Mid-Term Review of the New Deal on Energy for Africa (NDEA) 2016-2025

In 2016, the New Deal on Energy for Africa (NDEA) was approved by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as the implementation strategy of Light Up and Power Africa, one of its five development priority area initiatives. The NDEA objectives are to achieve universal access to energy in Africa, stimulate the transformation of Africa’s energy sector, and promote inclusive growth and the transition to green growth.   By 2021, the AfDB completed over five years of NDEA implementation. Consequently, they hired Econoler in collaboration with CPCS to conduct the Mid-Term Review of the NDEA. The objective of the assignment was to take stock of the implementation status and assess NDEA achievements versus expected results by highlighting areas of progress or the lack thereof as well as identify challenges and opportunities and where improvements were needed to foster the achievement of specific NDEA goals.

Under the mandate, Econoler carried out the following tasks:

• Appraise the overall NDEA in terms of design, approach, level of ambition, scope, implementation, and relevance under current internal and external circumstances;
• Document the results achieved to date versus NDEA goals, interventions, themes, principles, flagships, and theory of change;
• Review the available resources (human and finance) and their adequacy in line with NDEA resource requirements compared to the achievement of objectives;
• Examine the extent of changes in bank structures, systems, and processes that have been or need to be undertaken in support of successfully operationalizing the NDEA;
• Assess the operational and management risks of strategy implementation and their associated mitigation measures, including the contemporary context, such as the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19;
• Identify internal and external factors that affect NDEA implementation and results;
• Assess the positioning and buy-in of the NDEA at the AfDB, within the ecosystem of development partners operating in the African energy sector, and in relation to its influence in achieving the objectives;
• Identify opportunities for corrective and preventive actions and improvements;
• Draw practical lessons and good practices as well as formulate reliable recommendations based on evidence aimed at adding value, high performance, and sustainability to inform subsequent NDEA implementation activities.