Why the jobs agenda in Bangkok starts with an accountable Mission 300
By Wentland Muhatiah, Senior Advocacy and Policy Research Officer, ACCESS Coalition
The world’s finance ministers are in Bangkok to talk about jobs. But for 563 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, that conversation can’t start: there’s no electricity where the work would happen. Mission 300 can change that, if it passes five tests.
Bangkok, after dark
Fly into Bangkok at night and it’s hard to miss: the river reflects a skyline that never switches off. Night markets, motorbike workshops, street vendors cooking long after midnight. An economy built on power, running all hours. In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, a workshop like that closes when the sun goes down.
This week, the IMF–World Bank Group Annual Meetings have brought thousands of policymakers, bankers and advocates into that glow under one banner: “Empowering People, Building Resilience.” Jobs and growth are at the centre of it.
I’m here with the ACCESS Coalition: more than 100 civil society organisations working on clean energy access across Sub-Saharan Africa. We’ve come with one argument:
You cannot empower people who are sitting in the dark.
That isn’t a slogan. It’s a precondition, and for hundreds of millions of people it isn’t met.
One agenda, not two
The jobs agenda and the energy access agenda are the same agenda. Every jobs strategy discussed in Bangkok this week, from agri-processing and light manufacturing to digital work, health and education, quietly assumes there is a plug at the point of work.
For much of Sub-Saharan Africa, that assumption fails:
- 563 million people had no electricity in 2024.
- About 42 million people gain access each year. That’s real progress, but population growth swallows most of it.
- On current trends, more than half a billion people will still be without power in 2030, the year SDG 7 was supposed to be met.
- Almost a billion people in the region still cook with polluting fuels.
This is where Mission 300 (M300) comes in. Launched by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank in 2024, it aims to connect 300 million people by 2030. Thirty-six countries have launched National Energy Compacts, their national delivery plans. In June, M300 reported 50 million people connected across 40 countries.
It’s the boldest energy access effort we’ve seen, and it could become the strongest jobs programme in the Bank’s portfolio. A light bulb doesn’t create a job. A grain mill does.
That’s exactly why it has to be done right. Big missions don’t fail for lack of ambition. They fail on the details: who pays, who gets reached, what gets built, what the power is for, and who checks the results. Our new position paper sets out the evidence on each.
Follow the money (it’s going the wrong way)
While the IMF and World Bank discuss debt sustainability in the same building, we are asking some of the most indebted countries on earth to borrow their way to universal electricity.
- International public finance for clean energy in Sub-Saharan Africa fell from $7 billion to $5 billion in 2024.
- 80% of clean energy finance to developing countries is debt. Only 13% is grants.
- Worldwide, only 22% of households without electricity can afford even a basic solar home system.
That adds up to two problems. Governments are offered more loans on top of debts they already struggle to service. Households, the people still in the dark, have the lowest incomes, the thinnest margins and the least ability to pay. Both are design choices, and design choices can be changed.
The fix isn’t to push private capital out. Private finance has a central role in generation, distribution and technology. The fix is the order of the capital stack: concessional and grant finance should take the first loss at the last mile, so that private money can follow without loading more risk onto sovereign balance sheets.
Then make affordability part of the plan, not an afterthought. Energy safety nets, connection subsidies and lifeline tariffs should be written into every National Energy Compact, with dedicated finance behind them. A connection nobody can afford to use doesn’t empower anyone. It just adds a number to a progress chart.
Our ask: Make Mission 300 financing fit for purpose and pro-poor with grants and concessional finance first and electricity people can afford. By when: Spring Meetings 2027.
The people the maps miss
Money follows the path of least resistance. Left alone, electrification goes to the stable, the urban and the easy to bank. Two groups get left at the back of the queue.
First, people in fragile and conflict-affected places. 428 million people without electricity live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and that number has barely moved since 2022. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, nearly 85 million people lack power. These are the places where a working solar system keeps a clinic’s vaccines cold, a water pump running and a phone charged when everything else breaks. If “Building Resilience” means anything, it has to mean here.
Second, the hidden urban gap. More than 1.16 billion people live in informal settlements, roughly a quarter of all city dwellers. Many technically “have access” through a shared meter or a neighbour reselling power. In practice that means unreliable supply, high prices and unsafe wiring, and it is rarely counted as an energy access problem at all. None of the published M300 Compacts include dedicated interventions for informal settlements.
Those same neighbourhoods are full of tailors, welders, food vendors and repair shops, all paying a premium for bad power. Bringing them safe, formal, affordable connections helps people and helps the utility: formal connections cut losses from informal tapping and add paying customers, which lowers the cost of electrifying everyone else.
Our ask: Make Mission 300 investment reach electricity-poor communities and countries with dedicated finance for fragile contexts and informal settlements. By when: Spring Meetings 2027.
Fund the workhorse
Decentralised renewable energy (DRE), meaning mini-grids and solar home systems, delivered 55% of new connections in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020–22, and M300 expects to reach about half its target population through DRE. The investment doesn’t match that role. This isn’t grid versus off-grid. It’s matching the money to the delivery plan.
Take the currency risk off the customer. A solar company can do everything right and still fail because of the exchange rate. Its revenue comes in local currency, often in small instalments from low-income customers, while its debt is in dollars. The Bank already prioritises de-risking and local-currency finance. Scale local-currency facilities for DRE and clean cooking enterprises in volatile markets, so the poorest customers don’t end up absorbing a devaluation.
Our ask: Rebalance Mission 300 investments towards decentralised renewable energy, the least-cost way to reach most energy-poor people. By when: First annual targets by Annual Meetings 2027; parity by 2030.
From light bulbs to livelihoods
A grain mill, a cold room, an irrigation pump, a welding machine, an electric pressure cooker in a street-food stall: this is where electricity becomes income.
Power with a purpose. Productive use of energy is widely seen as the key to electrification’s economic impact, yet it is still financed as pilots, not at scale. Pair connections with appliance finance, enterprise support and market links for farmers and small businesses. Coordinate with agriculture, health and education programmes, so the power arrives with something to power. And give Compact Delivery and Monitoring Units (CDMUs) dedicated technical assistance so this becomes standard practice.
Cook with power. Electric cooking in homes, schools, hospitals and food businesses does two things at once. It creates steady demand that improves the economics of grids and mini-grids, and it tackles clean cooking, the most neglected part of SDG 7. Kenya’s National eCooking Strategy shows governments are already planning this way.
Our ask: Design Mission 300 around communities’ development needs through inclusive, locally owned and cross-sectoral planning for jobs, health and education. By when: End of 2027.
The 50 million question
Fifty million people connected is a headline worth celebrating. It’s also a headline worth checking, and that’s not cynicism. Credibility is M300’s most valuable asset. It’s what keeps donors at the table, persuades finance ministers and draws in private capital.
The open question, raised by ODI analysis in June, is simple: how much of the 50 million is new? How much comes from new M300 finance, and how much from projects already in the pipeline before the Mission began?
There’s a deeper problem underneath. The OECD Creditor Reporting System, which the World Bank Group and AfDB report through, has no dedicated category for energy access investments. You can’t hold anyone accountable for what isn’t reported.
The fixes are practical and low-cost:
- Publish M300 investment plans, with an annual report for each Compact broken down by technology, financing instrument and service level (hours and reliability of supply, measured with the Bank’s own Multi-Tier Framework).
- Separate new finance and connections from pre-M300 projects.
- Verify results independently.
Bring civil society in. Counting is only half of accountability; the other half is a say in design. Every Compact design process should include structured participation by civil society and energy-poor communities, in line with the World Bank’s own ESS10 standard. Sierra Leone and Comoros have already shown it can be done. We’re calling for a formal Civil Society Engagement Mechanism, with accredited seats in M300 governance, at country (CDMU) level and at World Bank and AfDB headquarters.
Programmes designed with communities get used. Programmes designed for them too often end up as unused hardware.
Our ask: Make Mission 300 transparent and accountable by publishing results and verifying them independently and giving civil society a seat. By when: Baseline before Spring Meetings 2027; Compact reports and civil society mechanism by Annual Meetings 2027.
Five asks for the week
Bangkok’s lights will stay on long after the delegates leave. The real test of these Annual Meetings is whether they help switch on the lights somewhere else: a clinic in North Kivu, a welding shop in an informal settlement in Nairobi, a cooperative’s cold room in rural Sierra Leone.
ACCESS is asking Mission 300 to commit to five things, set out in full in our position paper:
- Pro-poor finance. First-loss grants and concessional finance, plus energy safety nets.
- Reach the furthest behind. 15% for fragile settings, and action on informal settlements.
- Back the workhorse. 1:1 grid–DRE investment parity by 2030.
- Plan for livelihoods. Power linked to productive use and e-cooking.
- Show the receipts. Verified reporting, and a seat for civil society.
None of this slows Mission 300 down. It’s what makes it bankable, credible and durable, and what turns 300 million connected people into 300 million chances at a better livelihood.
If you’re in Bangkok this week, find me. Over coffee, in a corridor or after a session, I want to hear where you think M300 is working, where it isn’t, and what you’d change. WhatsApp or call me on +25414 3645303.
