improve the facility´s effectiveness in providing substantial and efficient renewable energy projects.

For more information of the new cooperation and support agreement read here.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI) first call for proposals

The Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI) successfully launched its project development phase that allowed interested parties to submit their project proposals. A high number of applications were received and are currently being screened. ElectriFI (http://electrifi.eu/) is an innovative mechanism to unlock, accelerate and leverage investments providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy. The implementation of the initial € 75 million allocation to ElectriFI was entrusted to the European Development Finance Institutions led by FMO, the Dutch development bank. This first EU contribution to ElectriFI will support investments that can improve the lives of more than six million people living principally in rural, underserved areas, promote rational use of energy for productive uses and social services benefiting the bottom of the pyramid.

Available Technical Assistance to match finance and project needs

Various Technical Assistance instruments are available to facilitate private sector investments in developing-country energy markets, which according to the United Nations Foundation (UNF) suffer from a $1bn investment gap. SE4ALL launched a new online investment portal which showcases Practitioner network members operating in the off-grid sector. The IRENA sustainable energy market place aims to scale up the existing global investment in renewable energies and support the channeling of public and private finance to meet the demand in the market.

“Access to Finance” Services under the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) coming online

Serving the urgent need for project financing, the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) provides support to project developers towards accessing finance. The RECP Funding Database, where 75 individual financing instruments, including equity, loan and grant facilities are financing renewable energy projects in Africa, is already online and will be updated continuously. Moreover, the RECP Finance Catalyst assists proponents of private sector driven renewable energy projects in Africa with expert support targeting both the on-grid as well as the off-grid space. The advisory support services are set up to enhance project quality and to connect project developers seeking financing with financiers seeking viable projects in a flexible and case-specific manner.

Over 250€Mio in new financing for SMEs

To improve access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the risk sharing facility of the European Investment Bank (EIB), International Finance Cooperation (IFC) and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) further deepened its partnership by signing a risk-sharing agreement. Target countries will be those in highest need where more than 50 percent of the population live in poverty. By signing the agreement the EIB and IFC will share 25 percent of the risk in the $110 million facility, alongside ETI.

At the same time the EIB and the European Commission launched a new Risk Capital Facility for its southern neighbourhood with a total amount of €142.5 million, pooling private and public resources, which will provide equity and debt financing to SMEs through microfinance institutions in the Southern Neighbourhood. The European Commission will contribute €50 million through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).

AFRICA FOCUS

New Monitoring Tool launched by the African Development Bank to track its High Fives

For the AfDB´s Ten Year Strategy, termed the “High-Fives”, the Bank launched an online application, which will facilitate easy access and tracking development of key (energy) development metrics.

The application is specifically focused on tracking progress of individual African countries in five priority areas (energy, food, regional integration, industrialization and quality of life), thereby creating opportunities for any necessary and timely corrective action. Through the High-Fives application, users can access a wide range of priority-area development data compiled from multiple international and national official sources, perform visual data comparison across time and countries, run ad-hoc analyses, and download results to external formats, such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Outcomes of the 2^nd Stakeholder Forum of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership, Milan, 16-17 May 2016

The Second Stakeholder Forum of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP), hosted jointly by the Italian Government, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Union Commission (EC), took place in Milan on 16-17 May 2016. Coming at a time of increased international attention on energy in Africa (including post-COP21 and announcement of SDG7 and AREI), the main objective of the second AEEP Stakeholder Forum was to enhance the engagement of non-state actors in sustainable energy sector development in Africa with emphasis on human capital for innovation, skills and capacity development in renewable energy.

The Forum witnessed the participation of African and European Ministers and Commissioners and more than 300 high-level participants representing policy-makers, regional institutions, international organizations, the banking & finance industry, the private sector, academia, the civil society and the media.

A communiqué, summarizing the key outcomes of the meeting, declares the mutual understanding and responsibility of all participants towards their shared responsibility in ensuring a sustainable energy future for the continent of Africa. A detailed version of the Communiqué can be found here.

All additional information on the event can be found here.

Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP): Mapping of Energy Initiatives in Africa

Numerous initiatives have been started with the common goal of bolstering and supporting the African continent in reaching a sustainable energy future. This increasing number of initiatives also leads to a greater need for coordination. To ensure that, as a minimum, information about who is doing what is available to highlight opportunities, synergies and overlap within Africa’s energy sector, the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) has conducted a Mapping of Energy Initiatives in Africa. Thus far, the mapping study has captured and described more than 50 international and multilateral renewable energy, energy efficiency and access to energy initiatives and programs in Africa, and is freely available for download here.

