Is a well-functioning, financially sound power sector constitutes a solid foundation for the energy transition.
ESMAP will support countries in least cost planning; developing competitive markets and power trade;
removing energy subsidies and other distortions; and designing regulation to ensure the sector maintains
financial viability and service standards.
New technologies, digital development, and declining costs of renewables & storage offer opportunities
to accelerate the energy transition, but are also disrupting existing models, creating winners and losers.
ESMAP will assist countries to design policies and regulations that enable entry of new service providers
while helping utilities take advantage of new technology opportunities to improve quality of service; at the
same time, ESMAP will help countries plan and manage the social and distributional impacts of change as
the sector moves to a new decarbonized, decentralized and digitalized paradigm.
Gender equality enables the energy sector to draw on the talents and potential of both men and women as
employees and entrepreneurs, as well as meeting the energy service needs and desires of diverse
consumers. ESMAP will scale up its efforts to promote gender equality in the energy sector through
knowledge, data, policy reform, and interventions in World Bank projects.
Advancing gender equality is necessary for a sustainable energy sector. ESMAP’s activities to promote gender
equality in the energy sector complement the World Bank’s Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality. The proposed
ESMAP program goes deep in the energy sector and embeds learning and experience within World Bank
operations with the potential to impact key areas of the WBG gender strategy: endowments, jobs,
entrepreneurship, and voice. In particular, ESMAP enhances the preparatory and upstream work that Bank
teams and clients need, such as providing better gender data and rigorous knowledge of what works to close
gaps between women and men. Gender equality will be a cross-cutting theme across all programs, with a
specific focus on closing gaps in employment, entrepreneurship, and access to modern energy services. Box 2
summarizes ESMAP’s gender program for FY21-24
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