ACP-EU Energy Facility
The Energy Facility is a co-financing instrument which was established in 2005 in order to support projects on increasing access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor living in rural and peri-urban areas in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Sector Context
More than 1.6 billion people in the world mainly concentrated in rural and peri-urban areas of developing countries do not have access to electricity. The situation is particularly severe in African, Caribbean and Pacifique (ACP) countries, where the rate of access to electricity can be as low as 10% in rural areas. Access to energy is nonetheless a fundamental prerequisite for economic growth and social well-being.
History of the ACP-EU Energy Facility
At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the EU's energy development policy took a major step forward with the launch of the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI). The EUEI, a joint commitment by the Commission and the Member States, has as its main goal to contribute to providing the access to energy necessary for the achievement of the MDGs, particularly, but not exclusively, that of halving the number of people in extreme poverty by the year 2015.
In order to respond to this objective in the specific case of the ACP region, in June 2005, the ACP-EU Council formally approved the creation of the ACP-EU Energy Facility (EF) as a development of the EUEI.
The EF supports projects aimed at improving and increasing access to modern, affordable and sustainable energy services for the poor living in rural and peri-urban areas in ACP countries.
Implementation
The total Energy Facility commitment of EUR420 million for the period 2006-2013 has already been partially deployed through four different implementation modalities and breaks down as follows:
- EUR 348 million for three Call for Proposals (one in 2006, another in 2009 and a third scheduled for 2012);
- EUR 40 million for the Pooling Mechanism, which finances mature, medium-sized projects outside the scope of the Call for Proposals;
- EUR 10 million for activities in preparation of the Africa – EU Infrastructure Partnership;
- EUR 3.5 million for the Partnership Dialogue Facility, which supports energy governance in ACP countries.
- An additional EUR 18.5 million has been allocated for contingencies and needed technical assistance to run the EF, monitor and evaluate the projects.
The first ACP-EU Energy Facility was financed within the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) with EUR220 million for the period 2006 – 2009. Almost seven million people should benefit from the 74 projects co-financed by the first Energy Facility.
Following the successful implementation of these funds, it was decided to re-finance the Energy Facility under the 10th EDF with EUR200 million for the period 2009 – 2013. The second ACP-EU Energy Facility is one of the instruments implementing the Africa-EU Energy Partnership, which is part of the 2011 – 2013 Joint Africa-EU Strategy.
The second Energy Facility is implemented through different modalities. A EUR100 million call for proposals, launched in November 2009, resulted in the selection of 65 projects 
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. The Pooling Mechanism [94 KB] blends grants from the 10th EDF Energy Facility with loans from the EU multilateral and bilateral finance institutions. Its guidelines [82 KB] were approved in October 2010.
The Mid Term Evaluation of the first call for proposal of the Energy Facility
In February 2012, the Mid-Term Evaluation [54 KB] of the 1st call of proposal of the 1st Energy Facility was finalised. The Mid-Term Evaluation was very positive and underlined the unique features of this instrument within the general Euopean Development Fund landscape. "Overall, the evaluation findings show a number of very promising project results". Out of 27 projects the evaluation estimated that, "more than 2.1 million beneficiaries have been provided with access to modern energy services, against a target of 2.8 million" event though many projects are still continuing. "Through increasing energy access in poor rural areas, the living conditions of beneficiary populations have seen real and immediate improvements. The implemented projects have impacted directly in improving beneficiaries’ socio-economic conditions". It also underlines that "the EF is acting as a catalyst in initiating projects".
For further information on the Energy Facility programme contact us.