SE4ALL Initiative

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership between governments, the private sector, and civil society. Launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2011, it has three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030:

  • Ensure universal access to modern energy services.
  • Double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

These three objectives, each one important in its own right, reinforce each other in important ways. For example, affordable renewable energy technologies bring modern energy services to rural communities where extension of the conventional power grid is prohibitively expensive and impractical.

Bolstering energy efficiency can provide substantial cost savings to governments, businesses and households, while freeing up power for more productive uses. Achieving the three objectives together will maximize development benefits and help stabilize climate change over the long run.

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative also acts in support of the 2014‑2024 Decade of Sustainable Energy for All as declared by the UN General Assembly.

The SE4All Country Action Reference Document (CARD) foresees the following steps for the implementation of SE4All Country Actions:

  1. A Declaration of Partnership through which national governments express their desire to participate in the SE4All initiative;
  2. A Rapid Assessment/Gap Analysis, which describes the status quo regarding energy in the national development context, providing the political, economic, social, and environmental background for the subsequent drafting of strategic plans to promote SE4All in a particular country;
  3. A Country Action Agenda, which is a strategy-driven and holistic document that addresses the issues and gaps identified in the respective Rapid Assessment/Gap Analysis by outlining and prioritizing various courses of action and demonstrates how the three goals of SE4All can be achieved;

Investment Prospectuses, which provide an approach to operationalizing the Country Action Agenda, in each specific sector or subsector, by identifying and developing a set of implementable programs and projects, including their investment requirements, that can be presented to potential private and public investors.