Consideration of funding proposals – Addendum VI Funding proposal package for SAP013

GCF/B.25/02/Add.06

18 February 2020

Meeting of the Board 10 – 12 March 2020 Geneva, Switzerland Provisional Agenda Item 17

Summary

This addendum contains the following six parts:

a) A funding proposal summary titled “Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti” submitted by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO);

b) No-objection letter issued by the national designated authority(ies) or focal point(s); c) Environmental and social report(s) disclosure; d) Independent Technical Advisory Panel’s assessment; e) Response from the accredited entity to the independent Technical Advisory Panel’s

assessment; and f) Gender documentation of the funding proposal.

These documents are presented as submitted by the accredited entity and the national designated authority(ies) or focal point(s), respectively. Pursuant to the Comprehensive Information Disclosure Policy of the Fund, the funding proposal titled “Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti” submitted by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) is being circulated on a limited distribution basis only to Board Members and Alternate Board Members to ensure confidentiality of certain proprietary, legally privileged or commercially sensitive information of the entity.

GCF/B.25/02/Add.06 Page b

Table of Contents

Funding proposal submitted by the accredited entity 1

No-objection letter issued by the national designated authority(ies) or focal point(s) 40 Environmental and social report(s) disclosure 41

Independent Technical Advisory Panel’s assessment 42

Response from the accredited entity to the independent Technical Advisory Panel’s 57 assessment

Gender documentation 58

Project/Programme title: Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti

Country(ies): Haiti

National Designated Authority(ies): Ministry of the Environment (Haiti)

Accredited Entity: Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)

Date of first submission: 2019/06/06

Date of current submission/ version number 2020/02/13 Final Version

If available, indicate GCF code: SAP-FP-NEFCO-190606

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Contents Section A PROJECT / PROGRAMME SUMMARY This section highlights some of the project’s or programme’s information for ease of access and concise explanation of the funding proposal. Section B PROJECT / PROGRAMME DETAILS This section focuses on describing the context of the project/programme, providing details of the project/programme including components, outputs and activities, and implementation arrangements. Section C FINANCING INFORMATION This section explains the financial instrument(s) and amount of funding requested from the GCF as well as co-financing leveraged for the project/programme. It also includes justification for requesting GCF funding and exit strategy. Section D LOGIC FRAMEWORK, AND MONITORING, REPORTING AND EVALUATION This section includes the logic framework for the project/programme in accordance with the GCF Results Management Framework and Performance Measurement Framework, and gives an overview of the monitoring, reporting and evaluation arrangements for the proposed project/programme. Section E EXPECTED PERFORMANCE AGAINST INVESTMENT CRITERIA This section provides an overview of the expected alignment of the projects/programme with the GCF investment criteria: impact potential, paradigm shift, sustainable development, needs of recipients, country ownership, and efficiency and effectiveness. Section F ANNEXES This section provides a list of mandatory documents that should be submitted with the funding proposal as well as optional documents and references as deemed necessary to supplement the information provided in the funding proposal.

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Note to accredited entities on the use of the SAP funding proposal template

• The Simplified Approval Process Pilot Scheme (SAP) supports projects and programmes with a GCF contribution of up to USD 10 million with minimal to no environmental and social risks. Projects and programmes are eligible for SAP if they are ready for scaling up and have the potential for transformation, promoting a paradigm shift to low-emission and climate-resilient development.

• This template is for the SAP funding proposals and is different from the funding proposal template under the standard project and programme cycle. Distinctive features of the SAP funding proposal template are: - Simpler documents: key documents have been simplified, and presented in a single, up-front

list; - Fewer pages: A shorter form with significantly fewer pages. The total length of funding

proposals should not exceed 20 pages, annexes can be used to provide details as necessary;

- Easier form-filling: fewer questions and clearer guidance allows more concise and succinct responses for each sub-section, avoiding duplication of information.

• Accredited entities can either directly incorporate information into this proposal, or provide summary information in the proposal with cross-reference to other funding proposal documents such as project appraisal document, pre-feasibility studies, term sheet, legal due diligence report, etc.

• Submitted SAP Pilot Scheme funding proposals will be disclosed simultaneously with submission to the Board, subject to the redaction of any information which may not be disclosed pursuant to the GCF Information Disclosure Policy.

Please submit the completed form to:

fundingproposal@gcfund.org Please use the following name convention for the file name:

“SAP-FP- [Accredited Entity Short Name]-[yymmdd]”

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A. PROJECT/PROGRAMME SUMMARY A.1. Has this FP been submitted as a SAP CN before? Yes ☒ No ☐

A.2. Is the Environmental and Social Safeguards Category C or I-3? Yes ☒ No ☐

A.3. Project or programme

Indicate whether this FP refers to a combination of several projects (programme) or one project. ☒ Project ☐ Programme

A.4. Public or private sector

☐ Public sector

☒ Private sector A.5. RFP

Choose an item.

Mobilising Funds at Scale

A.6. Result area(s)

Check the applicable GCF result area(s) that the proposed project/programme targets. Indicate for each checked result area(s) the estimated percentage of GCF budget devoted to it. The summed-up percentage should be equal to 100%. Mitigation: Reduced emissions from:

☒ Energy access and power generation: 60 %

☐ Low emission transport: Enter number %

☐ Buildings, cities and industries and appliances: Enter number %

☐ Forestry and land use: Enter number % Adaptation: Increased resilience of:

☒ Most vulnerable people and communities: 40 %

☐ Health and well-being, and food and water security: Enter number %

☐ Infrastructure and built environment: Enter number %

☐ Ecosystem and ecosystem services: Enter number %

A.a.1 Total investment (GCF + co-finance)

Amount: 45.748 million USD

A.a.1 Total GCF funding requested

Amount: 9.9 million USD

A.b. Type of financial instrument requested for the GCF funding

Mark all that apply. ☒ Grant ☒ Loan2 ☐ Equity ☐ Guarantees ☐ Others:

A.7. Implementation period 5 years

A.8. Total project/ programme lifespan

25 years (20-year concession, then infrastructure transferrable or extendable)

A.9. Expected date of internal approval 1/10/2020

A.10. Executing Entity information

A special purpose project company named Participant Power Haiti 1, LLC (PPH1) will be incorporated in Delaware, US and will be the Executing Entity for the purposes of the project. PPH1 will be majority owned by EarthSpark International (the original project Sponsor and US non-profit organization) via Participant Power (PP) which is a holding company and EarthSpark International’s majority-owned subsidiary also incorporated in Delaware. EarthSpark International, with field support from Enèji Pwòp, S.A (a Haitian social enterprise incorporated in Haiti – launched by EarthSpark International) will provide support and contributions to PPH1 through management/advisory services, contributed equity (2 operating microgrids from EarthSpark International), and other technical assistance and consulting as needed.

A.11. Scalability and potential for transformation (Eligibility for SAP, max. 100 words) Project is highly scalable and builds on EarthSpark’s 10 years of energy access work in Haiti. Taking EarthSpark’s pioneering clean energy microgrid work from 2 to up to 24 grids using 100% renewable energy and 99% service availability will fundamentally alter the narrative of energy in Haiti. The supporting activities will ensure that economic opportunity and local capacity development accompany the grids.

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1 These fields will be automatically calculated in the OSS system. 2 Senior loans and subordinated loans.

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A.12. Project/Programme rationale, objectives and approach (max. 300 words) Solar-powered microgrids are the lowest-cost, most resilient, and most climate-friendly method of quickly delivering high-quality energy services to rural Haitian communities. The Project will launch up to 22 100% renewable energy grids and will operate up to 24 grids (incl. 2 existing solar-diesel hybrid grids) and will provide local business support, ‘energy literacy’ training, local energy governance capacity building, and an overarching gender inclusive approach.

The Project aims to build an additional 22 community-scale solar photovoltaic micro-grids in southern Haiti in communities where currently no grid power exists. The Project will provide affordable and reliable access to modern energy services in communities previously identified through extensive market scoping in this region of the country. Successful implementation of these 22 micro-grids will be the basis for the company and its local affiliates to expand to up to 80 towns and communities across Haiti. As one of the least electrified countries in the Western Hemisphere with only approximately 30% of the population with access to electricity (5-10% in rural areas), Haiti has an opportunity to leverage clean energy to quickly and sustainably address energy access. The Project offers an opportunity to highlight how solar energy, combined with storage, smart controls, and customer participation—from design to consumption—can deliver high-quality energy services quickly and affordably.

This Project leverages both private sector funding and Climate Investment Funds via the World Bank SREP Program for Haiti. GCF funding is essential for crowding in the necessary levels of project debt and equity. Consequently, GCF funding will enable the project to build on existing foundations and scale this innovative model to new levels not available under existing finance structures.

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3 Oxfam, Climate Change Resilience: The Case of Haiti (2014), Available at: https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/rr-climate-change-resilience-haiti-260314-en_2.pdf 4 While electrification of cooking to displace charcoal is not included as part of this Project, EarthSpark is preparing a pilot project that could lead to the adoption of electric appliances for cooking which would directly offset charcoal use. The climate and health impacts of such a switch would be notable, and this Project is laying the foundation for such work in the future if cooking pilot results prove promising. 5 World Bank Country Profile – Haiti (2018); Available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview 6 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Imitative – ND-GAIN Indicators (2017); Available at: https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/rankings/ 7 UNDP, Estimation des couts des impacts du changement climatique en Haiti (2015; Available at: https://www.undp.org/content/dam/haiti/docs/Protection%20de%20l%20environnement/UNDP-HT-ProEnv-EtuEconoCC.pdf 8 World Bank Country Profile – Haiti (2018); Available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview 9 Oxfam, Climate Change Resilience: The Case of Haiti (2014), Available at: https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/rr-climate-change-resilience-haiti-260314-en_2.pdf

B. PROJECT/PROGRAMME DETAILS B.1. Context and baseline (max. 500 words) Haiti faces serious governance, capacity, and finance challenges for responding to climate change. Capacity is weak because of a lack of sensitization to climate change, inadequate technical knowledge, and meagre finances. 3 Energy poverty is also acute in Haiti, with 70 percent of the population lacking access to electricity. In the absence of reliable electricity, economic growth is stifled and households must resort to costly fossil fuel and biomass-based lighting and cooking4 solutions (in the South, South East, Nippes, and Grand Anse regions that EarthSpark is focused on, average current expenses on these alternatives ranges from $10.66 USD – $20.78 USD per month (980 HTG – 1911 HTG), which not only contribute greenhouse gas emissions, but also present serious respiratory health threats (see Annex 14 – Tariff Justification for additional background on status quo energy cost comparisons). EarthSpark International is directly resolving this challenge with the introduction of Haiti’s first prepay smart micro-grid. In the town of Les Anglais, EarthSpark has been operating a small pilot grid since 2012 and in 2015 EarthSpark expanded service with an exemplary ‘town-size, solar, smart grid’ providing nearly 450 homes and businesses with 24-hour electricity (see Annex 21 for lessons learned applicable to this project). This decentralized approach to grid infrastructure development makes sense in Haiti where the central grid is crippled and >100 unconnected towns lack access to electricity.

Haiti is also the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of $870 in 2018 and a Human Development Index ranking of 163 out of 188 countries in 2016.5 It is also one of the most climate vulnerable countries. Ranked 173 out of 181 surveyed countries for Climate Readiness under the ND-GAIN index - Haiti is the 27th most vulnerable country and the 6th least ready country.6 In total, the cost of inaction on climate change in Haiti amounts to an estimated 1.8 billion USD annually in 2025 and 3.6 billion in 2050.7 Higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as cyclones and consequential flooding, is particularly concerning for Haiti as more than 93% of the country and more than 96% of the population are exposed to these natural disasters. The poorest Haitians, including low-income women, children, and elderly people, are especially vulnerable and the project area in the southern peninsula of Haiti is the most threatened and vulnerable area in the country. 8 9 Without adaptation actions,

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10 Climate Investment Fund, SREP – Investment Plan for Haiti (2015) Available at: http://ciat.gouv.ht/sites/default/files/docs/Plan%20Investissement%20SREP_Document%20Principal_30mars.pdf 11 Siemens, “Resilient by Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid” (2018), Available at: https://microgridknowledge.com/white-paper/mini-grids/ 12 NREL, Distributed Generation to Support Development-Focused Climate Action (2016); Available at: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/66597.pdf 13 IRENA, Off-grid renewable energy solutions to expand electricity access: An opportunity not to be missed (2019); Available at: https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2019/Jan/IRENA_Off-grid_RE_Access_2019.pdf 14 Climate Investment Fund, SREP – Investment Plan for Haiti (2015) Available at: http://ciat.gouv.ht/sites/default/files/docs/Plan%20Investissement%20SREP_Document%20Principal_30mars.pdf 15 Siemens, “Resilient by Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid” (2018), Available at: https://microgridknowledge.com/white-paper/mini-grids/ 16 NREL, Distributed Generation to Support Development-Focused Climate Action (2016); Available at: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/66597.pdf 17 IRENA, Off-grid renewable energy solutions to expand electricity access: An opportunity not to be missed (2019); Available at: https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2019/Jan/IRENA_Off-grid_RE_Access_2019.pdf

climate change is likely to magnify the damaging effects of these hazards and to increase existing poverty conditions (See Annex 13 for extended Climate Baseline). 10

The Government of Haiti has named rural electrification and renewable energy as a major priority and has announced a plan to work with the World Bank and others under the Scaling Renewable Energy Programs (SREP) goals. The Project’s operations and business methods are cited 13 times in the World Bank’s SREP justification for Haiti and will play a key role in enabling the successful implementation of clean energy for energy access. The Project is also in alignment with the goals in Haiti’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), namely, to reduce relative emissions 31% by 2030 as well as the goals of the Second National Communication on Climate Change which called for projects to expand renewable energy at the community and neighborhood levels.

The GCF project, “Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti” is looking to support national climate policy, and particularly the rural electrification strategic goals outlined by the Government of Haiti and SREP by developing solar microgrids in rural communities. These microgrids not only directly address the issue of energy poverty by providing clean affordable energy access to off-grid communities, but they also improve the adaptive potential and resiliency of rural communities by lowering energy expenditures and enabling new and improved livelihoods as a result of electrification. Microgrids can further provide a measure of resilience for communities by islanding electric service and critical operations like telecommunications and reducing recovery time following storm and natural disaster events.11 12 13 Additional information on climate baseline and barriers addressed by the project can be seen in Annex 13 – Climate Baseline and Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study.

B.2. Project/Programme description (max. 1,000 words) The succinct theory of change that drives this Project is that the provision of affordable, reliable, and clean electricity and accompanying activities through the deployment of solar microgrids in rural Haitian towns can directly support the expansion of renewable energy and reduction of GHG emissions compared to the status quo of energy alternatives like kerosene, diesel, and charcoal while also enabling people living in rural Haiti to access basic services and economic opportunities near where they live. The target beneficiaries of the Project are people living in rural Haiti who face a depressed local economy, food insecurity, and very high levels of poverty and unemployment. While people in these areas often have very little disposable income, they nevertheless pay extremely high prices for low-quality fuels like kerosene, candles, diesel, charcoal, and 3rd party battery charging services – approximately 50% of Haitian households are spending over $20 US/month on such energy alternatives.14 Not only are these fuels inconvenient and expensive, they are often also bad for people’s health and emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change (see Annex 14 – Tariff Justification).

Further, establishing a foundation of clean, reliable, and affordable electricity can fundamentally change how communities in rural Haiti are able to plan for and respond to climate change by providing for local energy literacy training and business support; and enabling new technology, approaches, and resources for long-term adaptation. New enterprises and income, sustained power for critical services like health clinics, water purification, post-harvest processing for food security, and food distribution are all avenues enabled by microgrid electrification. 15 16 17 Renewable energy-powered grids also offer local resilience in the face of frequent national fuel shortages for diesel and gas. In addition to these benefits, the project also adopts two other pathways for driving transformational change. The first is through gender empowerment and EarthSpark’s “Feminist Electrification” platform which directly addresses the power dynamics and inequity of opportunities that persist as key underlying drivers for vulnerability to climate change. In particular this approach supports gender mainstreaming across all aspects of project operations and development. The second pathway is through advocacy for transformational shifts in policy that will change the way

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the country approaches the issues of electrification and community climate resiliency (Additional discussion of status quo, barriers and theory of change in Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study).

The Project is composed of two primary interconnected components driving the development and deployment of solar microgrids and their supporting activities as detailed below.

Component 1: Construction and operation of clean energy microgrids

The primary component of the Project is the construction and operation of clean energy microgrids in rural towns in Haiti that have been pre-selected as viable candidate towns for microgrids (see Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study and Annex 19 – Sub-Project Selection). The objective is to empower rural households and businesses to spend less on energy while accessing higher quality, healthier, more convenient energy, and improving resiliency to climate change. The primary outputs for this component are the design and construction of up to 22 100% clean energy microgrids (operation of up to 24 grids) and expanded capacity of local technicians and grid operations staff to support the reliable delivery of electricity service to rural communities including through the development of a customer SMS system for bulk communications and outreach. All of the microgrids will be supported by a rigorous pre-development process that includes surveying to identify community energy needs and priorities and tailoring design and operations to meet those needs, particularly as it relates to the differentiated needs of women and men in energy access ( See Annex 4 – Gender, Annex 15 – Pre Feasibility Study and Annex 20 – Stakeholder Engagement). Further, this component supports expanded opportunities for employment in local communities, especially for women in technical and leadership roles as the project deliberately supports expanded recruitment both for internal Enèji Pwòp operations, as well as for partner contracting. The component is supported by the following subcomponents, outputs and activities:

Subcomponent 1.1: Development, construction, and commissioning of up to twenty-two (22) solar photovoltaic microgrid power plants as well as initial O&M

• Output 1.1.1: Launch of commercial operations of up to 22 100% clean energy microgrids o Activity 1.1.1.1 Pre-development and design of 100% clean energy microgrids including specification and

publication of competitive RFP o Activity 1.1.1.2 Acquisition of contributed assets o Activity 1.1.1.3 Procurement and installation of technical components for generation (PV modules, balance

of systems, batteries, etc.) and initial O&M. o Activity 1.1.1.4 Procurement and installation of technical components for distribution (Wiring, meters,

transformers, home installations, etc.) and initial O&M. o Activity 1.1.1.5 Customer registration and interconnection for new customers in microgrid locations o Activity 1.1.1.6 Establish bulk SMS system for customer alerts and communication on issues like bill and

electricity use management, operations and maintenance, energy literacy/tips, and safety

Subcomponent 1.2: Operation and maintenance of commissioned microgrids

• Output 1.2.1: Ongoing operations of microgrids o Activity 1.2.1.1: Maintain 99% service availability for all microgrid customers through reliable operation and

maintenance of microgrid components.

Subcomponent 1.3: Capacity building of Enèji Pwòp employees to scale grid management and operations for solar microgrids

• Output 1.3.1: Enhanced capacity of Enèji Pwòp team to manage local microgrid operations and support expanded project portfolio o Activity 1.3.1.1 Hire and train new Enèji Pwòp employees to scale grid management and operations in local

communities

Component 2: Technical assistance to build capacity for microgrid deployment and operation.

Component 2 is composed of three sub-components as detailed below.

Sub-component 2.1: Build energy literacy and opportunity in microgrid-powered communities through public consultations, meetings, and trainings and the establishment of Energy Committees in target communities

The first subcomponent of the technical assistance component is building local ‘energy literacy’ in microgrid towns. The objective is to empower rural households and businesses to safely use electricity, to wisely consume electricity, and to

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18 Financing for PUE equipment will be external based on relatively short-term debt. The debt will be revolving with most having less than a 4-year term, and discussions have been held with socially-motivated private debt providers. The facility shall likely make $800K-$1m available for this purpose (NB: not included in core budget).

competently engage in local governance discussions about clean energy. This includes tailored energy literacy, engagement, and public outreach centered around the needs and priorities established as part of the pre-development surveys, as well as the establishment of Energy Committees (with equal representation of women and men) in the local towns to improve local-governance/buy-in and improve energy literacy and outreach outcomes (see Annex 20 for additional information on Stakeholder Engagement). The success of this subcomponent directly supports the success of the primary component by ensuring that community members are safe and well-informed about the operations of the microgrid. This will, in turn, strengthen ongoing local support. The key outputs and activities supporting this subcomponent include:

• Output 2.1.1: 22 Energy Committees established - one in each of the new microgrid communities o Activity 2.1.1.1: Identify 10 community members in each microgrid community to serve as representatives in

the community Energy Committee for the first year of existence of the committee. o Activity 2.1.1.2: Refine and implement bylaws, code of conduct, implementation procedures for fair elections

of members and operating procedures for the Energy Committees o Activity 2.1.1.3: Conduct capacity building trainings for Energy Committee members on energy governance,

and the basics of energy literacy including home and business energy economics, basic safety, the value of efficiency, and how time-of-use pricing works.

o Activity 2.1.1.4: Develop and equip Energy Committee members with broader curricula and training materials for community outreach

• Output 2.1.2: Build the capacity of microgrid customers to understand basic energy literacy including economics, end uses, technology/applications and safety o Activity 2.1.2.1: Conduct public meetings and trainings for community stakeholders on best practices for the

use of electricity, safety, economics, and new technology o Activity 2.1.2.2: Develop and implement a school curriculum for children to teach them about basics of

electricity, renewable energies and safety.

