Using the examples of Nicaragua and Nigeria, this briefing paper argues that World Bank energy policy is flawed.
Around the world, some 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity. A further 800 million people lack any sort of modern fuel for cooking and heating. They might have some electricity, but only enough to power light bulbs and small domestic appliances.
It is part of the World Bank’s remit to address this problem. The key problem is that building infrastructure to connect poor people living in remote areas to a national grid is rarely cost-effective for private investors, who require a return on their capital.
Not only is the privatisation model the World Bank endorses failing to deliver more energy to the world’s poorest people, but it is also locking them into a dependence on polluting and increasingly fossil fuels.
Christian Aid is not against the involvement of the private sector. It is our belief that business – in particular that owned domestically – is critical to a country’s development.
But this briefing indicates that it is wrong for the Bank to start at the large-scale end of power generation and to begin with the logic that, whatever else happens, the first stage must be to privatise.
Read our report below.
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