| The Welfare Impact of Rural
Electrification
– A Reassessment of the Costs and Benefits
The World Bank's Independent Evaluation
Group has released an impact evaluation on the Bank's assistance
for rural electrification. Rural electrification has been
claimed to have substantial benefits, promoting production
and better health and education. Yet coverage rates remain
very low across Africa and in some other countries around
the world. The IEG report finds empirical support for many
of these links. It also demonstrates rates of return on
rural electrification projects are sufficient to warrant
the investment. Moreover, it shows that consumer willingness
to pay for electricity is almost always at or above supply
cost. Given these findings, the report argues that rural
electrification is both an important goal and a feasible
one. But the Bank has frequently neglected the poverty
dimension failing to do all it can to ensure that the poor
benefit from rural electrification.
Some of the questions that the report provides answers
for are:
| • |
• Why has Africa not had a green revolution
like the one in South Asia? |
| |
| • |
• What has been the World Bank's approach to
agriculture development in Africa in the last two decades? |
| |
| • |
• What can be the Bank's contribution to the
sector going forward? |
| |
To download a copy of the report and/or to
request a free hard copy, click
here.
Please click
here to send comments to IEG.
The Independent Evaluation Group
The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is an independent
unit within the World Bank; it reports directly to the
Bank's Board of Executive Directors. IEG assesses what
works, and what does not; how a borrower plans to run
and maintain a project; and the lasting contribution
of the Bank to a country's overall development. The goals
of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide
an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank's
work, and to provide accountability in the achievement
of its objectives. It also improves Bank work by identifying
and disseminating the lessons learned from experience
and by framing recommendations drawn from evaluation
findings.
|
