Yemen Emergency Electricity Access Project

closed

Closed

The development objective of the Emergency Electricity Access Project is to improve access to electricity in rural and peri-urban areas within the Republic of Yemen. The project has three components. 1) First component, Financing for off-grid solar. This component has two sub-component, (i) Providing basic electricity supply to households, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will engage eligible regulated, supervised Microfinance Institution (MFI) , help them set up financing windows for high-quality, small-scale solar solutions for rural and peri-urban households, and provide grants to beneficiaries to make the systems affordable. Access to grants will be limited to residents of rural and peri-urban districts and small solar products that the non-poor are less likely to use. The grant component will be explicit and transparent, and will be gradually phased out to build to a commercial market segment for small-scale, high-quality household solar products. A key goal in collaborating with MFIs is to establish solar microfinance structures in rural and peri-urban areas to make the solar market more inclusive, sustainable, and scalable in the long-term (for example, through the eventual expansion of product offerings).The specific choice of supported products will be finalized by UNOPS after conducting a rapid market assessment and a series of focus groups. (ii) Restoring electricity supply to critical services facilities,UNOPS will engage solar suppliers and installers to provide grant financed solar energy systems to critical service facilities in rural and peri-urban areas.To ensure readiness for implementation, a short list of predefined solutions and beneficiaries will be developed by UNOPS before effectiveness, including specification of standardized technical specifications and standards. 2) Second component, Implementation support and market development. It has three sub-component, (i) Project implementation and management support will finance (a) general management support (indirect) costs for UNOPS; (b) direct management and supervision costs required to support the implementation of the project (including the use of remote monitoring technology); (c) independent audits of project activities, if required; and (d) the establishment of a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) in the UNOPS Sana’a Office to document complaints and ensure follow-up; (ii) Third-party monitoring UNOPS will engage a third-party monitoring (TPM) agent to undertake independent performance verification and field monitoring of activities funded under the project; (iii) Market development will finance technical assistance, capacity building, and other market strengthening measures to make the solar market in Yemen more inclusive and sustainable. 3) Third component, Contingent emergency response is to improve the country’s response capacity in the event of an emergency, following the procedures governed by paragraph 12 of the World Bank Policy on Investment Policy Financing (Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies).

FY17 - Energy and Extractives

World Bank

Project

Solar, Water Supply and Storage, Power Generation (CCGT), Forest Products and Packaging, Residential, Government, Commercial