Sub-component 2.2: Launch productive uses of energy for small/medium enterprises in microgrid-powered communities

The second subcomponent of the technical assistance is supporting local businesses with the selection and trial of electric-powered equipment, best practice trainings, and value chain linkages to increase profitability. This subcomponent will particularly focus on supporting women-led SMEs by increasing training and capacity building, developing pathways for improving profits, and expanding opportunities for access to finance through microloans for development and expansion of Productive Use of Energy (PUE) applications. The inputs for this subcomponent are information about and funding for high-quality equipment, a business engagement methodology, and follow-on financing for local business’ adoption of successfully piloted equipment. An additional input to this subcomponent is knowledge of and successful engagement with adjacent value chain actors. These Productive Use of Energy (PUE) applications 18 will provide a key avenue for improving community and enterprise resiliency to climate change by supporting adaptive income streams and food security outcomes over time. Key outputs and activities for this subcomponent include:

• Output 2.2.1: Support local businesses with new technologies and practices enabled by electricity to support income generation, diversification, and profitability o Activity 2.2.1.1: Conduct stakeholder consultations in each town to identify opportunities for electrification

and productive uses of energy for SMEs o Activity 2.2.1.2: Conduct targeted trials, trainings and demonstrations for SMEs on electrically-powered

income-generating activities and new technology o Activity 2.2.1.3: Extend micro-loans to SMEs to enable uptake of new electric technology

Sub-component 2.3: Enabling environment for rural microgrid development and “Feminist Electrification”

The third subcomponent is developing an enabling environment for rural microgrid development and “Feminist Electrification” advocacy at the national and international levels including lessons learned and best practices for conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation, such as appropriate subsidies, tax incentives, concession terms, technical standards, and tariff requirements.

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EarthSpark’s ‘feminist electrification’ meaningfully engages women to help ensure that the arrival of electricity in a town is truly unlocking opportunities for all. Specifically, the approach integrates a gender-lens specifically into 5 key pillars of microgrid development – infrastructure planning, training and employment, SME promotion, domestic energy use, and community resource availability (see Annex 4 for additional information on the Feminist Electrification Approach and Project Specific Gender Action Plan). Key efforts for this subcomponent under this approach include collecting gender disaggregated survey data to better understand key priorities and needs for women with respect to energy and utilizing this data to better tailor microgrid design and operations; ensuring effective representation of women in Energy Committees (see above) and Enèji Pwòp leadership and staffing (including the staffing of partners, particularly the EPC), creating new opportunities for women-led SMEs, and providing for general social benefits like improved work and leisure hours and safety through access to electric lighting for homes and for communities.

Upon the end of implementation of the first phase of the Project and commissioning of initial 10 microgrids, the Executing Entity will present to GCF a detailed report on affordability and willingness to pay prepared on the basis of collected data and applicable established methodologies utilized in similar projects. The report will outline quantifiable metrics and key findings, as well as, specific undertakings that will be made by the Executing Entity for the purpose of implementing these findings in the subsequent microgrids for the purpose of improvement of the affordability of the renewable electricity for the poorest customers and overall effectiveness of the Project.

Therefore, the objective of the third subcomponent is twofold: 1) to support the establishment of a stable and enabling environment for private sector engagement in rural electrification in Haiti to enable future investments in the sector and 2) further provide a pathway for the advancement of women through electrification and energy access. Key outputs and activities for this subcomponent include:

• Output 2.3.1: Advocacy at the national level for conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation, such as appropriate subsidies, tax incentives, concession terms, technical standards, and tariff requirements, as well as an elevation of the national dialogue for Feminist Electrification (see Annex 4) o Activity 2.3.1.1: Development of willingness to pay report, lessons learned documents and recommendations

from microgrid operations and development to support advocacy o Activity 2.3.1.2: Outreach to other microgrid developers, the energy regulator, and other Haiti ministries and

officials to facilitate knowledge transfer from lessons learned o Activity 2.3.1.3: Publications of lessons learned in international media to contribute to global evolution of best

practices for renewable energy-powered energy access programs in other geographies, focusing on SIDS and LDCs.

It should be noted that EarthSpark has been working on elements of each of these components in Haiti for 10 years and has developed key lessons learned for project design and operations including (see Annex 21 for detailed Lessons Learned):

• Need for batteries and smart meters – Integrating battery storage and smart meters into the design of microgrid operations provides for greater efficiency and an improved ability for microgrids to provide reliable service especially in the midst of supply disruptions like fuel shortages and natural disasters – both of which are quite common in Haiti.

• Distribution voltage and losses – Tracking distribution voltage and electricity losses and proactively working to improve grid efficiency on the distribution side is critical to support long term financial and technical stability

• Collaboration with EPCs – A focused measure of communication and expectation setting, as well as developing a shared mission, are critical for ensuring effective collaboration with EPCs during the installation process.

• Metering, monitoring and billing – Leveraging smart meters to address issues of unreliability, loss exposure, and inaccessibility in a low-bandwidth environment has been critical for financial viability and customer operations.

• Managing theft – Community engagement, particularly leadership from Energy Committees, coupled with technical solutions like installing effective monitoring through totalizers, are critical for addressing the issue of electricity theft which hampers both microgrid financial viability and equity of service for the community.

• Natural disasters – Stemming from direct experience with Hurricane Matthew in 2016, EarthSpark has highlighted the need to deliberately plan and consider flood and disaster vulnerability when siting grid infrastructure, particularly on the customer side of the meter as a resilient energy system is really only as resilient as the customers and businesses it serves. To this end, it is also necessary to develop and disseminate information on disaster preparedness as a general course of engagement with customers. Further, especially

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19 Flexibility has been established in the term sheet to target up to two grids outside of the RFP process should that RFP process be delayed.

for critical loads, it is necessary to site them close to generation sites and provide for spare parts for responsive repair. Additionally, providing contingency funding and insurance for supporting repairs is important for aiding recovery efforts.

• Political uncertainty – Proactive and sustained collaboration with the regulatory and policy environment is really the only approach towards managing the significant uncertainty that it imposes on the operational and investment environment.

• Feminist electrification – Applying a gender lens to all aspects of microgrid development and operations is not only possible, it also strengthens the projects by opening opportunities, deepening community engagement, improving the labor force, stimulating demand, and broadening local stakeholder governance.

Additional details on project activities and outputs can be found in the logframe in Annex 2a and project timeline in Annex 2b, climate justification for the components and activities can be found in Annex 13, and additional information on the “Feminist Electrification” approach and project specific gender action plan can be seen in Annex 4.

B.3. Implementation / institutional arrangements (max. 750 words) The overall project/programme implementation structure and governance structure is presented in the diagrams below:

As a shortlisted concept note for the Mobilizing Funds for Scale RFP, this Project has secured the Nordic Environment Investment Corporation (NEFCO) as the accredited entity and a special purpose project company named Participant Power Haiti 1, LLC (PPH1) will be incorporated in Delaware, US to serve as the Executing Entity for the purposes of the project. PPH1 will be majority owned by EarthSpark International (the original project Sponsor and US non-profit organization) via Participant Power (PP) which is a holding company and EarthSpark International’s fully owned subsidiary also incorporated in Delaware. Both EarthSpark International and Enèji Pwòp, S.A (a Haitian social enterprise incorporated in Haiti – second spin off from EarthSpark International) will provide support and contributions to PPH1 through management/advisory services, contributed equity (2 operating microgrids from EarthSpark International), and other technical assistance and consulting as needed. For the implementation of the Project, a consortium formed by Enèji Pwòp and PPH1 will bid for the development of the Microgrids under the Government RFPs.19 PPH1 will directly contract all works and services for the implementation of the Project and will directly own all project microgrids. Annex 17 offers additional entity relationship diagrams. Because it will be benefitting from several Haitian authorities and international funders, each with their own guidelines and safeguards, the Project will be heavily guided by existing protocols and vigorously overseen by multiple actors. The World Bank, the Haitian Ministry of Public Works and the Haitian Energy regulator (ANARSE) shall oversee allowable costs and tariffs; the World Bank and the Haitian Ministry of the Environment shall oversee environmental

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 13 of 39

and social impact planning and management. The Haitian Ministry of Finance oversees the public-private partnership establishment and governance protocols for the potential PPPs between PPH1, Enèji Pwòp, and the municipalities (in case of PPPs creation). Ultimately NEFCO, as the Accredited Entity, will have overall responsibility and oversight for the project including project preparation and implementation, financial management and procurement. The Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) is the GCF accredited entity for this Project and will manage all GCF funds, oversee implementation of the investment programme and undertake reporting to GCF. NEFCO is a green bank / DFI established in 1991 by the five Nordic governments, with a focus on green growth and climate impact, with a global mandate; small & medium sized projects and the private sector. NEFCO has over 25 years of financing renewable energy (solar, biomass, wind) and energy efficiency projects globally, through provision of early stage capital, junior and senior debt, equity, grants, carbon finance and results-based finance. Of particular relevance to this proposal is the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa, managed on behalf of Sweden, which focuses on rural, off grid energy access through solar investments, including mini-grids and solar home systems. NEFCO has undertaken a detailed Integrity and Due Diligence exercise on the project and ESI. The assessment finds that this is a medium risk assignment taking into account the lack of any credit risk to NEFCO, aspects of the counterparty capacity and financial standing, and the nature of planned activities and the organisational structure, with some findings requiring further work. As part of its due diligence, NEFCO conducted a successful Financial Management Capacity Assessment on EarthSpark and Enèji Pwòp and Internal investment committee and management approvals to proceed have been secured. An additional third party legal due diligence was conducted by a Haitian legal firm which further validated NEFCO’s assessment. (See Annex 9). NEFCO will be responsible for oversight of the implementation, supporting EarthSpark and ensuring that ESG and other safeguards in particular NEFCO policies and guidelines on environment, gender, procurement and anti-corruption are adhered to. The project will be overseen by the Trust Funds and Climate division of NEFCO, which will apply its standard procedures for monitoring and oversight. In addition to financial administration, NEFCO has in-house technical specialists, engineers and an environmental unit. NEFCO’s technical expertise and fiduciary capacity have been judged compliant with international standards for example EU’s stringent requirements for delegated funds (where it has passed all 7 Pillars) and accreditation by GCF. If approved, GCF’s funding amount will be transferred to NEFCO as Accredited Entity (AE) as governed by the Term Sheet (Annex 6) and the Funded Activity Agreement (FAA). It is envisioned that NEFCO will on-grant and on-lend GCF Funding to PPH1 as per an agreed schedule against milestones executed via appropriate financing agreements (see Annex 6). As AE, NEFCO will provide monitoring / progress reports to the GCF in accordance with the AMA, Term Sheet and FAA. Further, NEFCO as AE confirms that it has in-house gender expertise and supporting and monitoring capacity. Ms Heli Sinkko is the gender specialist within NEFCO who will be supporting the implementation of the gender action plan. The core tenet of the Project is “moving microgrids towards market” in Haiti with diverse, specialized partners and blended finance for energy access. The World Bank and the Government of Haiti, the US International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC, formerly OPIC) and/or other senior lenders, social impact investors, and local Haitian municipalities will each play important roles in the Project. • World Bank SREP funds and in-kind support from the Government of Haiti contribute to project costs in a grant-

equivalent form. Concessions and regulatory clarity from the government significantly de-risk the project. Funding from the World Bank and other DFIs and in-kind support form GoH buy down the total project cost. Status: Pending upcoming RFP (expected April 2020). The results of the RFP shall not be announced before planned GCF approval, however results-based financing from the RFP program shall make up a key element of the planned co-financing requirements. Timeline for this is out of the control of the project, but listed here for awareness

• International Development Finance Corportation (IDFC, formerly OPIC) and/or other similarly concessionary IFIs shall provide project debt and specialized insurance. IDFC debt and political risk insurance add more critical pieces to the project finance package. Status: Letter of intent secured from IDFC; Live conversations with other IFIs interested in joining.

• Impact investors will provide equity to ensure that the two small grids to complete Phase 2 are completed, to cover project development costs, and to enable project launch before final disbursements are secured from the larger institutional funders. Status: LOIs secured from two US-based foundations

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 14 of 39

EarthSpark International is a non-profit that builds business models to solve energy poverty. We focus on what can work in Haiti while building best practices relevant to other SIDS and LDCs. EarthSpark has been working on energy access in rural Haiti since 2009: • 2009-12: Built network of 100 independent retailers for small-scale solar + cookstoves • 2015: Established microgrid energy data for Haiti through national microgrid market study • 2012: Launched Haiti’s first pre-pay microgrid in 2012, expanded to a town-sized solar smart grid for ~2000 people

in 2015. • 2019: EarthSpark’s second grid launched, and two smaller grids are in pre-development. So far, EarthSpark has incubated and spun off 3 companies, each of which will play a key role in the Project: • Enèji Pwòp (“Clean Energy” in Haitian Creole) is a Haitian microgrid operations company. Enèji Pwòp is a pre-

qualified microgrid supplier eligible for upcoming rounds of the World Bank + GoH request for proposals for private sector microgrid development.

• SparkMeter provides microgrid operators with smart metering and billing services. SparkMeter, developed initially for EarthSpark’s microgrid work in Haiti, is now the leading global supplier of smart metering services for energy access microgrid operators around the world. SparkMeter now serves over 40 microgrid operators in 25 countries.

• Participant Power is the project development company that can leverage blended finance to build microgrids. The Executing Entity (PPH1) will be majority owned by EarthSpark via Participant Power and Participant Power will be the vehicle by which EarthSpark will contribute equity to PPH1.

After 10 years of “proving what is possible” and “de-risking by doing”, EarthSpark is “moving microgrids towards market” in Haiti. Enèji Pwòp shall secure 20-year operating concessions from the Government of Haiti (Ministry of Public Works and Electricity Regulator) and will work to form public-private partnerships with the individual municipalities where the microgrids will be located. Forming these PPPs will increase local ownership and oversight at the community level. NEFCO as AE will retain full responsibility for any delegated authority over financial management and /or procurement and will ensure that any entity relevant to the project will comply with international accounting standards. Enèji Pwòp also sets up local “Energy Committees” in each town where it develops a microgrid. With local representatives elected to the EC, the EC serves as the most grassroots interface between the community an Enèji Pwòp (See Annex 15 Pre-Feasibility Study for the full community and stakeholder engagement plan and consultations). EarthSpark has already worked with Haitian scholars, lawyers, and government officials to draft these PPP documents, but they need to be finalized with the actual launch of the first microgrid PPP. Though PPPs remain the preferred path, PPP formation is not necessarily required for grid launch as long as a GoH concession has been secured. Broader regulatory clarification in the sector with input from the World Bank’s current policy work with the GoH will also be undertaken. At the local operations level, EarthSpark has developed operations with Enèji Pwòp, SparkMeter, and local independent energy vendors based on its operational experience in Haiti to-date.

EarthSpark’s pioneering work on microgrids in Haiti has led to the launch of Haiti’s first pre-pay microgrid in 2015, expanded to Haiti’s first ‘town-sized solar-powered smart grid’ in 2015. EarthSpark’s second grid in the town of Tiburon was launched in 2019. Beyond these two grids, EarthSpark’s work has been foundational to local, national, and international perceptions of what is possible in Haiti. With its 2015 national microgrid market study, EarthSpark and its Haitian partner Enèji Pwòp made the case that over 80 towns across Haiti would be good candidates for energy access microgrids. EarthSpark’s work was cited 13 times in the World Bank’s Scaling Renewable Energy

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 15 of 39

Projects (SREP) justification document for Haiti. EarthSpark’s Les Anglais grid is widely viewed as the standard bearer for clean energy microgrid service provision in Haiti.

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 16 of 39

C. FINANCING INFORMATION C.1. Total financing (a) Requested GCF funding (i + ii + iii + iv + v + vi) 9.9 million USD ($)

GCF Financial Instrument Amount Currency Tenor Pricing (i) Senior loans Enter amount Options Enter years Enter %

(ii) Subordinated loans 8.4 million USD ($) 20 years 2 %

(iii) Equity Enter amount Options Enter % equity

return

(iv) Guarantees Enter amount Options Enter years Enter %

(v) Reimbursable grants Enter amount Options

(vi) Grants 1.5 million USD ($)

(b) Co-financing information20

Total amount Currency 35.848 million USD ($)

Name of institution Financial instrument Amount Currency Tenor Pricing Seniority

International Development Finance Corporation (Formerly

OPIC)

Senior Loans 23.579 million

USD ($) 12 years 7% senior

World Bank SREP / Government of Haiti Grant 7.967 million

USD ($) Enter years Enter% Options

Contributed Assets from EarthSpark International Equity 3.000 million

USD ($) years Enter%

Dunn Family Charitable Foundation + Other Impact

Investors Equity 1.302 million

USD ($) Enter years Enter% Options

(c) Total investment (c) = (a)+(b)

Amount Currency 45.748 million USD ($)

(d) Co-financing ratio (d) = (b)/(a) 3.62

(e) Other financing arrangements for the project/programme (max ½ page)

As written earlier, the municipalities may contribute land and rights of way along with some legal enforcement services. In some cases, the municipalities and/or the Government of Haiti will contribute distribution assets (existing poles and wires) and we expect tax benefits both from the PPP status of the individual grid operators and by virtue of a favorable sector status from the national government (tax benefits are yet to be confirmed.)

Specific to assets developed by the project, majority ownership of all assets rests with Participant Power Haïti 1. Nominal ownership from municipalities is envisioned for the life of the project to ensure that decision making power and asset ownership rests with PPH1 throughout the life of the project finance term. Concession will offer the option of 5-year extensions beyond the initial 20-year term, and PPPs will be structured with this flexibility as well.

20 If the co-financing is provided in different currency other than the GCF requested, please provide detailed financing information and a converted figure in the GCF requested currency in the comment box. Please refer to the date when the currency conversion was performed and the reference source.

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 17 of 39

C.2. Financing by component Component financing presented below, but additional details can be seen in Annex 10 - Financial Model, Annex 8 – Procurement Model, and Annex 3 – Budget Plan. All numbers are indicative based on best-assumption modelling.

Component Output

Indicative cost GCF financing Co-financing

(USD) Amount Financial Instrument

Type

Amount Financial Instrument

Name of Institutions (USD) (USD)

Subcomponent 1.1:

Development,

construction, and

commissioning of up to twenty-two (22) solar

photovoltaic microgrid

power plants as well as

initial O&M

Output 1.1.1:

Launch of commercia

l operations of up to 22

100% clean

energy microgrids

40,639,019

0 Grants

Private 23,578,672 Senior Debt

OPIC and/or other institutional senior loan providers

Public 4,469,000 RBF Grant

World Bank/GoH SREP Results-based Financing Grant

Private 1,191,348 Equity

Dunn Family Charitable Foundation + Other Impact Investors

8,400,000 Sub-Debt Private 3,000,000 Equity EarthSpark Contributed Assets

Subcomponent 1.2: Operation and maintenance of commissioned microgrids

Output 1.2.1:

Ongoing operations

of microgrids

52,122 0 Grants Private 52,122 Equity

Dunn Family Charitable Foundation + Other Impact Investors

Subcomponent 1.3: Capacity building of Enèji Pwòp employees to scale grid management and operations for solar microgrids

Output 1.3.1:

Enhanced capacity of

Enèji Pwòp team to manage

local microgrid operations

and support

expanded project

portfolio

268,823

0 Grants Public 218,823 RBF Grant

World Bank/GoH SREP Results-based Financing Grant

0 Sub-Debt Private 50,000 Equity

Dunn Family Charitable Foundation + Other Impact Investors

Subcomponent 2.1: Build

energy literacy and opportunity

in microgrid-powered

communities through public

consultation

Output 2.1.1: Up

to 22 Energy

Committees

established and

supported - one in

each of the

232,874 232,874 Grants N/A N/A N/A N/A

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 18 of 39

s, meetings, and

trainings and the

establishment of Energy Committees

in target communities

new microgrid communiti

es

Output 2.1.2:

Build the capacity of microgrid customers

to understan

d basic energy literacy

including economics, end uses,

technology/applicatio

ns and safety

592,118 592,118 Grants N/A N/A N/A N/A

Sub-component 2.2: Launch productive

uses of energy for

small/medium

enterprises in microgrid-

powered communities

through business advisory,

access to and awareness of

new technologies,

and connection to market linkages

Output 2.2.1:

Support local

businesses with new

technologies and

practices enabled by electricity to support

income generation

, diversificat

ion, and profitabilit

y

316,001 316,001 Grants N/A N/A N/A N/A

Sub-component

2.3: Enabling environment

for rural microgrid

development and

“Feminist Electrificatio

n” through advocacy at the national

level for conducive policies for

rural

Output 2.3.1:

Advocacy at the

national level for

conducive policies for

rural microgrid

development and

operation, such as

appropriate

subsidies,

368,036 359,006 Grants Private 9030 Equity

Dunn Family Charitable Foundation + Other Impact Investors

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 19 of 39

microgrid development

and operation

tax incentives, concession

terms, technical

standards, and tariff

requirements, as well

as an elevation

of the national dialogue

for Feminist

Electrification (see

Annex 4)

Financing costs21 3,279,439 Public 3,279,439 Financing Costs

World Bank/GoH SREP Results-based Financing Grant

Indicative total cost (USD) 45,748,434 9,900,000 35,848,434

C.2.1 Financing structure (if applicable, mandatory for private sector proposal (max.300 words) For private sector proposals, provide an overview (diagram) of the proposed financing structure. Please note that this section should focus on describing what is being paid for, either by GCF funding and/or co-financing. The bulk of the GCF contribution will be provided through a $8. 4M subordinated loan from NEFCO (junior to the senior debt providers, hence sub-debt) at the 2% interest rate agreed in the Mobilising Funds at Scale RFP and Term Sheet (Annex 6). In addition, a grant component is requested ($1.5m) to partially fund project launch and supporting activities including a willingness to pay and affordability study following the first 10 grids. Referencing the GCF RFP, grant funding is justified22 by the small size of the project, the large demonstration value of 100% clean energy high-reliability energy access grids without lead-acid batteries in a combined SIDS and LDC context. NEFCO’s administration costs will be covered by separate funds, additional to the Project. See Annex 17 and B.3 for Implementation Arrangements and Financing Structure Diagrams. See Annex 18 and Annex 6 for proposed AE fees. C.3 Capacity Building and Technology development/transfer If the project/programme is envisaged to support capacity building and technology development/transfer, please specify the total requested GCF amount for these activities respectively in this section.

