This report highlights the importance of actively promoting productive uses to MSMEs, including small farmers, as a way of accelerating development after communities gain access to electricity. An ecosystem approach is recommended to comprehensively stimulate productive use of electricity including five “building blocks”: planning, policy and regulations, technology and innovation, access to finance, and business development support. Attention to productive uses is especially crucial in remote rural communities with weak market linkages, poverty, poor resource endowments, and fragile economic conditions. The report draws on a comprehensive review of programs and case studies, and considers long-term trends affecting productive use opportunities, including climate change, energy-efficient technology, and digitalization, as well as more immediate impacts of crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and disruptions of food security and supply chains.
Blog » Accelerating the Productive Use of Electricity: Enabling Energy Access to Power Rural Economic Growth (2023)
Accelerating the Productive Use of Electricity: Enabling Energy Access to Power Rural Economic Growth (2023)
This report highlights the importance of actively promoting productive uses to MSMEs, including small farmers, as a way of accelerating development after communities gain access to electricity. An ecosystem approach is recommended to comprehensively stimulate productive use of electricity including five “building blocks”: planning, policy and regulations, technology and innovation, access to finance, and business development support. Attention to productive uses is especially crucial in remote rural communities with weak market linkages, poverty, poor resource endowments, and fragile economic conditions. The report draws on a comprehensive review of programs and case studies, and considers long-term trends affecting productive use opportunities, including climate change, energy-efficient technology, and digitalization, as well as more immediate impacts of crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and disruptions of food security and supply chains.