Eastern and Southern Africa are highly vulnerable to climate change, facing recurrent droughts, floods, heatwaves, and increasingly erratic rainfall that intensify water stress and land degradation. These climate stresses are compounded by rapid population growth, projected to rise from around 749 million in 2023 to nearly 964 million by 2050, placing growing pressure on already overstretched infrastructure. In 2023, around 365 million people lacked access to electricity and 580 million lacked access to clean cooking, severely constraining adaptation, productivity, and health outcomes across the region.

The ASCENT-GREEN project  aims to support climate-vulnerable communities across 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa by catalysing private-sector delivery of distributed renewable energy, clean cooking, and productive-use energy. It seeks to increase climate resilience, drive economic development, and reduce emissions across some of the region's most remote and fragile contexts.

Structured around three components, the project will establish a regional energy access financing facility providing affordable lending, results-based financing, and technical assistance, prioritizing rural households, fragile, conflict-affected populations, small and medium-sized enterprises and women-owned enterprises; develop regional de-risking facilities including a risk-sharing facility and a carbon risk mitigation facility to crowd in private capital; and establish a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)-led regional platform to coordinate policy, technical assistance, and knowledge sharing across participating countries.

Through financing instruments that address barriers such as affordability, risk perception, and scaling up, the project will mobilise significantly larger private flows and accelerate market transformations, enabling far greater reach. It is expected to directly benefit 28.8 million people and indirectly reach a further 13.8 million, supporting improved access to energy services and enhanced resilience across participating countries.

ASCENT-GREEN: Resilient Energy Access for Inclusive Development

<p>Project information is sourced from Green Climate Fund. Please check terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Gender assessment for FP291: ASCENT-GREEN: Resilient Energy Access for Inclusive Development

Project

Botswana

Burundi

Comoros

Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Kenya

Lesotho

Madagascar

Malawi

Mozambique

Rwanda

Sao Tome and Principe

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Financial actors and resources that are primarily directed towards climate change mitigation, adaptation and compensation.

Dedicated pool of financial resources for climate-related projects.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions to adapt and increase the resilience of rural and urban infrastructure and settlements to climate change.

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

Actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience of societies and the economy to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Social protection systems consist of policies that help people manage social risks in order to prevent poverty and maintain decent incomes and living standards

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Production of electricity and heat from solar irradiation.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity.

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

This sector provides communication services, software development, and IT solutions.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

the fair distribution of risks and opportunities of climate change and the transition to a regenerative economy, cognisant in particular of disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities and the working class

Procedural justice means ensuring that decision making is safe, transparent and inclusive, emphasizing the agency and influence of vulnerable groups and those most impacted.

Gender assessment for FP291: ASCENT-GREEN: Resilient Energy Access for Inclusive Development

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Climate justice

Renewable energy

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance