Concessional Finance: Development Marketplace Competition 2008

Lighting Africa Development Marketplace Grant Competition 2008: Overview & Highlights

Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program administered by the World Bank and supported by various partners that identifies and funds innovative, early stage projects with high potential for achieving positive development impacts. DM competitions—held at the global, regional, and country level— attract ideas from a range of innovators, including civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, academia and businesses. Since 1998, the DM has awarded $46 million to over 1,000 groundbreaking projects.

The Lighting Africa Development Marketplace (LADM) Competition was held May 6-8, 2008, in Accra, Ghana. This event is an integral part of the World Bank Group’s broader Lighting Africa Program.  The LADM is supported by numerous donors:

• the Global Environment Facility (GEF);
• the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF);
• the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP);
• Good Energies, Inc.; and
• the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)

The LADM theme, Innovations in Off-Grid Lighting Products and Services for Africa, focused on households, businesses, and community service providers without access to electricity. Today, global lighting is a $185 billion annual market, of which $38 billion is for kerosene lamps and other fuel-based lighting products which are costly, inefficient, polluting and often hazardous. Among the poor, lighting is often the most expensive of all energy uses. The LADM provides a platform for accessing this market.

Proposals supported included those which demonstrated progress in the following categories:

• Increasing the use of the latest technology products and services

• Strengthening manufacturing, marketing, and distribution supply chains

• Enhancing affordability by reducing product cost and increasing access to financing.

• Removing policy, regulatory, and other barriers

Participation in the Grant Competition

Over 400 proposals on innovative solutions for off-grid lighting for Africa were received from 54 countries, including 38 African countries.

Of these, 52 were selected to go on to the final round of the competition. Finalist teams gathered at the Lighting Africa 2008 Conference to make their case for funding to an international jury.  To view the event brochure and read a summary of the finalist proposals, click the following link:

Event Brochure and Summary of Development Marketplace Finalist Proposals

The panel selected 16 winners from among the Lighting Africa Development Marketplace Grant Competition finalists evaluating them using the following criteria: innovation, measurability of outcomes, organizational and financial sustainability, growth potential, and realism. Each winner will be receiving up to $200,000 in seed funding to implement projects that offer affordable, clean, and safe off-grid lighting, and that promise to improve access to lighting for people living without electricity in several Sub-Saharan African countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

For more information about Development Marketplace, you can learn about them on their official website by clicking on the following link:  Development Marketplace Official Website