The Local Electricity Access Programme - LEAP Transparency is an innovative approach to improving rural electrification through better governance and stakeholder dialogue. LEAP is designed to offer government, business and civil society organizations (CSOs) a platform to jointly create an enabling environment for local electrification that meets the real needs of communities, while offering a stable framework for energy investors. The objective is to push for fair, sustainable and productive electrification for the benefit of the African people.
Despite recent progress and many international support initiatives in global electrification, still, nearly 790 million people around the world are without access to electricity, living in the dark. About 72% of those people live in sub-Saharan Africa mostly relying on traditional fuels that are wasteful, unreliable, expensive, unhealthy, slow down social economic development and contribute to environmental problems and climate change. With its strong commitment to and experience in multi-stakeholder governance Berlin Governance Platform, Berlin is carrying LEAP Transparency forward with strong partners from government, private sector and civil society.
LEAP Transparency centers on regular and sustainable dialogue and problem-solving for improved rural electrification, in multi-stakeholder groups (MSGs) at three levels which we accompany with technical and secretarial support.
LEAP is a national initiative owned by its stakeholders: In currently three pilot communes (Ndiob, Bokhol, Baraka/Dakar), local MSGs ensure that their micro-grid installations meet community needs. Phase II aims to increase the number of LEAP communes to 14 in 2023.
A national MSG in Dakar, chaired by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and bringing together high-level representatives of government, business and organized civil society, will continue to discuss and propose the necessary sector change and reform.
An International Advisory Group chaired by Transparency International founder Prof Peter Eigen continues to draw on the Senegal experience to develop an international governance standard for rural electrification, to prepare for a scaled expansion of LEAP across Senegal and Africa.
LEAP does not want to replace or duplicate the many very welcome electrification projects in Senegal. It is a neutral governance and capacity-building mechanism that can easily and flexibly accompany electrification projects in communes to ensure these can happen and continue in the best possible conditions and are embedded in wider development and reform initiatives.
The initiative for LEAP prominently arose from recommendations by late Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel in its flagship report on Energy of 2017 on better electricity governance on the continent. LEAP firmly builds on our direct experience in building Transparency International and the multi-stakeholder initiatives Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI).
Advisory Group
Dr. Peter EigenChairman is the (co-)founder and former Chair of Transparency International (TI), the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), and now Shareholder of BGP.
Timon Herzog is CEO of GRIPS Energy.
Maximilian Jarrett Energy specialist and former Africa Programme Manager of The International Energy Agency (IEA)
Gabriele Schwarz (Bonergie) is Vice President of Conseil Patronal des Énergies Renouvelables du Sénégal " (COPERES), the Director of Bonergie Senegal and the IAG's liaison with the LEAP MSG Senegal
Abdoulaye Ba is Vice President of Conseil Patronal des Énergies Renouvelables du Sénégal " (COPERES) and heads Compagnie Sahélienne en Energies Renouvelables (COSEER)
Prof. Eicke Weber is Vice President of ISES and co-chair of the European Solar Manufacturing Council ESMC, formerly CEO of the Berkeley Alliance for Research in Singapore, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Professor for Physics / Solar Energy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany.
Kerstin Schönherr is Managing Director of BMV Mineralöl Versorgungsgesellschaft.
Prof. Gunnar Graef is Affiliate Professor at ESCP lecturing Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design Thinking on the Paris and in the Berlin campus and Managing Partner of Deutsche Ventures and Founding Chairman of Gräf & Company.
Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen
Tim Bittiger, Aïcha Kante, Ahmet Gueye