C.3.1 Capacity building Amount:894,200 USD (Total All Finance Sources) 731,444 USD (GCF)

C.3.2. Technology development Amount: 535,236USD (Total All Finance Sources) 106,067 USD (GCF)

C.4. Justification for GCF funding request (max. 500 words) GCF is considered the most appropriate donor for the proposed project in Haiti given the macroeconomic situation and poorly developed capital and banking sectors in the country. Haiti has a very poor investment climate (none of the major credit rating agencies accord it a country rating and the country is ranked 182 out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s

21 Financing costs include Senior Debt closing costs and fees, senior debt interest during construction, debt service reserve (6 mo int), and transaction costs. 22 Section 2.1.8 of the Mobilising Funds for Scale RfP stipulates the conditions under which grants in excess of 5% of total GCF funding are warranted.

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 20 of 39

Doing Business Report). The EIU reports that one of the major tasks facing the government is to address a culture of rampant corruption and illegal tax evasion, which has been a longstanding impediment to fiscal responsibility and to economic growth.

The Project faces severe challenges to access finance (public and private) including high prevailing interest rates, short loan tenors and a high level of perceived risk from the commercial banking sector. The Haitian banking sector consists of nine commercial banks under the supervision of the Banque de la République d’Haïti (BRH), Haiti’s central bank. Renewable energy projects, and mini-grids in particular, face a number of barriers in accessing debt finance. These include a lack of understanding from commercial banks of business models and cashflows in the mini-grid sector and how to evaluate loan applications from this sector, as well as high collateral requirements and interest rates in Haiti which are comparatively high. Firstly, the Haitian central bank has been making use of a contractionary monetary policy, in particular through higher interest rates. Between 2011 and 2016, the Central Bank’s interest rate on reserves in gourdes increased from 29 to 44 percent and the rate on reserves in dollars increased from 34 to 48 percent. This policy has resulted in an increase in commercial banks’ interest rates. Further, commercial banks have access to a decreasing amount of liquidity to make loans, resulting in a higher cost of loans and thus higher interest rates on loans.

Notwithstanding the difficult financing environment in Haiti, the project attempts to apply a least concessional approach whereby it seeks to provide the least concessional funding that makes the Project viable. GCF funding as concessionary sub-debt will play a catalytic role in crowding in not just development finance debt, but also attracting additional investors (both equity and debt) for this Project and future expansion of micro-grids to more communities in Haiti by building a business case for other financiers to enter the sector. Given the barriers to private sector investment in the microgrid sector in Haiti, GCF’s projected engagement and level of concessionality critical to enable other funders (debt and equity) to participate in the Project to make it possible.

Finally, the demonstration value of delivering 100% renewable energy with at least 99% reliability along with the elimination of lead acid batteries and the implementation of a materials reclamation plan, along with the local business development and other supporting activities offers an extremely important replication and scale-up model for Haiti and other SIDS and LDC nations.

Additional barrier details and country background found in Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study.

C.5. Exit strategy and sustainability (max. 300 words)

Post project sustainability is a key feature of this Project. EarthSpark’s “enterprise ecosystem” and local engagement ensure the long-term viability of the Project. As a non-profit that builds business models to solve energy poverty, EarthSpark has so far incubated and spun off 3 companies, each of which will play a key role in the Project as previously described. PPH1 is a long-term investment in Haiti, which will focus on the operation and maintenance of the activities during implementation and in the post-implementation phase. It will be responsible for key infrastructure, own and maintain assets and honour contractual arrangements. It is expected that at the end of the 20-year term Participant Power Haiti-1 will either renew the concessions or will fully transfer ownership to the municipality which will have by then been participating in the local engagement by the utility for 20 years.

In terms of financial sustainability and barriers to investment, perceived country risk and the lack of clarity around the legal and regulatory framework have been the two principal barriers to investment, along with the overall high costs of delivering electricity in remote Haiti (see Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility study for barriers discussion).

Tariff setting is an open regulatory question, but the regulator has committed to approving cost-recovery tariffs. The ability to adjust tariffs according to the Haitian Gourde’s inflation is essential to this Project, and the government has indicated that this will be possible. As evidence, the RFP issued in 2018 for microgrids in Haiti by the World Bank and GoH RFP outlines that the microgrid operator may request tariff modifications under a variety of circumstances and explicitly outlines four circumstances due to external factors:

1. the general index of price developments in Haiti, determined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance,

2. a change in the currency exchange rate if the concessionaire indexes its tariff to a foreign currency, using exchange rates determined by the Central Bank of Haiti,

3. an increase in the price of fuel if the mini grid generation relies on said fuel, using fuel prices published by Ministry of Economy and Finance and/or Ministry of Commerce and Industry,

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 21 of 39

4. a change in the tax code as published by the appropriate government entity23

In order to ensure community participation and training to ensure a sustained upkeep of facilities, EarthSpark has an extensive community engagement methodology including the creation of a local Energy Committee and also local operations through a local grid operator, Enèji Pwòp (see Annex 20 for additional details on Stakeholder Engagement). The Project has been structured to include reserve funds for equipment replacement, and tariffs and funding levels have been set in the financial model to ensure income covers both financial and operational costs.

To avoid electricity theft, the Project takes both a technical and a community-engagement approach which complement each other. On the technical side, EarthSpark developed a smart metering technology, now spun-out into a separate company, SparkMeter, that can monitor line losses through “totalizer” meters. SparkMeter issues weekly loss reports and sends alerts if any metric changes in a way that would indicate likely theft so that any unexplained losses may be investigated immediately. EarthSpark has chosen to invest in a relatively high number of totalizers per grid so that suspected theft can be localized to a small section of the distribution system.

On the community-engagement side, EarthSpark works closely with the Energy Committees and the municipalities to ensure that any electricity theft is negatively regarded within the community and that legal processes are effective and swift if theft is uncovered.

The selection of PV as the generation technology for the Project follows from EarthSpark’s experience and wider microgrid sector norms. Haiti has an excellent solar resource that is generally consistent on a daily basis with some seasonality. PV is thus well-adapted to solar+storage configurations with daily charging. With no moving parts, PV is also a good choice to minimize maintenance costs. The scalability of PV is also appealing for this Project because the microgrids will have the ability to grow with future demand if needed.

In terms of financial exit for GCF, the sub-debt is structured to repay principle plus modest interest over the 20-year concession. This will be through the repayment of the subordinated loan extended by NEFCO using GCF funds.

C.6. Financial management/procurement (max. 300 words) All projects to be financed by or through NEFCO need to be able to demonstrate that they will benefit the environment/ climate in a cost-effective way. To ensure that these benefits will in fact materialize, financing is released in tranches against monitored milestone results and environmental/climate outcomes are monitored annually for as long as NEFCO is financially involved. This approach effectively mitigates the risk of corruption and increases the requirements for borrowers’/beneficiaries’ capacity building, transparency and accountability. It also ensures improved predictability and long-term sustainability of the project. The normal starting point in NEFCO’s Agreements for delegated and entrusted funds, is that NEFCO undertakes to manage donor funding and assist in the implementation of projects financed through donor funds with the same care as NEFCO handles its own funds and assists in the implementation of projects financed by NEFCO’s own capital. The relevant policies and guidelines which guide NEFCO’s work, and will be followed by ESI (with oversight from NEFCO) are listed below24:

• NEFCO Sustainability Policy • NEFCO Environmental and Sustainability Guidelines • NEFCO Risk Policy • NEFCO Risk Management Guidelines • NEFCO Procurement Guidelines • NEFCO Resolution of the Board of Directors on Fighting Corruption • NEFCO Gender Policy • NEFCO Management of Trust Funds • NEFCO Disclosure Policy

NEFCO takes seriously, and shall take appropriate measures to prevent, the occurrence of fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorist related offences, child labour, trafficking in human beings, tax avoidance, tax fraud or tax evasion relative to the use of the GCF resources and require that suppliers and

23 This list is pulled verbatim from the English language translation provided by the regulator of the 2018 microgrid RFP in Haiti. The full RFP is included as an annex to the Project pre-feasibility study Annex 15 24 Full NEFCO policy documentation is available at https://www.nefco.org/about-nefco/legal-framework-and-guidelines/

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 22 of 39

consultants financed with said resources refrain from illegal or corrupt practices. NEFCO has recently issued updated Policies on, respectively, “Anticorruption and Compliance” and “Integrity Due Diligence” (both adopted by NEFCO’s Board of Directors on 12 December 2019 and with entry into force as of 1 January 2020) . As before, the main governing principles for these Policies are transparency, prevention, predictability, accountability and openness. Under the Anticorruption and Compliance Policy, Prohibited Practices are not tolerated in any of NEFCO’s activities (zero tolerance). NEFCO acts both proactively to prevent Prohibited Practices and takes all reasonable measures to ensure that any alleged Prohibited Practice are reported and appropriately investigated and addressed. The new Anticorruption Policy also sets out principles for protection of whistle-blowers and witnesses. To further strengthen NEFCO’s focus on integrity, ethics and accountability, an independent compliance function, the Office of the Chief Compliance Officer is about to be established, in addition to NEFCO’s Anticorruption Committee. Other relevant documents for NEFCO’s anticorruption work are NEFCO Procurement Guidelines, Code of Conduct for the Staff and Staff Policy. 0 NEFCO will ensure and provide oversight that the aforementioned guidelines will be followed by ESI.

The financing agreement between NEFCO and PPH1 (see Annex 6) will be subject to periodic financial reviews, reporting of the project expenditures and include standard audit requirements (typically on an annual basis) to ensure that funds are used for the intended purposes and project complies with the covenants, including environmental and social safeguards. As part of this the project will be annually audited by a qualified internationally recognized firm. Funding disbursement shall be staged as outlined above based on compliance reports and verification to further ensure adequate and on-going safeguarding. NEFCO’s approved Procurement and Consultant Guidelines 2013 which have been reviewed and accepted by the Fund will apply to the Project, and will be specified in the financing agreement between NEFCO and PPH1. The Guidelines can be viewed at https://www.nefco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/NEFCO_Procurement-Guidelines_12122013_0.pdf

Additional details on procurement and legal structures can be seen in Annex 8 – Procurement Plan Model and Annex 6: Term Sheet.

D. LOGIC FRAMEWORK AND MONITORING, REPORTING AND EVALUATION This section refers to the project/programme’s logic framework in accordance with the GCF’s Performance Measurement Framework under the Results Management Framework to which the project/programme contributes as a whole, including in respect of any co-financing. This is different from the project/programme-level log frame(as there may be other impact measures for example that go beyond those defined by the GCF). A project-level logical framework, with specific indicators, baselines and targets, means of verification and assumptions should be provided as part of Annex 2. D.1. Paradigm shift objectives (max.200 words)

Shift to low-emission sustainable development

pathways

The Project will increase the installed capacity of renewable energy and will expand energy access through zero-emissions generation displacing existing fossil fuels.

Increased climate-resilient sustainable development

The Project will strengthen adaptive capacity of vulnerable households, businesses, communities, and public service providers in Haiti by providing new and alternative livelihoods, reduced energy expenditures, and new technology enabled by clean energy access.

D.2. Impacts measured by GCF indicators Select the appropriate impact for the project/programme. Note that more than one indicator may be selected per expected impact result. Add results as appropriate.

Expected Result Indicator

Means of Verification

(MoV) Baseline

Target

Assumptions Mid-term

(if applicable

)

Final

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 23 of 39

Estimated cost per t CO2 eq, defined as total investment cost / expected lifetime emission reductions

Cost per t CO2 eq, decreased for all Fund-funded mitigation projects/ programmes

GHG inventory

Project operational budget

Consumer Surveys

Sparkmeter data

US$0/tCO2eq 25

All - US$ 128 / tCO2eq

GCF only - US$ 27.7 / tCO2eq

All - US$ 128 / tCO2eq

GCF only - US$ 27.7 / tCO2eq

Calculated using 60% of total financing to account for mitigation and adaptation split of financing

Expected volume of finance to be leveraged by the proposed project/programme as a result of the Fund’s financing,

Volume of financing mobilized

Co-financing commitment letters

Investor agreements

Grant agreements

US$0 N/A Total financing leveraged from GCF investment US$ 35.848million

(Public - US$ 7.967 million

Private - US$ 27.881 million)

Expected total number of direct and indirect beneficiaries, (disaggregated by sex)

Total Number of direct and indirect beneficiaries; Number of beneficiaries relative to total populationNumber of beneficiaries

Customer surveys

Sparkmeter data

Initial microgrid operations in Tiburon and Les Anglais have approximately 3,240 direct beneficiaries and 7,128 indirect beneficiaries. With a number of new

Additional 21,115 individuals directly impacted (~50%m/50%f) 26

Additional 46,453 indirect beneficiaries(~50%m/50%f) 27

0.002 % of total

Additional 83,970 direct beneficiaries

50% of female

Additional 184,734 indirect beneficiaries

50% of female

We assume 5 direct individual beneficiaries per connection – this is in line with generally accepted people/hh assumptions for Haiti

11 indirect beneficiaries per connection based on observations and customer surveys in the Les Anglais microgrid – includes, for example family members, grid enabled businesses, customers access to cold drinks,

25 Reflects a lack of baseline information on marginal abatement costs in Haiti, particularly for the towns of focus. 26 Based off of initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux) 27 Based off initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux)

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connection requests pending.

population (direct)

0.4 % of total population (indirect)

0.8 % of total population (direct)

1.7% of total population (indirect)

more accessible phone charging, etc.

Total population of Haiti is estimated at 11 million people.

M1.0 Reduced emissions through increased low-emission energy access and power generation

M1.1 Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2eq) reduced or avoided as a result of Fund funded projects/programmes –gender-sensitive energy access power generation (sub-indicator)

Pre-grid baseline surveys of consumption and generation, smart meter data and generation system data for grid operations

0tCO2eq 1,985 MtCO2eq/year28

10,721 MT CO2/year

214,414 MT CO2

eq reductions over 20 years

The methodology outlined in CDM AMS-I.L Small-scale Methodology Electrification of rural communities using renewable energy Version 3.0 29 was selected because of its alignment with project activities, namely the construction of renewable energy microgrids in brown and greenfield communities (See Annex 16a and Annex 16b for full write-up).

A1.0 Increased resilience and enhanced livelihoods of the most vulnerable people, communities and regions

A1.1 Number of males and females benefiting from the adoption of diversified, climate-resilient livelihood options (including fisheries, agriculture, tourism, etc.)

1.1 Business accompaniment reports, Enèji Pwòp records of electric equipment sold or leased, SparkMeter and customer registration data to measure use of business-

489 connections in Les Anglais (approximately 2,445 direct beneficiaries provided with clean energy) and 159 connections in Tiburon

4,223 additional households and businesses (est. 21,115 direct beneficiaries) provided with clean energy and the associated cost savings30 Additional

16,794 additional households and businesses (est. 83,970 direct beneficiaries) provided with clean energy and the associated cost

We assume 5 direct individual beneficiaries per connection – this is in line with generally accepted people/hh assumptions for Haiti

Energy savings from clean energy access enable improved livelihoods both from new income opportunities as well as savings against the status quo. Adaptation methodology uses BRACED 3A framework – more

28 Based off of initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux) 29 AMS-I.L.: Electrification of rural communities using renewable energy --- Version 3.0, retrieved from https://cdm.unfccc.int/methodologies/DB/CCZKY3FSL1T28BNEGDRSCKS0CY0WVA 30 Based off initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux)

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related electric equipment

(approximately 795 direct beneficiaries). 87 streetlights currently across Les Anglais and Tiburon.

470 streetlights added.

At least 8 high-impact SME support cases for climate-adapted income

savings. Additional 1755 streetlights added.

At least 22 high-impact SME support cases for climate-adapted income

details can be seen in Annex 13.

A3.0 Increased resilience of intrastructure and the built environment to climate change

3.1 Number and value of physical assets made more resilient to climate variability and change, considering human benefits (reported where applicable)

Receipts and invoices; commissioning documents

2 solar battery diesel hybrid microgrids valued at an estimated US$1.4 million

8 additional solar + battery microgrids valued at US$5.3 million

22 additional solar+battery microgrids valued at US$31.8 million

Valuation includes the US$ value of capital costs for microgrid components, but does not include other costs like construction and commissioning. Distribution components are also left out of these calculations.

D.3. Outcomes measured by GCF indicators

Expected Outcomes Indicator

Means of Verification (MoV)

Baseline

Target

Assumptions Mid-term (if applicable)

Final

M6.0 Increased number of small, medium and large low-emission power suppliers

M6.2 Number of households, and individuals (males and females) with improved access to low-emission energy sources

SparkMeter data + Enèji Pwòp customer contracts (gender of head of household signing the contract shall be noted) + customer surveys for beneficiaries/household

489 connections in Les Anglais (approximately 2,445 direct beneficiaries provided with clean energy) and 159 connections in Tiburon (approxim

4,223 additional grid connections and 21,115 individuals directly impacted (~50%m/50%f) 31

Additional 470 streetlights added.

Additional 16,794 grid connections and 83,970 individuals directly impacted (~50%m/50%f). Additional 1,755 streetlights added.

We do not disaggregate connections by household or SME because the vast majority of SMEs in rural Haiti are home-based businesses.

We assume 5 direct individual beneficiaries per connection – this is in line with generally accepted people/hh assumptions for Haiti

31 Based off of initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux)

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ately 795 direct beneficiaries)

M6.3 MWs of low emission energy capacity installed, generated and/or rehabilitated as a result of GCF support

Grid commissioning documents

Les Anglais 93.3kWp

Tiburon 95.04kwp

Additional 0.951 MWp32 installed

5.839 additional MWp installed

Capacity values are reported in kWp and MWp, but effective solar capacity and nameplate capacity will also be tracked

M5.0 Strengthened institutional and regulatory systems

M5.1 Institutional and regulatory systems that improve incentives for low emission planning and development and their effective implementation

ANARSE decrees and decisions, ANARSE regulations, ANARSE guidance documents, other GoH documents, reports or guidance materials issued by WorldBank SREP Program for Haiti

Baseline regulatory, policy, and investment environment for microgrid development is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, particularly with regards to the development process, tariffs, taxes, permitting, etc.

At least 2 coordination meetings with other stakeholders in the microgrid space for prioritization and level-setting

Established advocacy and communications plan based on lessons learned and coordination meetings for prioritization of needed regulatory and policy changes

Lessons learned publication

Lessons learned reports and documents have been communicated to ANARSE and other institutions including international institutions working in the microgrid electrification space and made publicly available on the EarthSpark website

Regulatory and Investment

This indicator focuses on coordination amongst key microgrid stakeholders to help drive advocacy for changes to the regulatory, policy, and investment environment.

Scorecard for Regulatory/policy and investment frameworks strengthened and integrated into central planning for microgrids and electrification is proposed as follows:

0 – No additional strategies/policies supporting microgrids and electrification; No engagement of public/private sector actors by ANARSE and other regulatory institutions to enhance microgrid

32 Based off of connections from initial 8 microgrids (Beaumont, Casse, Chardonnierre, Corail, Ile a Vache, La Cahouane, Pestel, Roseaux)

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(including WTP study) and stakeholder priorities are initially communicated to ANARSE and other institutions and published on EarthSpark website

Scorecard Rank: at least 2

investment environment

1 – Plans exists to integrate conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation, such as appropriate subsidies, tax incentives, concession terms, technical standards, and tariff requirements into central/sectoral planning; Commitments or plans exist to consult public/private sector actors by ANARSE and other regulatory institutions to enhance microgrid investment environment, but no action.

2 – Draft or slow progression for integration of conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation, such as appropriate subsidies, tax incentives, concession terms, technical standards, and tariff requirements into central/sectoral planning; Limited engagement of public/private sector actors by ANARSE and other regulatory institutions with no impacts on microgrid investment environment.

3 – Conducive policies for rural

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microgrid development are embedded into principal planning, but are not utilized or in need of significant revision and there is limited operationalization of policies; Engagement of some public/private sector partners, with limited impact on microgrid investment environment.

4 – Conducive policies for rural microgrid development are being used to inform planning decisions and processes to moderate effect, but need modest improvements. Engagement of key public/private sector partners with moderate impact on microgrid investment environment.

5 – Conducive policies for rural microgrid development are being used to inform planning decisions and processes and are having a major impact. Strong engagement of public/private sector partners, significant impact on microgrid investment environment, and plans/structures are in place for continued engagement

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A5.0 Strengthened institutional and regulatory systems for climate-responsive planning and development

A5.1 Institutional and regulatory systems that improve incentives for climate resilience and their effective implementation.

ANARSE decrees and decisions, ANARSE regulations, ANARSE guidance documents, other GoH documents, reports or guidance materials issued by WorldBank SREP Program for Haiti

Baseline regulatory, policy, and investment environment for microgrid development is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, particularly with regards to the development process, tariffs, taxes, permitting, etc.

At least 2 coordination meetings with other stakeholders in the microgrid space for prioritization and level-setting

Established advocacy and communications plan based on lessons learned and coordination meetings for prioritization of needed regulatory and policy changes

Lessons learned and priorities are initially communicated to ANARSE and other institutions

Lessons learned reports and documents have been communicated to ANARSE and other institutions including international institutions working in the microgrid electrification space

Regulatory and Investment Scorecard Rank: at least 2

This indicator focuses on coordination amongst key microgrid stakeholders to help drive advocacy for changes to the regulatory, policy, and investment environment.

