1. Closing the financing gap for African energy infrastructure: Trends, challenges, and opportunities
- Author:
- Amadou Sy and Amy Copley
- Publication Date:
- 04-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Lack of energy access presents a formidable, but not insurmountable, challenge to African development. Energy poverty afflicts nearly 620 million people in Africa, limiting economic opportunities and creating health risks through the use of low-cost, alternative energy sources, such as wood fuel (IEA 2014). Without access to secure, reliable sources of electricity, households, businesses, schools, and hospitals cannot operate effectively, reducing quality of life and restricting human capital. As acknowledged in the global sustainable development agenda, addressing these energy needs is fundamental to achieving economic and human development objectives. African governments and their partners in the private sector and international development community have taken this to heart as can be seen by the growing policy attention and resources they are allocating to the continent’s energy sector.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy, Global Markets, and International Development
- Political Geography:
- Africa