World Bank Spring Meetings: Mission 300 Reaches 43 Million Africans with Clean Electricity

The World Bank and IMF concluded their 2026 Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. on April 18, featuring a major session on 'Driving Growth and Jobs through Energy' that highlighted progress on Mission 300 — the initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. As of the meeting, 43 million Africans had already been connected under the program, using mini-grids and solar home systems. Highlight projects included Nigeria's DARES initiative (connecting 17.5 million people via off-grid solar), Bhutan's Dorjilung hydropower PPP, and Burundi's Weza Power program. Multilateral development bank (MDB) climate finance exceeded USD 136 billion in 2024, with USD 85.1 billion deployed to low- and middle-income economies — more than doubling in five years. The meetings also addressed integration of climate risks into the IMF-World Bank Debt Sustainability Framework.