Scorecard: Same as Above

A7.0 Strengthened adaptive capacity and reduced exposure to climate risks

A7.1 Use by vulnerable households, communities, businesses and public-sector services of Fund supported tools, instruments, strategies and activities to respond to climate change and variability

SparkMeter data + Enèji Pwòp customer contracts (gender of head of household signing the contract shall be noted) + customer surveys for

648 customers with access to reliable climate-resilient energy sources

Baseline energy

4,223 customers with access to reliable climate-resilient energy sources

10% of direct project

16,794 customers with access to reliable climate-resilient energy sources

30% of direct

Tools, instruments and strategies are focused on utilizing clean energy from microgrids to enable climate-resilient livelihoods and improved adaptive capacity from energy access. Specific “tools and instruments” will vary between microgrids, but in general these

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beneficiaries/households; SME surveys and assessments

literacy beneficiaries is not tracked

79 productive use of energy customers currently in Les Anglais and 61 in Tiburon (chillers, water pumps, freezers, woodworking, milling, threshers, etc.)

beneficiaries in new microgrid locations with improved energy literacy including knowledge of available technologies for climate adapted livelihoods

250 climate adapted productive use of energy customers (chillers, water pumps, freezers, woodworking, milling, threshers, etc.)

project beneficiaries in new microgrid locations with improved energy literacy including knowledge of available technologies for climate adapted livelihoods

500 climate adapted productive use of energy customers (chillers, water pumps, freezers, woodworking, milling, threshers, etc.)

will promote both productive uses of electricity and general savings from clean energy for household energy budgets.

D.4. Arrangements for Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation (max. 300 words) In addition to the arrangements laid out in the Accreditation Master Agreement (e.g. annual performance reports), project/programme specific institutional and implementation arrangements for monitoring, reporting and evaluation will be established by NEFCO in agreement with GCF. As with all projects financed by NEFCO, it expects to monitor the project in accordance with all relevant internal policies and procedures. It expects to undertake progress monitoring missions, at a minimum annually, during the first five years of the Project when the construction activities in Haiti are greatest. The Project’s M&E plan will evaluate the project on three tiers. • The first tier will assess the Corporate Development, considering such elements as legal affairs, concessions, funding and

funder reporting.

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• The second tier will monitor the development of a microgrid, from the initial legal registration and site surveys through to grid commissioning. Note that this tier is distinct in that it is designed for evaluation of a single grid, whereas the other two tiers are for the entirety of the 22 planned grids.

• The third and final tier will assess the project’s operations, including capturing the development of new grids and connections, the anticipated direct and indirect benefits, and the greenhouse gas emissions reductions. And perhaps most importantly, it will monitor the grid availability, a key performance indicator which will quantify the percentage of time the commissioned grids are operational.

Independent mid-term and final evaluations will be commissioned and procured by NEFCO with timing appropriate to the duration of the financing agreement (s). An interim evaluation may also be undertaken after the initial grant phase (3 years). Additional monitoring and evaluation activities related to indicator collection and impact evaluation studies may also be undertaken.

E. EXPECTED PERFORMANCE AGAINST INVESTMENT CRITERIA E.1. Impact potential (max. 300 words) E.1.1. Expected tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2 eq) to be reduced or avoided (Mitigation and cross-cutting)

Annual 10,721 tCO2 eq/Year

Lifetime 214,414 tCO2 eq

E.1.2. Expected total number of direct and indirect beneficiaries, disaggregated by gender (Adaptation and Cross-cutting)

Direct33 83,970 At least 50% of which female

Indirect34 184,734 At least 50% of which female

*For both, Specify the % of female against the total number. E.1.3. Percentage of beneficiaries relative to total population35

Direct 0.8 (Expressed as %) of the country Indirect 1.7 (Expressed as %) of the country

E.1.4 The Project offers a high potential to contribute to the achievement of the GCF’s objectives and result areas in Haiti, one of the most climate vulnerable locations in the western Hemisphere, where there is already evidence of climate change, including higher mean temperatures, increased storm frequency, and altered rainfall patterns. First and foremost, in terms of mitigation, the project addresses reduced emissions by deploying clean energy microgrids displacing baseline energy emissions from kerosene, candles, individual diesel, etc. as well as existing diesel mini-grids. Annual Emissions Reductions: 10,721 MT /year. Over the 20-year lifespan: 214,414 MT (See Annex 16a and 16b for GHG calculation methodology.) For adaptation, the project focuses on improving the resilience of the most vulnerable people and communities by improving the adaptive, anticipatory, and absorptive capacities of communities and households to climate change through improved and alternative livelihoods, access to basic services, and a flexible less vulnerable grid that can recover faster from natural disasters than central grids. 36 Total Households and Businesses Supported: 16,794 households and businesses (est. 83,870 individuals) with improved resiliency to climate change Productive Use of Energy: At least 22 high-impact SME support cases for climate-adapted income

33 Assumes 5 direct beneficiaries per connection – in line with Haiti statistics for ~5 persons/household 34 11 indirect beneficiaries per connection based on observations and customer surveys in the Les Anglais microgrid – includes, for example family members, grid enabled businesses, customers access to cold drinks, more accessible phone charging, etc. 35 Uses 11 million people for total population in Haiti 36 Siemens, “Resilient by Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid” (2018), Available at: https://microgridknowledge.com/white-paper/mini-grids/

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(See Annex 13 – Climate Baseline for more in depth discussion of climate benefits aligned with GCF’s performance measurement framework)

E.2. Paradigm shift potential (max. 300 words) The status quo for many rural communities in Haiti is characterized by a depressed local economy, food insecurity, and very high levels of poverty and unemployment. While people in these areas often have very little disposable income, they nevertheless pay extremely high prices for low-quality fuels like kerosene, candles, diesel, charcoal, and 3rd party battery charging services. Not only are these fuels inconvenient and expensive, they are often also bad for people’s health and the environment (see Annex 14 – Tariff Justification).

The project proposes to change this paradigm by expanding EarthSpark’s proven microgrid model that leverages clean energy, storage, smart grid infrastructure, and customer participation to help rural Haitians access basic services and economic opportunities near where they live by providing affordable, reliable electricity, along with local business support, ‘energy literacy’ training, local energy governance capacity building, and an overarching gender inclusive approach.

Further, establishing a foundation of clean, reliable, and affordable electricity can fundamentally change how communities in rural Haiti are able to plan for and respond to climate change by enabling new technology, approaches, and indeed resources for long-term adaptation. New enterprises and income, islanding and sustained power for critical services like health clinics and food distribution, load balancing for outages, and distributed generation and spatial diversification for faster grid recovery times are all avenues enabled by microgrid electrification. 37 38 39 In addition to these benefits, the project also adopts two other pathways for driving transformational change. The first is through gender empowerment and EarthSpark’s “Feminist Electrification” platform which directly addresses the power dynamics and inequity of opportunities that persist as key underlying drivers for vulnerability to climate change. The second pathway is through advocacy for transformational shifts in policy that will change the way the country approaches the issues of electrification and community climate resiliency (Additional discussion of status quo, barriers and theory of change in Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study).

37 Siemens, “Resilient by Design: Enhanced Reliability and Resiliency for Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid” (2018), Available at: https://microgridknowledge.com/white-paper/mini-grids/ 38 NREL, Distributed Generation to Support Development-Focused Climate Action (2016); Available at: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/66597.pdf 39 IRENA, Off-grid renewable energy solutions to expand electricity access: An opportunity not to be missed (2019); Available at: https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2019/Jan/IRENA_Off-grid_RE_Access_2019.pdf

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The proposed project can catalyze impact beyond a one-off programme investment in a number of ways:

• This Project offers the opportunity to rapidly accelerate the shift to off-grid electrification in Haiti, and change risk perceptions and the investment climate for such investments.

• The Project offers ample opportunity for scaling up and replication, particularly in the small island developing country context and offers associated benefits in knowledge sharing and learning. EarthSpark has demonstrated that the innovations and business models it develops for rural Haiti are relevant to other geographies. The most notable example of this to-date is SparkMeter, EarthSpark’s smart meter spin-off company which is now serving microgrid operators in 25 countries. EarthSpark’s ‘feminist electrification’ approach of microgrid development and operations has also been recognized as a globally relevant methodology. This Project shall not only scale low-emissions energy access to dozens of towns in rural Haiti, it will also solidify clean energy microgrids as the most direct approach to reliably electrifying rural communities globally.

• In particular, the lessons learned and proof of concept achieved in this Project (including productive use of energy, 100% RE, etc.) shall be well documented and widely shared in order to influence global perceptions of what is possible in the energy access arena and to accelerate the energy transition in the region.

• By supporting a frontrunner in the development of rural electrification in Haiti, the Project will provide an excellent demonstration effect, enhance technology and knowhow transfer and contribute to the creation and reinforcement of an enabling environment for microgrids including regulatory framework and policy reform.

Expanded barriers and theory of change discussion can be seen in Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study.

E.3. Sustainable development (max. 300 words)

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Economic co-benefits

By supplying affordable and clean sources of energy, ESI’s business is also expected to create additional economic opportunities, primarily through local job creation, and development of entrepreneurial opportunities. Specifically, through ESI’s experience in developing the Les Anglais grid, where 4 direct and 3 indirect permanent jobs were created through the Haitian social enterprise, Enèji Pwòp, S.A. The construction phase directly employed 20 unskilled and 5 highly skilled local laborers in addition to employing several local firms. Phase 3 is expected to generate an additional 50 direct and 80 indirect permanent jobs and an additional 500 temporary jobs through the staggered construction phases. Secondary job and economic opportunities are also created through the supply of reliable electricity. For example, past experiences have demonstrated that households with stable access to electricity and some savings in place can purchase refrigerators that can better preserve perishable goods, which they can in turn sell within the community. This indirect result of ESI’s development of micro-grids will further allow economic growth within certain households and communities. Household savings are also identified as a co-benefit. Modest HHs on EarthSpark’s existing grid are saving 80% of their pre-grid energy expenditure. This money is now available for the HHs to use elsewhere, including in economic activities, education, and resilience-building investments (See Annex 14 – Tariff Affordability).

Through ESI’s local partner, Enèji Pwòp, S.A., employment and capacity building of local work force(s) in each municipality and regionally, ESI will help create immediate jobs, access to basic infrastructure, and income opportunities, thus helping to support the development of a sustainable and inclusive economy. This includes a focus on developing opportunities for women, particularly in the technical workforce, through development of recruitment support and employment requirements for partner contracting.

Moreover, the development of these economic opportunities is consistent with the World Bank Group’s general strategy for Haiti, mainly “generating greater economic opportunities outside Port-au-Prince by increasing energy access and developing renewable energy.”40

Social co-benefits

The Project, on one side, enables women that may otherwise be spending time collecting charcoal/diesel can now use it to study, and on the other side provides electricity for powering learning tools, such as TV and radios. Past experiences have demonstrated that households with stable access to electricity are often associated with the improved household environment for education. Additionally, PUE applications can lead to improved food and water security and provision of basic services like healthcare. Finally, past microgrid customers have reported increased feeling of safety from provision of streetlighting, particularly for women.

Environmental + Health co-benefits

Despite over 90% of households in Haiti using charcoal or other biomass for cooking, this project isn’t directly targeting electrification of cooking loads. This is largely because the penetration of and access to electric alternatives for cooking in the microgrid locations is limited because of limitations on market access and logistics, but more critically the high price point of electric cooking appliances and fuel compared to existing alternatives. To the extent that there is displacement of cooking emissions in the project areas, it is assumed to be minimal, and therefore not included in this conservative estimate of benefits. However, EarthSpark is preparing a pilot project that could lead to the adoption of electric appliances for cooking which would directly offset charcoal use. The climate and health impacts of such a switch would be notable, and this Project is laying the foundation for such work in the future if cooking pilot results prove promising. Coupled with inefficient cooking methods, the usage of charcoal results in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and short-lived climate pollutants relative to population size, thus posing significant health risks. In particular, the emission of dangerous levels of particulate matter contributes to household air pollution (HAP), which according to some estimates, result in 8000 premature deaths annually.41 ESI anticipates that its plan would alleviate environmental pressures through decreased charcoal consumption, uptake of improved cooking methods, and the subsequent reduction and mitigation of GHG emissions. Importantly, the adoption of clean cooking appliances will also result in

40 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview#2 41 Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves; https://cleancookstoves.org/binary-data/RESOURCE/file/000/000/476-1.pdf

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increased health benefits, through the reduction in acute and chronic illnesses related to HAP. In addition, harmful cooking approaches often disproportionately affect women, who often have greater exposure to HAP.42 Gender-sensitive development impact

ESI has mainstreamed gender considerations into its business practice through its “Feminist Electrification” approach to microgrid development and operations that was named a 2018 UNFCCC Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activity. The approach integrates a gender-lens specifically into 5 key pillars of microgrid development – infrastructure planning, training and employment, sme promotion, domestic energy use, and community resource availability. In Les Anglais, ESI prioritized reaching out to women for training as clean energy and micro-grid entrepreneurs, as customers, and employees. Anecdotally, having all-female teams climbing ladders and manage micro-grid planning has challenged gender stereotypes held by some in the inaugural town of Les Anglais. ESI is also committed to supporting technical apprenticeships for females in this field through its partner Eneji Pwop, and to continue encouraging female entrepreneurship.

Viewed in the context of the project, the following actions and outcomes are envisioned as part of the Gender Action Plan and overall Feminist Electrification Approach (See Annex 4 for a detailed description of the Feminist Electrification Approach and Gender Action Plan):

• Infrastructure Planning – Increasing women’s roles in planning, identifying key energy needs and priorities for women, and ensuring that the microgrids are built and operated to meet these identified needs and priorities. For the project this will mostly focus on ensuring representation from women within the Energy Committees in the microgrid towns (at least 50%), conducting predevelopment surveys with a specific focus on gathering gender-disaggregated data, utilizing that data to better tailor the design and operations of the grids, and elevating the discussion of Feminist Electrification to national and international dialogues.

• Training and Employment – Increasing women’s capacity in the technical workforce and directly and indirectly develop professional opportunities for women, particularly within the technical workforce. Specifically, the project will be developing and implementing a recruitment strategy to better support applications from women, demonstrating women’s leadership within Enèji Pwòp management (At least 40%), and requiring partners, particularly EPCs and installers to employ a workforce that is at least 25% women.

• SME Promotion – Increasing support and income for women-led SMEs by increasing training and capacity building and expanding opportunities for access to finance. The project will specifically focus on increasing profits for women led SMEs in the target communities (8% increase) and extending microloans to women-led SMEs (at least 11 women-led SMEs supported by project end)

• Domestic Energy Use – Improving health outcomes and increasing usable work and leisure hours by providing electric lighting alternatives and limiting exposure to kerosene for indoor lighting. The project will be connecting households with electricity service and enabling them to reduce or eliminate kerosene consumption (80% of homes connected will eliminate kerosene use). Additionally, the project is aiming to provide 24-hour electricity service which greatly extends working and leisure hours for target households.

• Community Resource Availability – Improving women’s safety and women’s health by providing electric street lights and providing electric lighting and tools into child birthing rooms. The project is aiming to provide streetlighting for 80% of the distribution footprint and connect all major birthing facilities in the microgrid communities to electricity service.

E.4. Needs of recipient (max. 300 words) Natural and human-induced hazards (storms, floods, and droughts) already have highly destructive impacts on buildings, land, water, livestock, and people in Haiti. The poorest Haitians, including low-income women, children, and elderly people, are especially vulnerable. There is already evidence of climate change, including higher mean temperatures and altered rainfall patterns. Without adaptation actions, climate change is likely to magnify the damaging effects of hazards and to increase poverty. Haiti faces serious governance, capacity, and finance challenges. Capacity is weak because of a lack of sensitization to climate change, inadequate technical knowledge, and meagre finances.

42 Haiti & The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Frequently Asked Questions (2017) https://cleancookstoves.org/binary-data/RESOURCE/file/000/000/476-1.pdf

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Haiti’s energy sector is characterized by low access to basic electricity services, intensive use of biomass (over 75% of total primary energy consumption in 2013) and reliance on imported fossil fuels (21% of primary energy and more than 80% of the electricity mix). Total energy and electricity consumption per capita are amongst the lowest in the world. Only a third of Haitians have access to electricity (less than 10 percent in rural areas). Despite low electrification rates, power demand has been growing rapidly, while on-grid generation capacity has increased only marginally, resulting in unmet demand, deteriorating reliability on the grid, and the informal development of auto-generation as back-up. Many who are connected to the national grid receive power for only a few hours per week at unscheduled times. In the absence of reliable electricity, economic growth is stifled, and households must resort to costly fuel-burning lighting and cooking solutions, which also present serious indoor health threats. Though limited in availability, the most recent willingness to pay studies43 for energy substitutes in Haiti highlighted that “more than 50% of households pay more than $20 per month for energy substitutes. The initial experience of off-grid energy companies in Haiti is positive, showing that rural customers are willing to pay for reliable electricity, particularly if they can control their expenses, such as through pre-paid meters.” In the South, South East, Nippes, and Grand Anse regions that EarthSpark is focused on, average current substitutable energy expenses ranges from $10.66 USD – $20.78 USD per month (980 HTG – 1911 HTG). User data from ESI’s existing grids in Haiti indicates that modest homes save over 80% of their pre-grid energy expenditures once they connect to a clean energy microgrid. Businesses often save over 50% of their energy expenditures compared to their pre-grid spending. This is detailed further in Annex 14. As mentioned above and discussed in detail in Annex 15 – Pre-Feasibility Study and Annex 20 – Stakeholder Engagement, given the limited availability of town level WTP values, as part of its pre-development work in potential microgrid locations, EarthSpark conducts extensive surveys of individual households assessing current energy expenditures/needs, interest in electricity service, and feasibility of sustained purchasing to more specifically match and meet the needs of recipients in target communities. Further, these surveys are designed to specifically identify the differentiated needs of women and men when it comes to energy access and opportunity (see Annex 4). All of this enables EarthSpark to better design and tailor its microgrids and operations to meet the individual needs of our customers (see Annex 20 – Stakeholder Engagement). Special attention has also been given to the issue of cross subsidization of low-income customers by business and higher-consumption (higher income) customers. Essentially, by encouraging business and other high-consumption customers to use more electricity both through attractive rates and programs for expanded use of electric technology, current rate structures are effectively increasing the total volume of financing received (increasing total kWh used) which allows for a greater portion of capital costs to be borne by these higher income customers (i.e. cross subsidizing the lower income customers) (see Annex 14 -Tariff Justification for additional details). To further justify tariffs and affordability, upon the end of implementation of the first phase of the Project and commissioning of initial 10 microgrids, the Executing Entity will present to GCF a detailed report on affordability and willingness to pay prepared on the basis of collected data and applicable established methodologies utilized in similar projects. The report will outline quantifiable metrics and key findings, as well as, specific undertakings that will be made by the Executing Entity for the purpose of implementing these findings in the subsequent microgrids for the purpose of improvement of the affordability of the renewable electricity for the poorest customers and overall effectiveness of the Project. In addition to the above focus on affordability and willingness to pay, EarthSpark has put in place an extensive stakeholder engagement process to ensure that the needs and priorities of different stakeholders are being identified and risks are being managed effectively. This starts with regular and ongoing engagement with the municipalities, particularly the mayor’s office to identify energy needs, establish public-private partnerships, and identify suitable generation sites. Alongside this, EarthSpark proactively works with ANARSE (energy regulator in Haiti) and the national utility Eléctricité d’Haïti (EDH) to secure the appropriate permitting for operations and also support national priorities and efforts in the electricity sector. Critically, EarthSpark also works to directly engage with consumers in the towns through surveys (part of pre-development work identifying key energy priorities and needs as well as the baseline energy situation), energy literacy outreach, and by establishing Energy Committees for improved local connectivity to ongoing operations (see Sub-component 2.1). The project also directly works with SMEs and local businesses, particularly women-led SMEs, to identify key opportunities for income development through expanded applications of Productive Use of Energy (see Sub-component 2.2). The combination of these steps helps to ensure that EarthSpark is dynamically supporting the specific and evolving needs of the communities it serves. See Annex 20 for more information on the specific stakeholder engagement plan for each stakeholder and the specific stakeholder engagement

43 World Bank SREP Investment Plan for Haiti, 2015, Available at: http://ciat.gouv.ht/sites/default/files/docs/Plan%20Investissement%20SREP_Document%20Principal_30mars.pdf

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 37 of 39

activities tied to each individual project component, as well as the specific risks and risk mitigation measures for stakeholders throughout the development and project cycles. Recent dramatic currency devaluation is seen as both a symptom of and a danger for the fragile energy sector, making imported fuels even more costly. Haiti had been a PetroCaribe beneficiary with very favourable import terms from Venezuela. The end of PetroCaribe has led to increased political tensions both because of the additional budgetary strain from the more apparent trade imbalance and because of allegations of corruption. The government has designated a regulatory body for energy (ANARSE) which is nascent but publicly very supportive of private sector microgrids. Many international bodies are supporting the development of the agency, and EarthSpark is contributing real-world microgrid data and operational perspective to help ensure that enabling policies will be established. E.5. Country ownership (max. 500 words) The project/programme contributes to a number of Haiti identified national priorities: • Climate: The Project’s operations and business methods are aligned with Haiti meeting its Nationally Determined

Contribution (NDC) goals, namely, to reduce relative emissions 31% by 2030. It will also support project goals outlined in the Second National Communication on Climate Change to expand renewable energy particularly in neighborhoods and communities.

• Energy: Currently, the legal and regulatory frameworks for off grid access are evolving and need to be further strengthened to avoid legal uncertainty related to this Project, as well as subsequent phases of the Project. GoH and international funders are currently working with the relatively new energy regulator in Haiti to clarify the concession and regulation process. Haiti’s current President Jovenel Moïse has named electricity a priority, and there is great potential for President Moïse and his government to unlock microgrid potential for rural Haiti with thoughtful electricity regulation. The GoH is working closely with the World Bank through their SREP program and with other international funders to manage a series of RFPs for community-level microgrids. This process is not only expected to provide results-based grant funding for the sector but also much-needed regulatory clarity by the beginning of 2020.