In support of EUEI’s activities, the EUEI PDF has launched a complementary mapping of EU initiatives worldwide. This will allow improved coordination at EU level, an estimation of the EU contribution to SDG7 and SE4All goals, and at the same time an increase in the visibility of the EU (Commission and Member States) as leader worldwide in energy cooperation.

Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP): Status Report

One of the AEEP´s major objectives is to improve access to reliable, secure, affordable and sustainable energy services in Europe as well as in Africa, as highlighted in the AEEP 2020 Targets. In order to monitor and document these objectives, the AEEP Status Report 2016 is now publicly available. A digital version can be found here.

NEWS FROM THE MEMBER STATES

Denmark

On 1^st of May the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kristian Jensen approved a new five-year programme for Denmark’s development partnership with Bangladesh that builds up on the strong partnership that both countries share since 1971 and which in its core essence is designed to support the Bangladeshi Government´s ambition towards middle income status. Aligned to the Bangladeshi Government´s 7^th Five Year Plan, Danish efforts will focus on poverty alleviation, climate change and governance and rights. For further information read here.

In South Africa Denmark´s development partnership supports the growing bio-energy sector by investing in biogas plants across the country and providing the necessary expertise to the country´s ambitious energy strategy. Further information on bio-energy in South Africa and Danish development involvement can be found here.

France

Accompanying the visit of Kenya´s president Uhuru Kenyatta to France in April 2016, the French Development Agency (AFD) has reinforced its commitment towards the Kenyan development process by signing a new contract for electricity development worth €180 million. The financial agreement contains a grant of €90 million and subsidies of €30 million in order to set up electricity access for 1.3 million people across Kenya. Additional €60 million are envisaged to contribute towards the implementation of a wind park in the north of Mount Kenya which is supposed to deliver additional 80MW of energy. Detailed information can be found on the homepage of the French Development Agency.

Italy

Italy has moved far into the process of reforming its international cooperation system by recently setting up its own Development Agency and naming its first Director, Laura Frigenti, following the law passed in August 2014. The Agency website can be accessed here and the announcement of the Director here. Italy also re-launched its relations with Africa through the first Ministerial Conference of its Italy-Africa Initiative which took place in Rome on May 18^th 2016 and witnessed the participation of over 40 Ministers and Heads of State. Information on the conference can be found here. Immediately prior to the Italy-Africa conference, the Italian government hosted the Stakeholder Forum of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership in Milan, Italy, in its role of co-Chair of the Partnership.

The Netherlands

During its Council Presidency, the Netherlands focused on strengthening the development of the European electricity market as well as enhanced regional cooperation. The integration of economic objectives alongside a responsible and sustainable use of resources and energy thereby played a key part in ensuring that the European Union is proficiently set up to face future challenges acknowledging the cohesion among the issues of climate change, energy, the environment and sustainability as one of the presidency´s priority areas. Information on the Council Presidency and the Dutch Presidency Programme can be found here. The Slovakian presidency (second half of 2016) is envisaged to continue this work with an even greater focus on Energy including in the development field.

Sweden

SIDA and the Asian Development Bank teamed up to open a new chapter of co-operation by approving a project that intends to increase multilateral development banks´ lending capacity. At the core of this agreement lies the agreement that SIDA guarantees about $170m in energy loans made by the ADB across India in return for undisclosed fees. If successful, this approach could sharply increase multilateral development banks’ lending capacity. Detailed information on the agreement can be found here.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has been increasing its involvement in EU blending since April 2015. A comprehensive overview of this involvement is available here.

Recently Sierra Leone has launched a programme that aims to provide overall electricity access to all of its 6 million citizens by 2025 in a push to boost the economy, expand crucial services such as healthcare, and reduce dependency on aid. The initiative with Britain's development aid ministry (DFID) is part of the UK Energy Africa campaign, which aims to help African countries reach a global development goal agreed by UN member states to ensure access to energy for all by 2030. Information on this initiative can be found here.

MEDIA SUGGESTIONS

u Africa Renewable Energy Initiative – http://arei.org

u Capacity4Dev EUEI now available - http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/euei/

u ElectriFI website - http://electrifi.eu/

u EU development cooperation in sustainable energy – overview: https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/booklet-energy-19052015_en.pdf

u G20 energy access action plan http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000111173.pdf

u SE4ALL: Rachel Kyte video - http://www.se4all.org/content/video-sdg7-briefing-srsg-rachel-kyte

u EC: Director Roberto Ridolfi on AEEP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-zL-6Y_ka8

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