How Everyone Can Get on Board With Mission 300

Last week I wrote about how Mission 300, the World Bank Group (WBG) and African Development Bank (AfDB) led initiative to bring 300 million Africans electricity access by 2030, is different than previous initiatives. In short, it’s African-led, provides low-cost and sustainable financing at scale, has a large pipeline of projects to help achieve its goals, and is drawing on the resources of many partners.

Achieving Mission 300 will require an unprecedented level of collaboration, partnership, focus, prioritization, and good people who feel a shared sense of urgency. This week while attending the IMF and World Bank Annual meetings, I saw for myself the scoreboard in the lobby and data sheets about Mission 300 covering the elevators. This alone tells me that it is a definite priority.

Here’s how you can help:

Staying on track. The “M300 Accelerator,” with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is designed to keep things moving. The Accelerator has tentatively approved 15 short-term technical assistance contracts to help countries move quickly on WBG and AfDB electrification projects. We need more support from development partners and philanthropy to expand this effort and keep the pipeline of projects moving forward.
Securing buy-in and alignment. In the lead up to and during the Mission 300 Heads of State Summit in January, we need ambitious commitments backed by real action – this includes governments, development agencies, finance institutions, philanthropies, companies, industry, and civil society.

For those motivated by the climate agenda, there is no climate transition or climate justice without universal energy access. Food production increases with electricity. New jobs demand electricity. Healthcare requires electricity. And what functional education system operates without electricity? Without electricity, many African women will continue to spend their days gathering water and firewood, breathing in deadly smoke when cooking, and failing to build businesses or access the internet.

Mission 300 fits somewhere within the strategy of almost every philanthropy and development institution doing international work. AfDB President, Akin Adesina, said it best during a GEAPP Leadership Council meeting last month, “development is about dignity and there is no dignity without electricity. Economies cannot grow in the dark.”

Supporting the private sector. About half the electrical connections for Mission 300 will come from off-grid products like solar home systems and mini-grids — solutions that private companies must provide. Only 22% of the people who don’t have electricity can even afford the most basis access, which is why subsidies and low-cost financing provided by governments and partners is an urgent priority. This is a model the U.S. and many parts of the world have been using for nearly a century. We can’t expect low-income countries to achieve universal access to electricity without a similar template.
Doing business differently. The WBG and AfDB are doing business differently. A senior WBG official recently described the need for the World Bank to make a shift to being a “leveraging institution” and not a lending institution. That means prioritizing leverage and impact over returns. All members of the development ecosystem must do the same. The Bridgetown Initiative has called for a reform of the global financial architecture to provide the poorest countries with the type of financing they need. Mission 300 is delivering on that demand.

Mission 300 is the most ambitious and important global undertaking in decades. The goals set by the WBG and AfDB are not only bigger and better, but they are also braver than what we have ever seen. We commend the banks for being brave and partnering with others. This unprecedented opportunity is building a truly unified effort. It is also the single, smartest way to make the world’s, and Africa’s, future one of opportunity by prioritizing human capital and economic growth.