EarthSpark has been working on energy access in rural Haiti since 2009 with a deeply community-minded approach. It has taken many steps to ensure country ownership, including engagement with relevant NDAs on the funding proposal design and applicable no-objection letter, and to ensure that country ownership is embedded in the scope and concept of the Project. In addition to building two microgrids (the first of which launched in 2012 and second of which in 2019) EarthSpark and its local social enterprise partner, Enèji Pwòp, conducted a national microgrid market assessment in 2015 and have since secured LOIs from mayors in 18 pre-qualified towns in the target geography for the Project. Over 50 towns are strong candidates for microgrids, so should any LOIs not be secured or any towns be excluded for any other reason, there are plenty of additional towns to complete the Project. To effectively select sub-projects, a combination of additional factors beyond this initial suitability are considered including the technical proposals and RFP from ANARSE the energy regulator in Haiti, pre-development surveys, ESIAs, community engagement, and specific metrics like geography (i.e. focused in the Southern part of Haiti), population density, support and buy-in from local policy makers particularly mayors, types of existing economic activity, quality of roads/entry points, existing distribution networks. In addition to this the sub-projects will be subjected to exclusionary criteria relevant to maintaining Category C risk levels (Additional detail on sub-project selection can be seen in Annex 19). As highlighted above, multi-stakeholder engagement and associated consultations have been conducted, and will continue to form a key part of the project development cycle. EarthSpark first consulted/consults directly with municipalities to understand the energy and electricity situation. Following this EarthSpark worked/works with mayors and communities to identify municipally-owned land that would be appropriate for the power generation site. EarthSpark will continue identifying these generation sites and will continue its work with the municipalities and the Ministry of Finance towards setting up a public-private structure for municipal-level microgrid operations. In addition to these consultations, EarthSpark proactively works with ANARSE (energy regulator in Haiti) and the national utility Eléctricité d’Haïti (EDH) to secure the appropriate permitting for operations and tariff recovery. Critically, EarthSpark also works to establish Energy Committees for improved local connectivity to ongoing operations (see Sub-component 2.1). By setting up the local energy committees and the municipal-level PPP structures, the Project is ensuring multiple levels of local governance in addition to the participation of the national regulator and relevant ministries. See Annex 20 for

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 38 of 39

more information on the specific stakeholder engagement plan for each stakeholder and the specific stakeholder engagement activities tied to each individual project component, as well as the specific risks and risk mitigation measures for stakeholders throughout the development and project cycles. E.6. Efficiency and effectiveness

E.6.1. Estimated cost per t CO2 eq, defined as total investment cost / expected lifetime emission reductions (Mitigation and Cross-cutting)

(a) Total project financing US$ 45.748 million (b) Requested GCF amount US$ 9.90 million (c) Expected lifetime emission reductions 214,414 tCO2eq (d) Estimated cost per tCO2eq (d = a / c) US$ 128 / tCO2eq44

(e) Estimated GCF cost per tCO2eq removed (e = b / c) US$ 27.7 / tCO2eq45

E.6.2. Expected volume of finance to be leveraged by the proposed project/programme and as a result of the Fund’s financing, disaggregated by public and private sources (Mitigation and Cross-cutting)

(f) Total finance leveraged US$ 35.848 million

(g) Public source finance leveraged US$ 7.967 million

(h) Private source finance leveraged US$ 27.881 million

(i) Total Leverage ratio (i = f / b) 3.62 (j) Public source leverage ratio (j = g / b) 0.80 (k) Private source leverage ratio (k = h / b) 2.82

E.6.3

By bringing together GCF with IDFC, the World Bank, other grant-makers, and social impact investors, the Project is crowding in different and complementary funders none of whom would be able to participate alone to achieve a Project of this scale. The scale of the project, in turn, makes it both more impactful and more cost-effective than what could have been achieved at the very slow rate that small scale, grant-making alone would enable. Given the relatively high risks associated with mingrids, relatively low returns in addition to funders’ overall risk perceptions of doing business in Haiti, without the proposed level of concessionality the Project would not be possible at this scale. If further investments in clean energy microgrids as a result of the track record and enabling environment built by this project are taken into account, then the co-financing ratio, including leveraged funds from private investors for additional rural communities across Haiti will be much higher.

The project applies a minimum concessional approach whereby it seeks to provide the least concessional funding that makes the project viable. GCF funding as concessionary subdebt will play a catalytic role in crowding in not just development finance debt, but also additional investors (both equity and debt) for this Project or future expansion of micro-grids to more communities. Best available technologies and mini-grid practices have been considered and applied by ESI. Because of the rising costs and frequent shortages of diesel in Haiti, the Project is seeking to build 100% renewable energy powered microgrids that will offer at least 99% service availability to customers. By installing solar PV capacity beyond what would be used in a hybrid system, and by encouraging user participation through smart-meter enabled demand-management tariffs, EarthSpark sees the path to 100% renewable energy as not only possible, but deeply demonstrative and ultimately cost-effective.

44 Calculated using 60% of total financing to account for mitigation and adaptation split of financing 45 Calculated using 60% of total financing to account for mitigation and adaptation split of financing

GREEN CLIMATE FUND SAP FUNDING PROPOSAL |Page 39 of 39

* Please note that a funding proposal will be considered complete only upon receipt of all the applicable supporting documents.

F. ANNEXES

F.1. Mandatory annexes

☒ Annex 1 NDA No-objection Letter(s) (Template)

☒ Annex 2a Example project level logframe (Example)

☒ Annex 2b Example timetable (Example)

☒ Annex 3 Budget plan that provides breakdown by type of expense (Template in excel sheet)

☒ Annex 4 Gender assessment and action plan (Template)

☒ Annex 5 Co-financing commitment letter

☒ Annex 6 Term sheet and evidence of internal approval

☒ Annex 7 Risk assessment and management (Template)

☒ Annex 8 Procurement plan model (Template)

☒ Annex 9a Legal Due Diligence (regulation, taxation and insurance) (Template)

☒ Annex 9b Legal Opinion/Certificate of Internal Approvals (Template)

F.2. Other annexes to be submitted when applicable/requested ☒ Annex 10 Economic and/or financial analysis

(mandatory for private-sector proposals) ☐ Annex 11 Appraisal, due diligence or evaluation report for proposals based on up-scaling or replicating a

pilot project ☒ Annex 12 Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) (Template)

☒ Annex 13 Climate Baseline

☒ Annex 14 Tariff Justification and Affordability

☒ Annex 15 Pre-Feasibility Study

☒ Annex 16a GHG Calculation Methodology

☒ Annex 16b GHG Calculation Excel Sheet

☒ Annex 17 Detailed Entity Relationships

☒ Annex 18 AE Fee Structure

☒ Annex 19 Sub Project Selection

☒ Annex 20 Stakeholder Engagement

☒ Annex 21 Lessons Learned from Microgrid Operations

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Environmental and social safeguards report form pursuant to para. 17 of the IDP

Basic project or programme information Project or programme title Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti Existence of subproject(s) to be identified after GCF Board approval

No

Sector (public or private) Private Accredited entity Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) Environmental and social safeguards (ESS) category Category C

Location – specific location(s) of project or target country or location(s) of programme

Haiti

Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) (if applicable) Date of disclosure on accredited entity’s website N/A

Language(s) of disclosure N/A Explanation on language N/A Link to disclosure N/A Other link(s) N/A Remarks N/A Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) (if applicable) Date of disclosure on accredited entity’s website N/A

Language(s) of disclosure N/A Explanation on language N/A Link to disclosure N/A Other link(s) N/A Remarks N/A Environmental and Social Management (ESMS) (if applicable) Date of disclosure on accredited entity’s website N/A

Language(s) of disclosure N/A Explanation on language N/A Link to disclosure N/A Other link(s) N/A Remarks N/A Any other relevant ESS reports, e.g. Resettlement Action Plan (RAP), Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF), Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP), IPP Framework (if applicable) Description of report/disclosure on accredited entity’s website N/A

Language(s) of disclosure N/A Explanation on language N/A Link to disclosure N/A Other link(s) N/A Remarks N/A Disclosure in locations convenient to affected peoples (stakeholders) Date N/A Place N/A Date of Board meeting in which the FP is intended to be considered Date of accredited entity’s Board meeting N/A

Date of GCF’s Board meeting N/A

Note: This form was prepared by the accredited entity stated above.

GCF/B.25/02/Add.06 Page 42

Independent Technical Advisory Panel’s assessment of SAP013

Proposal name: Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti

Accredited entity: Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)

Project/programme size: Micro

I. Assessment of the independent Technical Advisory Panel

1.1 Impact potential Scale: N/A

1.1.1. General background

1. Haiti, with a population of about 11.3 million people has an installed capacity on the national grid of about 320 MW and a peak demand of about 500 MW. The wide gap between electricity demand and supply from the grid has catalysed the use of costly fossil fuel and biomass-based lighting and cooking solutions1 in a dispersed and unorganized manner to meet the gap, with implications for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Haiti is the least electrified country in the western hemisphere with only approximately 30 per cent of the population, on national average, with access to electricity. The average in the rural areas is much lower with only about 5 to 10 per cent of the rural population having access to electricity. This low level of access to electricity further exacerbates the condition of women and young people in a country that is also the poorest in the western hemisphere, with gross domestic product per capita of USD 870 in 2018 and a Human Development Index ranking of 163 out of 188 countries in 2016.2 This project proposal plans to install 22 100 per cent microgrids in Haiti to supply electricity to consumers in carefully selected communities. The project also aims to provide local business support, energy literacy training, local energy governance capacity-building, and an overarching gender inclusive approach, all geared at ensuring the sustainability of the microgrid plan and establishing an effective way to encourage efficient use of electricity by the connected consumers. The project will provide affordable and reliable access to modern energy services in communities previously identified through extensive market scoping of the country.

2. EarthSpark International (ESI), a non-profit organization that builds business models to solve energy poverty, is the original sponsor of this project proposal. The proposal builds on its successful experience with planning, building and operating solar photovoltaic (PV) hybrid microgrids in Haiti. Some of the relevant energy access interventions that ESI has worked on (or is still working on) in rural Haiti include:

(a) In 2009−12 ESI built a network of 100 independent retailers for small-scale solar-plus cookstoves;

(b) In 2015, ESI established microgrid energy data for Haiti through a national microgrid market study;

1 While electrification of cooking to displace charcoal is not included as part of this project, ESI is preparing a pilot

project that could lead to the adoption of electric appliances for cooking which would directly offset charcoal use. The climate and health impacts of such a switch would be notable, and this project lays the foundation for such work in the future if pilot results prove promising.

2 World Bank Country Profile: Haiti (2018). Available at <https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview>.

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(c) In 2012, ESI launched Haiti’s first pre-pay microgrid, expanded to a town-sized solar

smart grid for about 2,000 people in 2015; and

(d) The second ESI grid will launch soon, and two smaller grids are in pre-development.

3. This proposed project was a result of a successful concept note submitted by ESI to the GCF mobilizing funds at scale request for proposal and was one of the top 30 project ideas selected by GCF through that process. This proposed project will be a follow-up replication of the first two microgrids sponsored successfully by ESI, which will enable it to increase its solar PV-based microgrids in Haiti from 2 to 24. The project is planned to be carried out under a primary component and three supporting components briefly described as follows:

(a) Primary component: this will involve the construction and operation of 22 clean energy microgrids in rural towns in Haiti that have been pre-selected as viable candidate towns for microgrids;

(b) The first supporting component: the principal objective will be the building of local energy literacy in towns where microgrids will be implemented;

(c) The second supporting component: this will support local businesses with the selection and trial of electric-powered equipment (high efficiency), best practice trainings, and value chain linkages to increase profitability; and

(d) The third supporting component: this will involve the development of an enabling environment for rural microgrid development and “feminist electrification” advocacy at the national and international levels. This component will also involve collating of lessons learned and best practices for conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation, such as appropriate subsidies, tax incentives, concession terms, technical standards and tariff requirements.

4. The project is expected to be funded by a combination of loan, equity and grants. GCF is requested to provide grant and debt funding. The total cost of the project of USD 47.797 million is expected to be sourced as follows:

(a) Surbordinated loan from GCF: USD 8.384 million;

(b) Grant from GCF: USD 1.4 million;

(c) Senior loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC): USD 23,.579 million;

(d) Grant from the World Bank Scaling Renewable Energy Projects (SREP)/Government of Haiti: USD 9.454 million;

(e) Contributed asset from ESI: USD 3.0 million;

(f) Dunn Family Charitable Foundation and other impact investors: USD 1.320 million; and

(g) Return of concession deposits: USD 0.662 million.

1.1.2. Climate change elements

5. The 22 microgrids that will be built under this proposal will supply primarily solar PV hybrid electricity to the end-use consumers. In the absence of this project, consumers who have very limited access to the modern grid will continue to rely on fossil fuel and biomass-based lighting and cooking solutions. Electricity from the microgrids will therefore displace carbon intensive alternatives with marked reduction in carbon footprint. In this way, the project will contribute appreciably to Haiti’s carbon emissions reduction. Thus climate change mitigation needs of the country will be delivered by this project. In addition to contributing to climate change mitigation responses, the project will also indirectly meet some climate change

GCF/B.25/02/Add.06 Page 44

adaptation needs of the country. Haiti being one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, where the cost of inaction is recognized as very high (estimated as 1.8 billion USD annually in 2025 and 3.6 billion in 20503), investment in this project can be seen as a contribution to global action to address the problems associated with GHG emissions and their effects.

6. Haiti is a country that is known to be exposed to high frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as cyclones and consequential flooding with more than 93 per cent of the country and more than 96 per cent of the population being exposed to these natural disasters. The most climate vulnerable areas of Haiti are in the project area, the southern peninsula of Haiti. These extreme weather events, which will be exacerbated in the future by climate change, are actually one of the barriers to national economic development in a small island state like Haiti. Hence it can be argued that in addition to the proposed project’s contribution to global climate mitigation, it will also indirectly catalyze the country’s adaptive capacity-strengthening taking into consideration development needs and national circumstances.

1.1.3. Time frame of results

7. The critical results expected to be achieved during the project implementation period will include: construction and operation of 22 clean energy microgrids in rural towns in Haiti that have been pre-selected as viable candidate towns for microgrids; empowering rural households and businesses to spend less on energy while accessing higher quality, healthier, more convenient energy, and improving resilience to climate change; expanding the capacity of local technicians and grid operations staff to support the reliable delivery of electricity service to rural communities including through the development of a customer short message service system for bulk communications and outreach; building local energy literacy in towns where microgrids are implemented under this programme, through empowering rural households and businesses to use electricity safely, consume wisely, and engage competently in local governance discussions about clean energy; supporting local businesses with the selection and trial of electric-powered equipment, best practice trainings, and value chain linkages to increase energy use efficiency and profitability; and developing an enabling environment for rural microgrid development and “feminist electrification” advocacy at the national and international levels including lessons learned and best practices for conducive policies for rural microgrid development and operation.

8. In the medium and longer term, following completion of the implementation, lessons learned from the experiences will be utilized to replicate the success of the intervention in other parts of Haiti, thus contributing to the national increase of access to electricity in Haiti.

1.1.4. Potential mitigation/adaptation impacts and degree of lock-in infrastructure

9. According to information included in the funding proposal, ESI, the original proponent of this project proposal, first submitted the concept to GCF under the mobilizing funds at scale request for proposal. The submission, which was made in 2017, was one of the top 30 project ideas selected by GCF through that process. Prior to this, in 2015, ESI carried out an extensive microgrid market study that covered the whole of Haiti and was used to develop a robust microgrid energy database for the country. Information presented in the pre-feasibility study also showed that given the engagement of ESI in access to sustainable energy in the country, the organization’s work has been foundational in informing local, national and international perceptions of what is possible in Haiti and, together with its Haitian partner, Enèji Pwòp, has made a strong case that over 80 towns across Haiti would be good candidates for energy access

3 See <https://www.undp.org/content/dam/haiti/docs/Protection%20de%20l%20environnement/UNDP-HT-

ProEnv-EtuEconoCC.pdf> (in French).

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microgrids. It can therefore be concluded that the proposed project interventions have been assessed to be the most suitable and feasible option to solve the low electricity access situation in Haiti. According to information presented in the pre-feasibility report, the various interventions by ESI in Haiti are receiving international recognition. For example, ESI work was cited 13 times in the World Bank’s SREP justification document for Haiti.4 The ESI grid at Les Anglais is widely viewed as the standard-bearer for clean energy microgrid service provision in Haiti.

10. The intervention is expected to deliver GHG emissions reduction when the clean energy microgrid displaces the pre-project higher carbon fuels that are used to meet energy needs of the people. The baseline situation in the areas where these microgrids will be implemented is the unreliable supply of electricity. As discussed in the pre-feasibility study report, in the absence of reliable electricity, economic growth is stifled, and households must resort to costly fossil and biomass lighting and cooking solutions, which not only contribute to GHG emissions but also present serious respiratory health threats. The adaptive coping mechanism of the rural poor will also be enhanced when access to modern electricity made available through this project becomes a reality. A summary of the GHG emission reductions and direct and indirect beneficiaries who will be impacted by the project are presented as follows:

(a) The expected tonness of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) that will be reduced by implementation of the microgrid project has been estimated to be about 214,414 tCO2eq for the entire lifetime of the project;

(b) The microgrid facilities that will be implemented by the proposed project, will provide access to electric energy for up to 22 small towns and settlements located in the poorest areas of Haiti that are currently off-grid. This will contribute to improved electricity access in these rural areas and also provide a robust platform for achieving more electricity access improvements in Haiti; and

(c) It has been estimated that beneficiaries number about 83,970 of which 50 per cent are females. Indirect beneficiaries are also expected to be about 184,734 with the same percentage of females.

11. The project will invest in durable goods such as: solar PV systems; electricity distribution assets; electricity meters (smart meters); and other associated items. The project is clearly based on the experiences gathered by ESI in developing energy access projects over the years in Haiti. Many of these durable goods have been commonly used in the two microgrids implemented in Haiti before this project and many of the concepts and strategies used were proven by the proponents. Implementation of the durable goods used in earlier ESI projects in Haiti have provided strong evidence of the concepts and it is expected that lessons learnt will be mainstreamed into implementation of the various tasks in the Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids project in Haiti. This provides critical learning that will bring positive outcomes to avoid lock-in systems and ensure climate-proof results for this intervention which can be replicated for other populations with poor access to energy.

12. The independent Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) therefore considers the project intervention to have a high impact potential.

4 Available at <http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/606711509156039620/Haiti-Renewable-Energy-for-

All-Project>.

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1.2 Paradigm shift potential Scale: N/A

1.2.1 Comprehensiveness

13. The paradigm shift objective of the project is to increase electricity access in the selected rural areas of Haiti. In the absence of this project, consumers in the project areas will not have access to modern energy. but will continue to meet their energy demand with fossil fuels. The project will involve the development of solar PV microgrids in selected areas in rural Haiti, where most households do not have access to electricity. The project elements are well aligned to the paradigm shift and the proposed theory of change and include: construction and operation of 22 clean energy microgrids; the building of local energy literacy in towns where microgrids will be implemented; support to local businesses with the selection and trial of electric-powered equipment (high efficiency), best practice trainings, and value-chain linkages; and development of an enabling environment for rural microgrid development and “feminist electrification” advocacy at the national and international levels. While the first element will provide the direct access for rural consumers in the selected areas of Haiti, the other three elements will ensure that replication of the intervention and its eventual scaling up in other parts of Haiti is enhanced.

14. The project will achieve the paradigm shift objective by expanding the proven microgrid model of ESI that leverages clean energy, storage, smart grid infrastructure, and customer participation to help rural Haitians access basic services and economic opportunities near where they live by providing affordable, reliable electricity, along with local business support, energy literacy training, local energy governance capacity-building, and an overarching gender-inclusive approach.

1.2.2 Innovation

15. When compared to the current situation in the country, it can be concluded that the project plan is innovative. First and foremost, even the main national grid does not have clean energy at the scale that will be delivered by the planned project. Various barriers ranging from lack of regulatory, country policies and lack of financing in a poor country such as Haiti have reduced the possibility of having clean energy technology to generate electricity in the country. Innovative piloting of solar PV microgrids in two rural communities in Haiti, has tested delivery strategies and can now be replicated on a larger scale in 22 rural communities.

16. Therefore, given the proposed scale, it can be concluded that the proposal is innovative and the investment will positively shift access to electricity in Haiti.

1.2.3 Enabling environment/sustainability of outcomes

17. A strategy for an enabling environment for the sustainable replicability of the project outcomes and a financial exit strategy are adequately built into and defined in the proposal as follows:

(a) In addition to delivering solar PV microgrids in 22 rural communities in Haiti, the first component of the intervention will also focus on expanding the capacity of local technicians and grid operations staff to support the reliable delivery of electricity to rural communities. This will enhance the sustainability of the intervention and the technical manpower will provide expertise needed for replicability of the intervention;

(b) The objective of the first supporting component to empower rural households and businesses to use electricity safely, consume electricity wisely, and engage competently in local governance discussions about clean energy will also enhance the intervention’s success. Lessons learned from the success of the intervention and the skills and

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capacities built will have long-term effects that will also enhance the success of future replication activities; and

(c) The third supporting component is also focused on developing an enabling environment for rural microgrid development. This should also strengthen microgrid development in Haiti beyond the present intervention.

18. Behavioural change in communities and individuals were explicitly considered in the implementation strategy presented in the funding proposal. This will be achieved through the various capacity-building opportunities built into the main component and the two supporting components. Behaviourial change will come through community engagement, which has been designed to allow ESI to work closely with the energy committees and the municipalities to ensure that goals are met and capacities are built. Although the regulatory and policy framework at the government institution level for the electricity sector and renewable energy are described as weak, intervention with government institutions is only reflected in an implicit manner.

