Zambia faced an energy crisis in 2015, as low water levels in a country that relied on hydro-power meant forced power cuts and regular blackouts. The government was searching for solutions to bring new sources of power online and quickly.
Enter the International Finance Corporation’s Scaling Solar Program.
Billed partly as a solution to increase solar power in lower-income countries and partly as a way to use donor dollars to attract private capital at a time when the “billions to trillions” narrative was at its zenith, the program offered a lot of promise. Now, some eight years later, as the World Bank Group is once again under pressure to draw in more private capital amid ongoing reforms, the program has come under scrutiny by experts.