The objective is to highlight project components that have enabled GPRBA to successfully deploy Results-Based Finance RBF approaches for the provision of basic services to low-income communities, with efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
But for too many communities around the world, reliable electricity remains frustratingly elusive. Solomon Islands provides an example of the developmental challenges faced due to a lack of electricity.
Students are left literally in the dark, unable to study at night. Many children in Solomon Islands are cut off from better education opportunities and the transformative experience of being connected to the rest of the world through reliable power.
The low level of electrification in Solomon Islands is due to systemic, economic, and geographic barriers to expanding the grid. A low population density and urbanization rate, combined with geographic remoteness and the logistical challenges of expanding grid infrastructure in an island country, result in high costs for initial development.
Further complicating matters, in only 60 licensed electricians lived in the country and all resided in the capital, Honiara. While the World Bank has invested significantly in sustainable energy programs in Solomon Islands, particularly in hydropower and clean energy access , many challenges still remain. Those in Honiara and in other key urban centres like Auki and Gizo can plug into the grid and connect to the modern global economy, communities in most other islands are left behind, often exacerbating socioeconomic tensions on the urban-rural divide.