1.2.4 Replicability and scalability/knowledge and learning

19. According to information in the funding proposal and the pre-feasibility study annex, over 100 towns and villages in the country have little or no access to electricity. Therefore there are still many communities (in addition to the 22 already selected for this current intervention) that can benefit from the concept embodied in the project proposal. ESI, together with its Haitian partner, Enèji Pwòp, has gathered information for over 80 towns across Haiti that are considered good candidates for energy access microgrids. As such, even after implementing the 22 microgrid facilities covered by this proposal, ESI and its partners already have a list of other potential towns in Haiti’s rural areas not covered by this current plan where replication and/or scale-up can be carried out.

20. The proposal provided a framework for knowledge-sharing that will enhance the success of the current intervention and will contribute to its replication and/or scale-up in other rural towns and communities. These capacity-building, training and knowledge-sharing activities are included in the primary component and the three supporting components as follows:

(a) In the primary component, apart from delivering the microgrid hardware, the capacities of local technicians and grid operations staff will be built primarily to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity services to rural communities in the 22 communities covered by this proposal. However, such capacity-building will also develop skills that will be useful during replication in other communities after this project is completed;

(b) The first supporting component will, through building local energy literacy in towns where microgrids occur, empower rural households and businesses to use electricity safely, consume electricity wisely, and engage competently in local governance discussions about clean energy. This capacity-building will also have a positive effect on the readiness of the rural households in those towns where replication will be undertaken later;

(c) The second supporting component has been designed to build the capacity of local businesses in the selection and trial of electric-powered equipment, best practice trainings, and value chain linkages to increase electricity use efficiency and profitability. Again, while this is targeted to the 22 communities covered by this proposal, lessons learned and skills acquired are expected to have a knock-on effect in the replication stages in other communities; and

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(d) The third supporting component has the key goal of creating a stable and enabling

environment for private sector engagement in rural electrification in Haiti to enable future investments in the sector. This will also have a positive effect on future replication of microgrid development in other rural towns.

21. The project will mainstream climate change mitigation measures into policies/laws, sectoral and national strategies and decision-making processes at national and local levels. This will be achieved through indirect means as the relevant ministries and agencies in Haiti will not directly implement many of the activities. However, they will be invited to participate in the training and capacity-building activities and reports of the outputs will be available for mainstreaming into the development of policies, laws, sectoral and national strategies and decision-making processes at national and local levels. Advocacy for transformational shifts in policy that will change the way Haiti approaches the issues of electrification and community climate resiliency is built into the proposal.

22. The independent TAP is of the view that given the current level of electricity access in Haiti, especially the fact that 90−95 per cent of rural inhabitants of the country do not have access to modern electricity, the paradigm shift of this intervention can be considered as high.

1.3 Sustainable development potential Scale: N/A

1.3.1 Environmental and health co-benefits

23. Electricity provided through this project will displace fossil fuels utilized by consumers in the 22 rural towns in Haiti that will be covered by the proposed project. Key baseline energy sources include: charcoal and other biomass as cooking fuels; kerosene and electricity from mostly diesel generating sets; and candles for lighting. The proposed project does not target the households in Haiti, estimated at over 90 per cent, using charcoal or other biomass for cooking, largely due to the fact that penetration of and access to electric alternatives for cooking in the microgrid locations is limited. This is partly due to limitations on market access and logistics, but more critically to the high price of electric cooking appliances and fuel compared to existing alternatives. Therefore, displacement of cooking emissions in the project areas, is assumed to be minimal. According to information presented in the funding proposal, ESI is preparing a pilot project that could lead to the adoption of electric appliances for cooking which would directly offset charcoal use. The climate and health impacts of such a switch would be notable, and the project lays the foundation for such work in the future if cooking pilot results prove promising. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that the project intervention will eventually deliver environmental and health co-benefits when electricity available from the microgrid displaces some of the current energy use bringing co-benefits from the reduced noxious pollutants and particulate matter.

24. Although a protocol that will be used to quantify positive environmental externalities through monitoring was not explicitly discussed in the funding proposal, a strategy was mentioned in the Environmental and Social Action Plan (annex 12). This states that since the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) will serve as GCF accredited entity (AE) for the project, it will oversee all ESI project activities in Haiti. As such, NEFCO project protocol will be implemented in the project. This implies that the project must be able to demonstrate that it will benefit the environment/climate in a cost-effective way. To ensure that benefits will in fact materialize, financing is released in tranches against monitored milestone results and environmental/climate outcomes will be monitored annually for the duration of the project. It can therefore be concluded that there will be a system to quantify positive environmental results through a monitoring process that will collect, archive and report according to the NEFCO protocol.

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1.3.2 Economic and social co-benefits

25. The estimation of economic benefits that will be delivered by the proposed project is based on the experience of ESI in its previous development of two microgrids in Haiti. The independent TAP has used information presented in the funding proposal to estimate some of the economic co-benefits that are likely to be delivered by this project intervention; these can be summarized as follows:

(a) Given that the construction stage of the first microgrid project built by ESI in Haiti directly employed 20 unskilled and 5 highly skilled local labourers in addition to employing several local firms, it can be estimated that replication in the selected 22 rural towns of Haiti will deliver similar results. According to the project plan, the 22 microgrids will be implemented in two phases of nearly equal number (10 in the first phase and 12 in the second). Given this phasing it can be safely concluded that hundreds of unskilled and highly skilled local labourers will be engaged during the two phases of implementation. In addition, several local firms will be engaged to provide services during project construction and for the operation and maintenance of the facilities;

(b) Secondary job and economic opportunities will also be created through the supply of reliable electricity from the microgrid. Households that will have stable access to electricity and some savings in place can purchase refrigerators that will better preserve perishable goods; in turn they can sell refrigeration services to other households that cannot afford to purchase such goods;

(c) Household savings are also expected to be engendered by development of the microgrids as rural households are expected to save 80 per cent of their pre-grid energy expenditure, when electricity from the microgrid becomes available. The savings generated can be spent elsewhere, including to support economic activities, education and resilience-building investments; and

(d) Through the capacity-building activities that are built into the project’s main and supporting components, ESI, in collaboration with its local partner, Enèji Pwòp, will help to create immediate jobs, access to basic infrastructure and income opportunities, thus helping to support the development of a sustainable and inclusive economy in Haiti.

26. Social co-benefits that will be delivered by this intervention can also be summarized as follows:

(a) When accessible to households in rural communities the electricity produced will enable women to save time they would have spent collecting charcoal, fuelwood, etc., and enable them to undertake other more productive endeavours; and

(b) Electricity from the microgrid will also power learning tools, such as television and radios, and time saved from chores can be spent on more productive and educatiional ventures. Past experiences have demonstrated that an improved household environment for education is often associated with stable access to electricity.

1.3.3 Gender

27. ESI has successfully implemented a pilot microgrid project that mainstreamed gender considerations. The gender mainstreaming approach of ESI to microgrid development and operations is called “feminist electrification” and was named a 2018 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activity. In the earlier project this involved prioritizing into delivery the inclusion of women as first preferred candidates for training as clean energy and microgrid entrepreneurs, employees and customers.

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28. According to the information available in the funding proposal, ESI will continue its policy of encouraging the active participation of women in microgrid projects, is committed to supporting technical apprenticeships for women in this field through its partner, Enéji Pwòp, and will continue this approach in the proposed project.

29. Given the discussions above, the independent TAP has scored the intervention as having high sustainable development potential.

1.4 Needs of the recipient Scale: N/A

1.4.1. Economic and social needs and climate vulnerability

30. Hurricane induced floods, storms and drought are natural and human-induced hazards that are common occurrences in Haiti. These occurrrances have had devastating impacts on buildings, land, water, livestock and people with consequent constraining effects on the economic well-being of Haiti. The poorest Haitians, including low-income women, children, and elderly people, are especially vulnerable. There is evidence that climate change, in the form of higher mean temperatures and precipitation, will exacerbate these disasters in the near future. It is therefore necessary that coping mechanisms, such as strengthening adaptive capacities, be introduced to limit the negative impacts of these hazards, which can only worsen the already high poverty rate in the country. Given the weak governance system that has prevailed in Haiti over the past decades, international support will be needed to deliver the adaptive capacity strengthening and climate change mitigation interventions needed to improve the lives of Haitians. Although this intervention is not specifically a climate change adaptation intervention, the provision of electricity by the proposed microgrid facilities will: increase access of the connected consumers to modern electricity markedly; improve the economic and social welfare of the people in the villages and towns that will be connected; deliver climate mitigation; and contribute to Haitians’ climate coping capacity in the medium to long term.

1.4.2. Financial needs

31. Haiti is a small island developing State and the poorest country in the western hemisphere. As such, not only is the country plagued by the natural and human-induced hazards, but it also has limited financial capacity to respond to the poor access to electricity, affecting about 70 per cent of the country’s population, and to implement the interventions necessary to enhance the adaptive capacity of its citizens to cope with the impacts of climate change. Therefore, there are very limited national (in form of public sector spending) resources for financing the electricity access intervention proposed in this project. Local and international financing are also not a possibility for funding energy access. The banking sector is weak as available funds have very high interest rates and short maturity periods that are not feasible for these kinds of projects. International venture capital will not consider investment in Haiti due to its weak governance system, including the uncertain energy markets, which do not have the correct metrics for investments. GCF funding at the lowest concessionality is needed (in this case grant funding) to overcome these financial barriers.

1.4.3. Institutional needs

32. Although strengthening of the weak capacity of relevant government institutions is not directly covered by the project components, the capacity-building plans (well articulated in the funding proposal as well as the pre-feasibility annex) will benefit:

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(a) Communities, who will be organized into groups that will learn what microgrids are and

how they can derive the highest benefits from having access to electricity from this system and more efficient use of energy;

(b) Smallholder enterprises, which will gain the capacity to identify and develop businesses that can thrive once given better access to electricity. They will also gain a sound knowledge of equipment that can use electricity efficiently to enhance profitability;

(c) Technical artisans, who will acquire relevant skills related to the operation and maintenance of the microgrid facilities; and

(d) The regulatory framework of the country, which will also indirectly benefit as it is expected that ESI will continue its engagement, in particular with the Haitian power sector regulator on the level of tariffs that will be needed to enhance sustainability of the microgrid progamme. This will be essential for increased replication of the programme in Haiti and beyond.

33. As stated above, government institutions are only involved in the capacity-strengthening plans of the proposed project. It would have been better if capacity-building had been planned for the Government of Haiti with regard to setting robust power sector policies, power sector regulations and tariff structure development. We believe this was not accommodated because this is a simplified approval process intervention and inclusion of funds for such capacity-building would have meant that the necessary funding exceeded the limit for a simplified approval process and was therefore not included. However, information presented in the funding proposal indicated this requirement is being met by the Government of Haiti through other bilateral support. For example, it was stated in the funding proposal that the Government of Haiti and international funders are currently working with the relatively new energy regulator in Haiti to clarify the concession and regulation process for off-grid access projects. It was also stated that the Government is working closely with the World Bank through their SREP programme to manage and enhance the capacity of relevant government agencies on managing the process to accelerate the penetration of community-level microgrids in the country. The outcomes of these separate interventions, which are likely to be delivered during the installation of the 22 microgrids, will have a very positive effect on the success of the project.

34. The independent TAP has concluded that the needs of recipient should have a medium to high score.

1.5 Country ownership Scale: N/A

1.5.1. Alignment with climate change policies

35. The project is aligned with two key climate change policies of Haiti: the nationally determined contribution and the second national communication. Both of these documents are mandated policy documents that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change expect all signatory nations to have in place as part of their international obligations under the global climate change framework. The principle goal of the Haiti’s nationally determined contribution is to reduce relative GHG emissions in the country by 2030. The primary climate change goal, well articulated in the country’s second national communication, is to expand renewable energy at the community and neighbourhood levels. It can therefore be concluded that the proposed project is well-aligned with Haiti’s national climate change policies, strategies and plans.

36. Other policies: the project is also aligned to the World Bank’s SREP. The SREP has a component designed specifically for Haiti. The Government of Haiti has named rural

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electrification and renewable energy as major priorities and has announced a plan to work with the World Bank and others under the SREP goals.

37. Complementarity and coherence: the proposed microgrid project has been designed using lessons learned from a similar project implemented by ESI in Haiti. The various interventions incorporated into the design of the project have been tested through earlier ESI design and construction of two microgrids in Haiti. Lessons learned from these previous projects have been incorporated into the design and planning for installation of the 22 microgrids covered by this funding proposal. The proposed communities where these microgrids will be implemented were selected based on the results of a countrywide survey that identified 80 communities where such microgrids can be implemented. The proposed project was also the result of a successful concept note submitted by ESI to the GCF mobilizing funds at scale request for proposal and was one of the top 30 project ideas selected by GCF through that process.

1.5.2. Implementation capacity: accredited entity

38. NEFCO is the AE for this project. After this project was selected for funding by the Secretariat, an initial difficult barrier was the absence of an AE willing to manage a project of this nature in a risky financial and governance terrain such as Haiti’s. NEFCO was eventually identified and was willing to take on the project. NEFCO is a green bank/development finance institution established in 1991 by the five Nordic governments, with a focus on green growth and climate impact, with a global mandate for small and medium-sized projects and the private sector. Although NEFCO does not have a track record of projects in Haiti, its decision to take on this project may be dictated by the fact that ESI has implemented two similar microgrids in Haiti and this experience can be mainstreamed into design and implementation of the 22 microgrids.

39. Before taking on the responsibility of AE, NEFCO undertook a very comprehensive due diligence exercise on ESI. The due diligence concluded that the risk of serving as AE for the proposed project is medium. This conclusion took into consideration the lack of any credit risk to NEFCO, aspects of the counterparty capacity, financial standing of ESI, the nature of the planned activities and the organizational structure that is available to carry out the implementation of the microgrids. As part of the due diligence, NEFCO also carried out a successful financial management capacity assessment on ESI and Enèji Pwòp, after which it presented the project to the NEFCO Investment Committee, which provided full internal approval for NEFCO to perform AE duties for the project. NEFCO has over 25 years of experience financing renewable energy (solar, biomass, wind) and energy efficiency projects globally through provision of early stage capital, junior and senior debt, equity, grants, carbon finance and results-based finance. It can therefore be concluded that NEFCO has relevant experience in the sector, and, working with ESI through its partner, Enèji Pwòp, S.A. (it’s spin-off company), which will serve in this project as the executing entity (EE), it will be able to rely on the prior experience of ESI in Haiti with microgrid installation to bridge its own inexperience working in Haiti.

1.5.3. Implementation capacity: executing entity

40. Two spin-off companies from ESI (the original project sponsor and a United States of America non-profit organization) will serve as the EEs. These are: Participant Power, a limited liability corporation in Delaware, United States and Enèji Pwòp, a Haitian social enterprise incorporated in Haiti. The fact that they are spin-off companies from ESI means that all the lessons ESI learned from its pioneering work on microgrid development in rural Haiti will be embodied in the knowledge base of the EEs and will be brought to bear during the planning and implementation of the 22 microgrids that will be delivered by the project.

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41. Participant Power is the project development company set up to leverage the experiences of ESI in developing clean energy initiatives, and especially its earlier two microgrid projects in rural Haiti, and the blended finance to develop and build microgrid projects. Enèji Pwòp (“Clean Energy” in Haitian Creole), also a spin-off company of ESI, is a Haitian microgrid operations company. Enèji Pwòp is a pre-qualified microgrid supplier, eligible for upcoming rounds of the World Bank and Government of Haiti requests for proposal for private sector microgrid development. As an EE, the duties of Enèji Pwòp for this project will focus around development of the microgrid projects and operations and maintenance of the facilities. The technical capabilities necessary were developed by ESI during the implementation of the two microgrids, these skills will be expanded and strengthened by the capacity-building activities reported in the funding proposal under the primary component. As an EE, Enèji Pwòp will also set up local energy committees in each town where it develops a microgrid, with local representatives elected to these committees which will serve as a grassroots interface between the community and Enèji Pwòp. Given the fact that the mandates of the two EEs are derived from the successful microgrid project carried out by the parent company (ESI) in rural Haiti, it can be concluded that the organizational mandates of the two EEs are well aligned with the project. In addition, the two EEs, as spin-off companies from ESI, have the capacity to manage the project, including procurement, coordination, environmental and social aspects, project facility operations and maintenance.

1.5.4. Ownership

42. A key country ownership factor in the proposed project is that in developing the concept, ESI engaged many country stakeholders. This has resulted in the government of Haiti supporting the idea of the private public partnership (PPP) that ESI set up involving relevant and important stakeholders in the country. The community-minded approach that ESI has used since 2009 when it initiated efforts to increase electricity access in Haiti is a key country ownership strategy that is embedded in the project. Additional key country ownership elements built into the ESI microgrid development approach can be summarized as follows:

(a) Engagement with the Haitian Ministry of Environment, which is the GCF national designated authority, regarding the proposal design has taken place since the inception of the concept;

(b) A no-objection letter was obtained from the national designated authority after extensive discussion of the plans;

(c) Country ownership is embedded in the scope and concept of the project;

(d) A national microgrid market assessment was conducted in 2015 after which, ESI secured letters of intent from mayors in 18 pre-qualified towns in the target area for the project. As stated in the funding proposal, over 50 towns are strong candidates for microgrids, so should any letters of intent not be secured or any towns be excluded for any other reason, there are plenty of additional towns to complete the proposed project; and

(e) By setting up the local energy committees and the municipal-level PPP structures, the project will ensure multiple levels of local governance in addition to the participation of the national regulator and relevant ministries.

43. Given these discussions of efforts to ensure high country ownership of the proposed project, it can be concluded that, as conceptualized and presented in the funding proposal and its annexes, the project will ensure decision-making responsibility lies with relevant country institutions and will use national systems to ensure accountability.

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1.5.5. Stakeholder consultations

44. The platform for consultation with stakeholders that has been proposed was developed by ESI during the development of its earlier microgrid projects in rural Haiti. Using this platform, multi-stakeholder engagement and associated consultations have been conducted during the planning and development of the project. It has been stated in the funding proposal that engagement will continue and will form part of the project development cycle. As part of this engagement, ESI worked with mayors and communities to identify municipally owned land that would be appropriate for the power generation site. ESI will continue identifying these generation sites and will continue its work with the municipalities and the Ministry of Finance towards setting up a public-private structure for municipal-level microgrid operations. Setting up local energy committees and the municipal-level PPP structures are other project activities that ensure, and will continue to ensure during the proposed project lifetime that multiple levels of local governance, in addition to the participation of the national regulator and relevant ministries, are consulted.

45. From its conceptualization, the project has had a specific focus on women. This specific focus can be summarized as follows:

(a) Recognition of the fact that climate change impacts women in Haiti more than men, meaning that increased access to electricity should target the women of Haiti in particular. It is stated in the funding proposal that women, children and elderly people with low incomes are especially vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, especially in the project area in the southern peninsula of Haiti, which is the most threatened and vulnerable area in the country;

(b) A significant characteristic of ESI microgrid development in Haiti is the overarching nature of the gender lens approach of ESI. It is stated in the funding proposal and articulated in annex 4, which is the gender plan of the project, that ESI “feminist electrification” meaningfully engages women to help ensure that the arrival of electricity in a community will genuinely provide opportunities for all;

(c) The gender-sensitive approach for delivering project results is also very well articulated in the funding proposal, and it is included in the commitment of ESI to support technical apprenticeships for women through its partner, Enéji Pwòp, and will continue to encourage female entrepreneurship; and

(d) A gender assessment document, which concludes with a gender action plan that has been assessed as having all the elements to enable the engagement of women and girls and other vulnerable groups in Haiti, is included with the submission of the funding proposal.

46. The independent TAP concludes that stakeholder involvement of the project is high.

1.6 Efficiency and effectiveness Scale: N/A

1.6.1. Financial structure

47. The total funding for this project of USD 47.797 million is expected to be provided by: GCF subordinated loan and grant; senior loan co-financing from OPIC; grant funding from the World Bank SREP/Government of Haiti; contributed assets from ESI; contributions from the Dunn Family Charitable Foundation and other impact investors; and return of concession deposits.

48. By bringing together GCF, OPIC, the World Bank, other grant-makers and social impact investors, the project is crowding in different and complementary funders, none of whom would

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be able to participate alone to achieve a project of this scale. In turn, the scale of the project will have greater impact and be more cost-effective than would be possible with the very slow rate of small-scale, grant-making alone, such as that developed for the pioneering two-microgrid project of ESI.

49. The investment environment in Haiti is very risky and as such it would not have attracted funds from other sources. Before the initial intervention carried out by ESI, investment in microgrids in Haiti was unlikely to have attracted the type of funding that has been crowded in for this project.

1.6.2. Co-financing/leveraging

50. The concessional funding from GCF will successfully leverage funds from OPIC and, if the intervention is successful, more funds will be leveraged from private investors, which will deliver more microgrids for additional rural communities across Haiti. When this happens, the co-financing ratio that will be recorded will be much higher than that estimated for this proposed intervention.

1.6.3. Financial viability/best practices

51. The financial viability of the project beyond GCF support has been predicated on the expectation that GCF funding as concessionary sub-debt will play a catalytic role in crowding in not just development finance debt but also additional investors (both equity and debt) for this project and for future expansion of microgrids to more communities. For this expansion, more than 80 sites suitable for microgrid development in rural Haiti were selected, from which 22 have been chosen for immediate development.

52. As stated in the funding proposal, international best available technologies and mini-grid practices have been considered and applied by ESI in the design of the proposed project. Given the high and rising costs and frequent shortages of diesel in Haiti, the project seeks to build 100 per cent renewable energy powered microgrids that will offer at least 99 per cent service availability to customers. The design will achieve this by installing solar PV capacity beyond that used in a hybrid system, and by encouraging user participation through smart-meter enabled demand-management tariffs. ESI sees the path to 100 per cent renewable energy as not only possible, but very evident and ultimately cost-effective.

1.6.4. Summary metrics of efficiency and effectiveness

53. Estimated cost per tCO2eq:

(a) Total project financing: USD 47.797 million;

(b) Requested GCF amount: USD 9.784 million;

(c) Expected lifetime emission reductions: 214,414 tCO2eq;

(d) Estimated cost per tCO2eq (d = a/c): USD 134 / tCO2eq; and

(e) Estimated GCF cost per tCO2eq removed (e = b/c): USD 27/tCO2eq.

1.6.5. Expected volume of finance to be leveraged by the proposed project/programme and as a result of GCF financing, disaggregated by public and private sources

54. Estimated volume of finance:

(a) Total finance leveraged: USD 38.013 million;

(b) Public source finance leveraged: USD 9.454 million;

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(c) Private source finance leveraged: USD 28.559 million;

(d) Total leverage ratio (i = f/b): 3.89;

(e) Public source leverage ratio (j = g/b): 0.97; and

(f) Private source leverage ratio (k = h/b): 2.92.

55. Based on the discussions presented above, the independent TAP concludes that the efficiency and effectiveness of this proposed project is high.

II. Overall remarks from the independent Technical Advisory Panel

56. The independent TAP therefore recommends that the Board approve this funding proposal.

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Reply to the Independent Technical Advisory Panel assessment findings (SAP013)

Proposal name: Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti

Accredited entity: Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)

Impact potential

Noted. NEFCO and EarthSpark is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) considers the project intervention to have a high impact potential.

Paradigm shift potential

Noted. NEFCO is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) considers the project intervention to have a high paradigm shift potential.

Sustainable development potential

Noted. NEFCO is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) considers the project intervention to have a high sustainable development potential.

Needs of the recipient

Noted. NEFCO is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) considers the project intervention to have a medium to high score on the needs of the recipient.

Country ownership

Noted. NEFCO is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) concludes that the level of stakeholder involvement in the project is high.

Efficiency and effectiveness

Noted. NEFCO is pleased that the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP) concludes that the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed project is high.

Overall remarks from the independent Technical Advisory Panel:

NEFCO wishes to thank the iTAP for their comprehensive review of the Funding Proposal, its recognition that the project scores highly on all six investment criteria (with one criteria ranked as medium to high) and its unconditional recommendation of the proposal.

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Annex 4 to SAP-FP-NEFCO-190606

EARTHSPARK INTERNATIONAL SPV Scaling Smart, Solar Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti Project

GENDER ASSESSMENT AND ACTION PLAN

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………… 4 ‘FEMINIST ELECTRIFICATION’ METHODOLOGY AND BACKGROUND…… 4 I. GENDER CONTEXT ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT………………………………… 7

1. Infrastructure Planning…………………………………………………………… 7 2. Training and Employment………………………………………………………. 8 3. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises……………………………………… 10 4. Domestic Energy Use……………………………………………………………… 10 5. Community Resource Availability…………………………………………… 12

II. GENDER ACTION PLAN…………………………………………………………………….13

1. Infrastructure Planning………………………………………………………….. 13 2. Training and Employment………………………………………………………. 13 3. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises……………………………………… 13 4. Domestic Energy Use……………………………………………………………… 14 5. Community Resource Availability…………………………………………… 14 6. Monitoring and Evaluation………………………………………………………14

III. FEMINIST ELECTRIFICATION M+E………………………………..………………… 15

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INTRODUCTION This gender assessment and action plan will provide a summary of the gender environment in Haiti with a specific focus on the role of energy access, as well as the gender action plan and projected gender impact of the Project Scaling Smart, Solar, Energy Access Microgrids in Haiti proposed by EarthSpark International (ES) and supported by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) as the Accredited Entity.

The overarching objective is to identify and implement strategies to mainstream gender equity outcomes throughout the Project. The gender assessment and action plan adhere to the principles of EarthSpark International’s United Nation’s Framework Convention for Climate Change Momentum for Change awarded “feminist electrification” methodology. EarthSpark’s gender commitments also align with NEFCO’s proactive and preventative gender mainstreaming actions1 , which also share objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Enèji Pwòp S.A. is an EarthSpark International spin-off which operates as a Haitian microgrid utility for EarthSpark’s current grids and is expected to participate in the Project in a similar role.

‘FEMINIST ELECTRIFICATION’ BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY EarthSpark developed its model of “feminist electrification” from its work in rural Haiti.

Feminism2 is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Electrification3 is the process of powering by electricity and is usually associated with changing over from another power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology and economic history, usually applies to a region or national economy.

The areas of opportunity for gender-related engagement in the electrification process fall into at least five categories:

• infrastructure planning, • training and employment, • support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), • domestic energy use, and

1 NEFCO, Gender Policy, https://www.nefco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/NEFCO_Gender-Policy_February-2018.pdf 2 Lexico, definition of feminism https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/feminism 3 Lexico, definition of electrification https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/electrification

Figure 1: Click to watch a brief UNFCCC video on EarthSpark's 'Feminist Electrification' approach in Haiti

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• community resource availability.

The arrival of electricity service in a town signals a significant moment of technical, social, and economic change. Residents put away their candles and kerosene lamps and – for the first time - flip switches for electric lighting. People charge phones in their own homes and launch businesses to charge phones of people living beyond the new grid. Small appliances like radios and DVD players which had previously been impossible or cumbersome to operate – requiring a battery to be charged and transported or the repeated purchase of non-rechargeable batteries – become more commonplace, and, depending on the level of electricity service available, new opportunities in home appliances, refrigeration, and mechanized labor may emerge.

The economic benefits of electricity have been well documented, but there has been relatively little attention paid to the gender outcomes of the arrival of electricity in a town. This is changing. Community leaders, non-governmental organizations, and grid developers can leverage the social disruption that is electrification to improve the standing of women and girls in the community or, at a minimum, at least ensure that the standing of women and girls is not diminished.

Energia, an international organization specifically promoting women’s empowerment through the issues of energy, points out that globally women are largely absent from energy-related infrastructure decisions. This is despite research that indicates that involving women in the planning and implementation phases of infrastructure development improves outcomes not only for women and girls but also for men and boys and for the funders (and overall sustainability of the project).

• In infrastructure projects, a review of World Bank projects4 showed that: Women’s participation in design and decision-making in water users’ associations or rural electrification cooperatives improves governance, management, cost recovery and production

• Women’s participation increases the effectiveness, quality and sustainability of infrastructure rehabilitation and maintenance; provides a high economic rate of return (31 percent); and creates an improved work environment, with less violence and drinking in project sites. There are many reasons why gender has been a neglected factor in energy planning. Many planners do not fully understand that energy impacts men and women differently. One explanation of why there is a lack of understanding is that energy professionals are nearly all men, so women are not able to bring issues that affect them to the forefront.5

4 Energia, Mainstreaming Gender in Energy Projects: A Practical Handbook: Resource Pack, https://genderandenvironment.org/resource/mainstreaming-gender-in-energy-projects-a-practical-handbook-resource-pack/ 5 Energia, Concepts in Gender and Energy, https://www.energia.org/cm2/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Module-1-revised-june-2007.pdf

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After years of research and development, EarthSpark launched Haiti’s first pre-pay microgrid in Les Anglais in 2012. This grid was later expanded to 450+ customers receiving 24-hour electricity run by a solar-hybrid model. EarthSpark is currently building its second grid in Tiburon and has been in pre-development discussions and planning in several nearby towns. The grids EarthSpark builds are run by local spin-off Enèji Pwòp, SA (“Enèji Pwòp”).

In general, access to electricity improves people’s lives by improving health, education, and economic outcomes. At the same time, local women are often under-represented in the decision-making process leading up to and structuring electrification. Since electrification of a town is by definition a cultural disruption, there is an opportunity to thoughtfully design the process to ensure “pro-women” outcomes. Not only is serving women’s needs an important tool in reducing extreme poverty; it also improves the viability of rural electrification business models. It is thus imminently within EarthSpark International’s mission to use a 'feminist electrification' lens in grid development planning and operations.

In the towns where EarthSpark is active, both men and women take leadership roles in local organizations and economic activities, but gender norms rest – as they do in all cultures – on a complex set of cultural patterns and local circumstances. Women tend to manage household finances related to agricultural production and local trade. There remains, however, a trend towards male dominance in decision-making at the high levels of local governance.

EarthSpark has curated a ‘feminist electrification’ methodology, implementing 5 pillars of pro-gender engagement across all energy access projects. This work was recognized as a ‘Lighthouse Activity’ by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Momentum for Change Award. EarthSpark has since created a ‘feminist electrification’ toolkit to recommend gender best practices to other energy access practitioners. This same framework will be implemented across the Project.

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Table 1: Feminist Electrification Gender Engagement Opportunities fall into 5 categories

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I. GENDER CONTEXT ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT

The country of Haiti has a population of 10.98 million people (50.6% are women). The Government of Haiti established quotas in 2012 and 2015 for increased female representation in national political institutions. Despite recognizing the need to improve Haiti’s gender context, gender-based violence remains prevalent, institutions have a low capacity for the legal protection of women and girls and a disproportionately low number of rural girls and women complete high school education or pursue further training and employment.6

“While Haiti’s Constitution protects women from workplace discrimination as well as physical and sexual abuse, and guarantees the right to political participation, in practice women routinely face exclusion and harassment in public and private life.”7

The United Nations in Haiti has a working history with the Government of Haiti to improve the capacity to promote, encourage, and execute gender equality initiatives.8 Target areas include:

• Eliminating violence against women and girls from public and private life • Capacity building of vulnerable women • Feminization of poverty • Women participation in and access to leadership and decision-making • Access to healthcare including sexual and reproductive health • Access to education, and • Reforming economic and property rights

In 2016, USAID conducted a gender assessment of Haiti, identifying the country’s regulatory environment for gender policies. While it recognizes formalized efforts towards gender-mainstreaming policies it also highlights the cultural and legal challenges to meaningful progress.

“Haitian organizations fighting for women’s rights have made strides in both advocacy, including the denunciation of practices harmful to women, and in pushing forward important legislation and policies. However, the implementation of conventions remains relatively low. Existing domestic legislation that may conflict with treaties Haiti has ratified often goes unchanged, as there is no systematic

6 USAID, Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment https://www.usaid.gov/haiti/gender-equity-and-womens-empowerment 7 USAID, Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment https://www.usaid.gov/haiti/gender-equity-and-womens-empowerment 8 UNDP, UN backs Haiti to boost women’s participation in political, institutional and economic life, http://www.ht.undp.org/content/haiti/fr/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2016/03/09/l-onu-soutient-haiti-pour-renforcer-la-participation-des-femmes-dans-la-vie-politique-institutionnelle-et-economique

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approach in place to alter it. Amendments to domestic law in response to treaties is often piecemeal”9

More recently, the UN in Haiti, the Government of Haiti, and the European Union launched the Spotlight Initiative with the direct imperative to accelerate the achievement of the SDG’s and specifically pro-gender outcomes.10 The pillars of this initiative identify gender-mainstreaming actions targeting the following:

• Legislative and policy frameworks • Institutional strengthening • Prevention • Services • Data • Women’s movement.

The Haitian branches of UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP, and UNICEF have similarly committed to supporting pro-gender capacity building and support the Government of Haiti’s progress in developing a Gender Equality Policy, Action Plan for Gender Equality, and a National Plan to Combat Violence Against Women.11

45% of the population lives rurally and less than 10% of that population has access to grid electricity.12 With less than half of the country electrified, rural communities are roundly exposed to the consequences of energy poverty. Reliance on dirty and expensive energy alternatives places upward pressure on local environments, threatens health, and inhibits local economic development. As extreme weather events occur more frequently, the poorest Haitians, including low-income women, children, and the elderly, are particularly vulnerable. Haiti has been cited as the 6th most vulnerable country to climate change.13 The gender-energy-poverty nexus reveals how women are disproportionately impacted by energy poverty and a lack of climate adaptation and mitigation.

Growing the energy access sector in Haiti for the last decade, EarthSpark International has also mapped the gender norm disruption potential and opportunities for pro-gender outcomes when an EarthSpark grid project arrives in a community. The 5 pillars of ‘feminist electrification’ are a useful framework for representing how EarthSpark’s current activities touch the gender-energy-poverty nexus in Haiti (Sub-component 2.3).

1. Infrastructure Planning

9 USAID, Haiti Gender Assessment: Volume 1-Gender Assessment Report 2016, https://banyanglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/USAID-Haiti-Gender-Assessment.pdf 10 UNSP Haiti, A new transformative program to combat violence against women and girls in Haiti, http://www.ht.undp.org/content/haiti/fr/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2019/un-nouveau-programme-transformateur-pour-lutter-contre-les-viole.html 11 UNFPA, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP and UNICEF, Haitian branches, reaffirm their commitment to work with Haiti to eliminate violence against women and girls, https://haiti.unfpa.org/en/node/37301 12 World Bank, World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org/ 13 UNFCCC, Improving Climate Resilience in Haiti, https://unfccc.int/news/improving-climate-resilience-in-haiti-low-elevation-coastal-zones

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Gender mainstreaming in Infrastructure Planning involves: • Increasing women’s roles in planning • Ensuring that women’s priorities are registered • Ensuring that the grid is built and operated in ways that meet women’s needs. While surveying another microgrid developer in Haiti, a lack of women’s participation in various decision-making positions was identified. Reasons for this include gendered assumptions about ability and interest in the work as well as the closed circle pathways to power.

As detailed in the Stakeholder Engagement Annex (Annex 20), EarthSpark leverages a multi-stage pre-development process in targeted microgrid towns which focuses on identifying energy needs, particularly differentiated needs for women and other vulnerable groups. Supporting these face-to-face customer surveys are consultations with the municipality and importantly the establishment of representative Energy Committees to further highlight opportunities to ensure that planned infrastructure provides equal opportunity for benefits to all members of the community (Output 2.1.1). The EC facilitates communication between EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp, and grid customers. It provides feedback to Enèji Pwòp as well as gets the word out about community meetings, job openings, and other issues pertinent to grid operations. Gender parity in the EC is built into the by-laws. Further, both before and during operations EarthSpark regularly holds community meetings to inform grid customers of plans for grid development as well as on-going grid updates (Activity 2.1.2.1). These meetings are held on weekends during times when most customers can attend. After feedback from the community, it was decided to hold meetings in several locations so community members would not have to travel far. In addition, 75% of the Enèji Pwòp board members are women, ensuring a women’s voice in all company-wide decisions. EarthSpark International also conducts thorough pre-development surveying of the community to ensure energy needs are identified and the grid is designed accordingly. In EarthSpark’s inaugural Les Anglais grid, approximately 50% of households have a woman as the head of the household. Women’s procurement of biomass and other alternative energy for household use, including cooking is just one instance of gendered energy needs in Haiti. EarthSpark’s surveying and community engagement strategies ensure women are equal participants of the electrification process (Output 2.1.2). 2. Training and Employment

Gender mainstreaming in Training and Employment involves: • Increasing women’s technical capacity in the workforce • Directly increasing professional opportunities for women as employees • Indirectly increasing professional opportunities for women by demonstrating women’s

abilities as capable technicians. In Haiti, 64% of women are participating in the labor force compared to 72% of men. Women unemployment is at 17% and 11% for men compared to 4% and 3% respectively in

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the United States.14 While recruiting, Enèji Pwòp recognized women’s reluctance to apply for technical positions due to a lack of confidence in ability or the perception that technical roles are for men. Energy poverty has limited access to quality education and training, making it difficult for rural job seekers to gain a competitive edge in urban employment markets. EarthSpark and Enèji Pwòp strive to provide equitable workplaces (Output 1.3). In terms of full-time staff administering and operating Enèji Pwòp’s work, there are 4 women employees and 5 male employees. There are 2 women grid ambassadors, 2 women in administrative roles, 4 male security guards, and 1 male technician. Employees are cross-trained on many different aspects of the company. For example, the grid ambassador can also carry out home installations and troubleshoot customer problems. All non-security staff are on-hand and trained to participate during grid installations as needed, sell energy credits, sign up customers, and perform other grid maintenance tasks. In an effort to continually cross-train and open opportunities for professional growth, staff members are regularly sent to trainings, conferences and forums relevant to energy access, solar energy and microgrids. Anecdotes of older men and young girls in the community reveal how exposing the community to a woman grid ambassador who can execute technical and administrative tasks challenges long-held notions of what local women can achieve. The Enèji Pwòp employee manual has a Discrimination and Harassment Policy, which states: Enèji Pwòp is an "equal opportunity employer." Enèji Pwòp will not discriminate and will take "affirmative action" measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex. Enèji Pwòp is committed in all areas to providing a work environment that is free from harassment. Harassment based upon an individual's sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion or any other legally protected characteristics will not be tolerated and will be grounds for disciplinary action. All employees, including supervisors and other management personnel, are expected and required to abide by this policy. No person will be adversely affected in employment with Enèji Pwòp as a result of bringing complaints of unlawful harassment. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute harassment when (1) submission to or rejection of such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for decisions about employment, promotion, transfer, selection for training,

14 World Bank, World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org/

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performance evaluations, benefits, or other terms and conditions of employment; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment or substantially interferes with an employee's work performance.” Starting with the Tiburon generation system build, EarthSpark began requiring that local sub-contractors ensure at least 20% of their labor force is women (Output 1.1 and Output 1.2). EarthSpark will continue with this sub-contractor requirement throughout the Project. This has become a key element of stakeholder engagement during construction and design particularly with EPCs (Annex 20 – Stakeholder Engagement). Enèji Pwòp also uses recruitment materials and approaches that encourage women applicants. “Women strongly encouraged to apply” is included in job postings, and women-centered recruitment meetings are occasionally held to specifically answer women’s questions and encourage female applicants.

3. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Gender mainstreaming in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Support involves: • Increasing women’s income by increasing profits of women-led SMEs • Increasing women’s opportunities by increasing training and capacity building for SME

development • Increasing women’s opportunities by expanding financing to viable women-led SMEs. Energy poverty inhibits economic growth. Access to affordable, reliable energy opens opportunities. EarthSpark customers have reported savings of 80% for households and 50% for businesses on pre-grid energy spending once connected to EarthSpark’s Les Anglais grid. Without grid electricity, businesses without reliable and affordable energy are limited in the scale and quality of service they can provide. Agricultural production is a prime example of the lost economic opportunity due to energy poverty. When assessing the division of labor between genders in communities like Les Anglais, men will often pursue traditional employment paths. This includes moving to urban centers to seek better employment prospects while the family remains in the rural home. Women in rural communities typically fulfill domestic duties including child-rearing and sometimes run a pico-business for additional income. For an SME to be considered women-led, the enterprise must have:

i) Minimum 51% of the ownership is by women AND/OR ii) It has at least 40% women on the executive board and at least 40% woman at top level management. EarthSpark International is committed to supporting SMEs through what EarthSpark terms “business accompaniment” (Output 2.2.1). The business accompaniment methodology consists of identifying motivated local entrepreneurs, working with them to deeply assess their current practices, thinking critically with them about potential productive uses of electricity, global sourcing of high-quality, rugged, efficient electric machinery or equipment

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to enhance business profitability, and to helping to establish market linkages with regional, national, or international markets as appropriate. As part of our gender lens approach, EarthSpark’s business accompaniment strategy specifically seeks out women-led businesses as local economic partners (Activity 2.2.1.1). These SME needs and opportunities are identified and framed during pre-development surveys, as well as through conversations with the municipality and the Energy Committees (see Annex 20). In fact, pre-development surveying helped EarthSpark and Enèji Pwòp identify local stakeholders, including women-led organizations and businesses in Les Anglais and Tiburon. Similar surveys will be conducted for each town in the Project. On the Les Anglais grid, EarthSpark worked with local women’s agricultural cooperative - Asosyasyon Famn Vayan Les Anglais (“Famn Vayan”) to pilot new electromechanical agricultural processing equipment, research market linkages, and increase profits. Famn Vayan has approximately 3,000 members across the commune of Les Anglais. In one example of ‘business accompaniment’ with Famn Vayan, EarthSpark provided financing for an electric corn thresher (Activity 2.2.1.3). Payment terms were set around harvest season, ensuring that payments lined up with revenue streams throughout the pilot period.

4. Domestic Energy Use

A gendered view of domestic energy use involves: • Improving health by decreasing women’s exposure to indoor air pollution caused by

kerosene • Improving health and reducing drudgery by offering electric alternatives to cooking by

charcoal • Increasing usable work and leisure hours by offering electric lighting. Customer surveying and engagement, particularly the pre-development surveys and sustained communication through the Energy Committees and the grid ambassadors (Annex 20), coupled with metering data during operations measure energy consumed, spending by tariff, and number of households headed by women. These data sets allow EarthSpark and Enèji Pwòp to identify women-led households and report on domestic energy needs and use. Connection to a microgrid providing 24hr service virtually eliminates the need for kerosene lighting. During a blackout in Les Anglais, customers complained that they no longer had any kerosene lights for lighting. Based on a small survey of customers in Les Anglais, Table 2 below shows how customers in Les Anglais use their electricity. An uptake of electric lighting at 86.2% reinforces the claim of a significant displacement of kerosene in households, which in turn reduces women’s exposure to hazardous household air pollution caused by kerosene. TABLE 2 Appliance % of Respondents

Laptop 3.4%

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DVD 6.9%

Freezer 6.9%

Blender 6.9% Fan 10.3%

Television 27.6%

Radio 44.8%

Phone Charger 86.2%

Lights 86.2% Table 22 Electricity Usage by Les Anglais customers

Currently, over 90% of the population of Haiti uses wood and charcoal for cooking15. In rural areas, biomass cooking fuels are nearly universal. The number of deaths in Haiti attributable to household air pollution each year is 9,90016. To address this issue, EarthSpark is launching a pilot of off- and on-microgrid electric cooking technologies in Les Anglais with funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. EarthSpark’s pilot seeks to validate the hypothesis that new electric cooking technologies – when paired with microgrid electricity and/or financed stand-alone solar home systems – can conveniently displace household and commercial charcoal use. The Project will be informed by the results of this cooking pilot which will is scheduled to launch in Q1 2020 and have preliminary results by Q2 2020. If the pilot results are promising, the grids included in the Project can be leveraged to support the future expansion of EarthSpark’s efforts to scale the electrification of cooking in the microgrid context. In addition to health and climate co-benefits, the time savings for women by electrifying cooking and other domestic duties is also significant. EarthSpark’s surveying has identified that in general reliable access to electricity has allowed women to have greater flexibility about the time and time of day spent performing domestic tasks requiring energy (Output 2.1.2.2). 24-hour access to lighting, televisions, and other appliances has subsequently increased up leisure time and comfort in households. In a 2016 survey, 82.4% of customers in Les Anglais reported satisfaction with their service. 96.6% were satisfied with the quality of their home installation and 93.1% said payment process was easy to understand. By identifying local needs EarthSpark has successfully designed the technical and operational infrastructure to serve both its male and female customers and stakeholders.

5. Community Resource Availability

A gender lens for community resource availability involves:

15 Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, 2017 Progress Report, https://www.cleancookingalliance.org/country-profiles/102-haiti.html 16 Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, 2017 Progress Report, https://www.cleancookingalliance.org/country-profiles/102-haiti.html

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• Improving women’s health by making electric lighting and tools in child birthing rooms

possible • Improving women’s safety by powering electric streetlights. Most customers, particularly women, during customer surveying as part of pre-development and ongoing operations (Annex 20), identify streetlights as crucial for improving personal safety at night. Anecdotally, some feel the real sign of electrification is electric streetlights. Les Anglais has 37 streetlights installed and Tiburon has approximately 50 streetlights installed. All grids in the Project will include streetlighting (Component 1). Across Haiti 359 maternal deaths occur in every 100,000 live births and infant mortality at a rate of 54 to every 1000 live births. Continuous lighting can offer lifesaving benefits for women needing obstetrics services. One-third of deaths in Haiti are attributed to communicable diseases, maternal or prenatal conditions, or nutritional conditions. Access to refrigerated medicine and nutritious food have the potential to improve the life expectancy (women 66, men 61) and quality of life.17 While the Les Anglais hospital already has a solar PV system, EarthSpark sees the opportunity to power clinics and hospitals in other towns as we scale. All microgrid planning in the Project will include assessments of potential health institution services (Activity 2.2.1.1). Approximately half of all Haitian children are not attending school due to the lack of affordable education. The unequal division of labor in low-income households means girls and women have fewer opportunities to receive a complete education.18 Extreme weather events exacerbate the vulnerability of these low-income households and widen the gender gap. Less than 45% of women across Haiti are literate and the number is smaller across rural regions.19 Since becoming a microgrid customer, a local school in Les Anglais has built a computer lab with approximately 20 computers. Computer literacy is one of the many educational advantages electrification has brought to local students (Activity 2.1.2.1 and 2.1.2.2). Teachers at the school have also highlighted the transferability of these skills into the workplace, making rural students more competitive in the urban workforce.

6. Overview of Differentiated Energy Needs

Recapping the above, along with additional evidence both indirectly through survey responses as part of pre-development work, as well as directly through community engagement meetings with the Energy Committees and broader community-based outreach, Eneji Pwop continuously works to identify and systematically address the differentiated energy needs of women and men in its operations (Annex 20), including:

• Differing consumption/purchasing patterns – Men and women customers have noticeably different consumption and transaction patterns that need to be accounted for in operations. For example, in the Les Anglais network in November 2019, female

17 World Bank, World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org/ 18 Haiti Equality Collective, The Haiti Gender Shadow Report, http://www.genderaction.org/publications/2010/gsr.pdf 19 World Bank, World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org/

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customers accounted for 55.9% of the total customer base (218 customers) 38.55% of the total consumption (1,212 kWh), and 40.01% of the total customer costs (51,548 htg). Male customers on average use more electricity than female customers (average of 11.24 kWh per month vs. 5.56 for female customers). For purchasing, In Les Anglais female customers average about 4 transactions per month for a total of 274.4 htg (average of 66.9 htg/transaction) compared to 4.9 transactions per month for a total of 524 htg (average of 96.6 htg/transaction) for male customers. This primarily highlights that a larger number of the low-income (“Limye”) customers are female (152 female Limye customers vs. 82 male) as well as a higher number of freezer customers who are male (39 vs. 26 female). This in turn shows different levels of vulnerability as well as a need to drive equity in economic resilience as well. By tracking and monitoring consumption and purchasing patterns over time, Eneji Pwop is able to effectively identify and respond to the differentiated needs of women and men customers. For example, focusing outreach and development of new enterprises for women customers to achieve greater parity of opportunity for higher level energy users as is included in Component 3.

• Procurement/utilization of energy sources - Survey responses during pre-development work (Annex 20) have continuously identified women as being primarily responsible for the procurement and utilization of biomass and other alternative energy for household use, including cooking and lighting. Surveys also highlight the significant amounts of time and money women spend in fulfilling these responsibilities. Customer satisfaction surveys from ongoing operations in Les Anglais have identified an 86% uptake in electric lighting among households which both reduces women’s exposure to hazardous household air pollution caused by kerosene. Further, women report having greater flexibility about the time and time of day spent performing domestic tasks requiring energy and that 24-hour access to lighting, televisions, and other appliances has subsequently increased up leisure time and comfort in households.

• Need for support for household businesses – The majority of customer responses in pre-development surveys (Annex 20) identify a desire to expand and operate a business from the home using electricity. Gender-disaggregated observations and responses from participants have indicated that women are primarily responsible for the home-based businesses and enterprises. Accordingly, EarthSpark seeks out local stakeholders, particularly women-led organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs during pre-development surveys to identify specific needs for energy supply and technologies. Some responses have highlighted equipment to support electric cooking as well as agricultural processing which is a significant draw on women’s time. Further, EarthSpark has worked with specific organizations to do specific deployments of technologies to support women-led initiatives (i.e. the Famn Vayan enterprise discussed above). The Gender Action Plan belows highlights the strategy of specifically identifying and supporting these women-led enterprises.

• Lack of opportunity for technical/leadership jobs – Through initial community engagement, the process of establishing Energy Committees, as well as the Energy Committee meetings in Les Anglais and Tiburon a reluctance among women to apply

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for technical/leadership positions has been revealed due to a lack of confidence in ability or the perception that technical roles are for men (Annex 20). In response, starting with the Tiburon generation system build, EarthSpark began requiring that local sub-contractors ensure at least 20% of their labor force is women. Further, Enèji Pwòp has committed to developing pathways for women in technical/leadership roles within its own operations as well. Enèji Pwòp also uses recruitment materials and approaches that target and encourage women applicants.

• Constraints for participation – To effectively ensure representation from women, scheduling of meetings and other events needs to effectively accommodate the different schedules and demands on women’s time, as well as a more limited ability/reluctance to leave the home for extended periods of time. Through collaboration with local Energy Committees as well as feedback from community participants, Eneji Pwop has developed and refined its community meeting schedule to occur on weekends during times when most customers can attend (usually during the late afternoon following the midday meal). The meetings are also held in several locations allowing for reduced travel burden for participants.

• Streetlights - A key highlighted priority from pre-development surveys, particularly among women respondents, was the need for streetlights for improving personal safety at night. All Eneji Pwop/EarthSpark grids include reliable electric streetlighting designed to cover the vast majority of the grid footprints.

• Cooking – While not a primary focus of this project, the surveys also indicate a disproportionate risk of exposure for health impacts from utilization of cooking fuels like charcoal, gas, and kerosene for women compared to men because women are overwhelmingly responsible for cooking activities in surveyed households.

II. GENDER ACTION PLAN

The Project will implement EarthSpark’s ‘feminist electrification’ methodology and accompanying framework (see Part III.) across each grid developed. The 5 pillars will serve to replicate and expand EarthSpark’s established track record of gender mainstreaming. Incorporating pro-gender outcomes into the Project is necessary to build sustainable infrastructure that provides the opportunity for representative participation, meets the needs of all constituents in the targeted towns, and supports energy access and gender justice.

NEFCO’s Role

NECFO in its role as Accredited Entity will oversee and provide guidance for both the design and implementation of the specific gender mainstreaming activities undertaken as part of the project as well as the overall monitoring and evaluation and project reporting for gender outcomes and the gender action plan detailed below. All actions undertaken by the project will be aligned with NEFCO’s gender policy.

Further, NEFCO as AE confirms that it has in-house gender expertise and supporting and monitoring capacity. Ms Heli Sinkko is the gender specialist within NEFCO who will be supporting the implementation of the gender action plan.

EarthSpark’s Approach

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Beyond the national level, little to no gender related data exists specific to each beneficiary town. EarthSpark has engaged most towns selected for the Project by way of preliminary stakeholder consultation conducted with local authorities (mayors and deputies in most cases). From mayors to households, in-depth stakeholder consultation will be undertaken in the Project during each town’s pre-development surveying. This will ensure data collected is disaggregated by gender and is both localized and representative. This will then inform town-specific gender strategies ensuring the needs and priorities of local women and men are identified and mainstreamed into Project activities. EarthSpark’s pre-development surveying manual is a living document that can be amended to incorporate an individual town’s needs.

EarthSpark’s gender activities are mainstreamed throughout existing activities including pre-development surveying, recruitment practices, and energy literacy. As such the budget for ‘feminist electrification’ is similarly integrated into each of the Project’s Primary and Supporting activities. Each town’s collected data will indicate a gender strategy and budget, and overall M+E for the project includes indicators disaggregated by gender. As a supplementary M+E verification, the GAP includes specific M+E for each of the ‘feminist electrification’ pillars. Please note that each pillar shall be assessed and managed for each microgrid in the Project as follows:

1. Infrastructure Planning

This Project aims to design and build infrastructure that is informed by and meets the needs of men and women in the community (Component 1, 2). Specific objectives include: • Increasing women’s roles in planning by establishing an Energy Committee in each

target community with at least 50% female representation • Ensuring that women’s priorities are registered by conducting surveying that

disaggregates data by gender • Ensuring that the grid is built and operated in ways that meet women’s needs by

reporting and integrating gender disaggregated survey data in the design process and customer satisfaction during the operation period for each grid

• Contributing gender-energy access thought leadership to the international and national discourse by implementing and elevating the ‘Feminist Electrification’ framework across the project portfolio

2. Training and Employment

The expected training and employment outcome at the end of the project is to disrupt gender stereotypes and increase the opportunity for women to enter the workforce in formal roles both directly and indirectly related to microgrids (Activity 1.3.1). Specific objectives include: • Increasing women’s technical capacity in the workforce by implementing a recruitment

strategy that encourages women to apply • Demonstrating women’s leadership within Enèji Pwòp with women representing at least

40% of management positions and at least 40% of overall employees.

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• Directly increasing professional opportunities for women as employees by requiring that contractors employ a workforce of at least 25% women

• Indirectly increasing professional opportunities for women by demonstrating women’s abilities as capable technicians.

3. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Addressing energy and gender justice significantly impacts the ability to unlock economic opportunity. This Project will identify and support the growth of local SMEs, including women-led businesses, to achieve that outcome (Sub-component 2.2). Specific objectives include: • Increasing women’s opportunities by increasing training and capacity building for SME

development by implementing a business accompaniment program in each town • Increasing women’s income by increasing profits of women-led SMEs • Increasing women’s opportunities by expanding financing to viable women-led SMEs.

4. Domestic Energy Use

Identifying and meeting the energy needs of women and the domestic space are necessary to build truly representative and sustainable infrastructure (Output 2.1.2). Specific objectives include:

• Improving health by decreasing women’s exposure to indoor air pollution caused by kerosene

• Increasing usable work and leisure hours by offering electric lighting.

5. Community Resource Availability

This Project will also improve the availability of community resources with pro-gendered results (Component 1, Output 2.1.2). Specific objectives include:

• Improving women’s health by making electric lighting and tools in child birthing rooms possible

• Improving women’s safety by powering electric streetlights.

6. Monitoring and Evaluation

EarthSpark’s formal pre-development surveying has only been completed for existing projects in Les Anglais and Tiburon. As they will become contributed assets, their data informs the Baseline for the Project’s Gender Action Plan. Exploration has been completed in some but not all of the 22 towns covered by this Project. Baseline data will be reassessed and reported in the Inception Report in the second quarter of the Project. Annual gender reporting will occur in Q3 of each year as part of the Annual Project Report, Midterm and Final targets will

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be evaluated and reported during Project Midterm and Final reports (Q4 2022 and Q2 2025 respectively), as identified in the Project Timeline in Annex 2b.

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III. EARTHSPARK INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST ELECTRIFICATION GENDER ACTION PLAN FOR THE GREEN CLIMATE FUND PROPOSAL FOR MICROGRID DEVELOPMENT IN HAITI

ACTIVITIES INDICATORS

BASELINE 2019 TARGETS (Mid-term)

TARGETS (Final)

TIMELINE RESPONSIBLE ORGANISATIONS

BUDGET (USD)

Impact Statement: The Project shall yield increased resilience of vulnerable communities, including women and girls, to the negative impacts of climate change primarily through improved access to affordable, year – round clean energy services for all households, including poor and female – headed households.

Pro-Gender Outcome 1: Infrastructure Planning

Establish an Energy Committee in each beneficiary town with gender parity and maintain at least gender parity for Enèji Pwòp leadership. (Project Activities 2.1.1.1-2.1.1.4)

• Proportion of women and men serving on Energy Committees in each town

• Proportion of women and men in leadership positions for Enèji Pwòp

Les Anglais 50% Tiburon 50%

• 50% women membership across each Energy Committee of the 8 grids connected

• 50% women membership across each Energy Committee of the 22 grids connected

Implementation: Pre-development phase. Grids 1-4, Q3 2019; Grids 5-8, Q1 2020; Grids 9-13, Q3 2020; Grids 14-17, Q1 2021; Grids 18-22, Q3 2021. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

Enèji Pwòp Proportional to grid size

Conduct surveys and consultations in each beneficiary town (data disaggregated by gender) and identify energy priorities for women and key local women’s groups and other female interest stakeholders (Project Activities 1.1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.6,

• Number of surveys completed

• Survey completed for Tiburon + Les Anglais

• Survey completed for Tiburon + Les Anglais

• Survey completed for Tiburon + Les Anglais

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

• Survey completed for all 22 grids

•

Implementation: Pre-development phase. Grids 1-4, Q3 2019; Grids 5-8, Q1 2020; Grids 9-13, Q3 2020; Grids 14-17, Q1 2021; Grids 18-22, Q3 2021. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to grid size

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1.2.1-1.3.1, 2.1.1.2, 2.2.1.1) Report and integrate gender disaggregated survey data into the grid design of each beneficiary town. (Project Activities 1.1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.6, 1.2.1-1.3.1)

• Utilization of gender disaggregated data incorporated in grid design, operations, and strategic planning

TBD Strategic plan and grid design produced incorporating gender disaggregated data for Les Anglais and Tiburon

Strategic plan and grid design produced incorporating gender disaggregated data for 22 grids

Strategic plan and grid design produced incorporating gender disaggregated data for 22 grids

Implementation: Pre-development phase. Grids 1-4, Q2 2020; Grids 5-8, Q4 2020; Grids 9-13, Q2 2021; Grids 14-17, Q4 2021; Grids 18-22, Q2 2022. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to grid size

Develop gender mainstreaming strategies for microgrid towns based on EarthSpark’s ‘Feminist Electrification’ framework and survey data and elevate gender-lens energy access thought leadership to international and national discourses (Project Activities 2.3.1.1-2.3.1.3)

• Number of microgrid towns with gender mainstreaming strategies

• Results of project gender mainstreaming activities are elevated to national and international discourses as measured by EarthSpark reporting and participation in events

• Gender mainstreaming strategies produced and implemented for Les Anglais, Tiburon yet to be launched

• ‘Feminist Electrification’ results of Les Anglais reported to national and international stakeholders, Tiburon yet to be launched

• Gender mainstreaming strategies produced and implemented across 8 grids

• ‘Feminist Electrification’ results of 8 grids reported to national and international stakeholders

• Gender mainstreaming strategies produced and implemented across 22 grids

• ‘Feminist Electrification’ results of 22 grids reported to national and international stakeholders

Implementation: Upon project commencement. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

EarthSpark International, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to the grid size

Pro-Gender Output 2: Employment & Training

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Develop and implement a recruitment strategy that encourages applications from women (Project Activity 1.3.1)

• Number of women employed in technical and non-technical recruitments

• 1 woman in Les Anglais

• 1 woman in Tiburon

• >16 (>2/grid)

• >44 (>2/grid) Implementation: Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

EarthSpark Proportional to grid size

Demonstrate women’s leadership within Enèji Pwòp (Project Activity 1.3.1)

• Proportion of women in management positions within Enèji Pwòp

• Proportion of Enèji Pwòp employees who are women

• Women represent 100% of management positions in EP

• Women represent 40% of overall employees

• >40% • >40%

• >40% • >40%

Implementation: G Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to grid size

Develop a recruitment toolkit to encourage women’s participation in grid development and require contractors to employ a quota of women staff (Project Activities 1.1.1, 1.1.3-1.1.5)

• Recruitment toolkit deployed to encourage women’s participation

• Percentage of women employed by EPC and partnering contracts

• No recruitment kit currently exists although elements have been implemented in Les Anglais and Tiburon

• EPC agreed to >25% quota for the construction of Tiburon

• Recruitment toolkit deployed across 8 grids

• >25%/ partner for 8 grids

• Recruitment toolkit deployed across 22 grids

• >25%/ partner for 22 grids

Implementation: Begins during EPC RFP in the pre-development phase. Grids 1-4, Q2 2020; Grids 5-8, Q4 2020; Grids 9-13, Q2 2021; Grids 14-17, Q4 2021; Grids 18-22, Q2 2022. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe.

EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to grid size

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Develop pathways for showcasing women as capable technicians. (Project Activity 1.3.1)

• Number of demonstration events

• Number of women applicants for technical roles

• Female EP staff has represented EP more than once this year

• Currently not being tracked

• 1 event/yr

• 25% of applicants for technical roles

• 2 events/yr

• 25% of applicants for technical roles

Implementation: Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Enèji Pwòp Proportional to grid size

Pro-Gender Output 3: Support for Local Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Develop and implement a business and SME support program in each town, particularly focusing on women-led SME development. (Project Activity 2.2.1.1)

• Number of women led SMEs participating and/or receiving support from SME programs

• Percentage increase in profit for local women-led SMEs

• 1 SME is currently receiving business support

• 1 SME • Not currently

being measured • Not currently

being measured

• 8 SMEs • 4 SMEs • 8% profit

increase • TBD based on

baseline figure

• 22 SMEs • 11 SMEs • 8% profit

increase • TBD based on

baseline and midterm figures

Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Proportional to grid size

Expand available financing for viable women-led SME’s. (Project Activity 2.2.1.3)

• Number of women-led SMEs with access to improved financing

• Total USD provided in financing

• Repayment rate

• 1 in Les Anglais • ~$3500 • Load is ~40%

repaid

• 4 SMEs • TBD based on

enterprise baseline

• At least 90%

• 11 SMEs • TBD based on

enterprise baseline • At least 90%

Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Proportional to grid size

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Pro-Gender Output 4: Domestic Energy Use

Decrease women’s exposure to indoor air pollution caused by kerosene by offering electric lighting. (Project Activity 2.1.2.1)

• Quantity of avoided kerosene burned (candles, etc.) in households

• 411 homes currently connected in Les Anglais with no use for kerosene

• 80% homes connected without kerosene use

• 80% homes without kerosene use

Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

EarthSpark Proportional to grid size

Increase usable work and leisure hours by offering electric lighting. (Activity 1.2.1 and Activity 2.1.2.2)

• Average number of hours customers have access to electric lighting (customers disaggregated by gender)

• 24 hours in Les Anglais

• Tiburon grid yet to be connected

• 24hours • 24hours Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

EarthSpark Proportional to grid size

Pro-Gender Output 5: Community Resource Availability

Connect electric lighting and tools in child birthing rooms where possible. (Activity 2.1.2.1)

• Proportion of major child birthing facilities connected to electricity adequate for basic lighting and child

• A formalised plan does not currently exist

• If they exist, all major child birthing health facilities in the footprint of the 8 grids connected to electricity adequate for

• If they exist, all major child birthing health facilities in the footprint of the 22 grids connected to electricity

Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024.

EarthSpark, Enèji Pwòp

Proportional to grid size

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birthing tools basic lighting and child birthing tools

adequate for basic lighting and child birthing tools

Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

Power electric streetlights. (Activity 1.1.3 and 1.1.4)

• Kilometres of streets with functioning streetlighting

• Average nightly hours/night of streetlighting

• >80% of total distribution system footprint in Les Anglais, Tiburon grid not yet live

• 10 hrs in Les Anglais, Tiburon grid not yet live

• 80% of total distribution system footprint

• 8 hours

• 80% of total distribution system footprint

• 8 hours

Implementation: Commences after grid inauguration. Grids 1-4, Q2 2021; Grids 5-8, Q4 2022; Grids 9-13, Q2 2023; Grids 14-17, Q3 2023; Grids 18-22, Q2 2024. Reporting: Inception, Annual, Midterm, and Final reporting as per Project Timeframe

EarthSpark Proportional to grid size

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