ASCENT-GREEN: Resilient Energy Access for Inclusive Development (GCF-FP291)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Green Climate Fund (GCF)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Mar 28, 2026
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
World Bank
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Grant, Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 250.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 50.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Grant Amount (USD)
$ 200.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 695.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Media Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ GCF website

Updated in EWS Jul 16, 2026

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated by the GCF, the ASCENT-GREEN project aims to support climate-vulnerable communities across 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa by catalysing private-sector delivery of distributed renewable energy, clean cooking, and productive-use energy. It seeks to increase climate resilience, drive economic development, and reduce emissions across some of the region's most remote and fragile contexts.

Structured around three components, the project will establish a regional energy access financing facility providing affordable lending, results-based financing, and technical assistance, prioritizing rural households, fragile, conflict-affected populations, small and medium-sized enterprises and women-owned enterprises; develop regional de-risking facilities including a risk-sharing facility and a carbon risk mitigation facility to crowd in private capital; and establish a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)-led regional platform to coordinate policy, technical assistance, and knowledge sharing across participating countries.

Through financing instruments that address barriers such as affordability, risk perception, and scaling up, the project will mobilise significantly larger private flows and accelerate market transformations, enabling far greater reach. It is expected to directly benefit 28.8 million people and indirectly reach a further 13.8 million, supporting improved access to energy services and enhanced resilience across participating countries.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

IBRD Contact:

Dr. Zhihong Zhang - Fund Manager, Global Climate Funds
Email: +1 2022501530
Email: zzhang2@worldbank.org 
Email: wb-gcf@worldbank.org 

GCF Contacts:

Communications: communications@gcfund.org 
Information disclosure: https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/disclosure/form 
GCF Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM): +82 32 458 6186 / https://gcf.i-sight.com/external/case/new/group=Complaint
GCF Independent Integrity Unity (IIU): +82 32 458 6714 / iiu@gcfund.org 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Requests for project information may be submitted using the IDP Request for Information by email to: disclosure@gcfund.org.

You can also submit an information request using this online form: https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/disclosure/form.  Additionally, if information requested is denied, an appeal can be filed to the Information Appeals Panel: iap@gcfund.org.  You can learn more about the Information Appeals Panel at: https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/disclosure/appeals.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF GREEN CLIMATE FUND 

The Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM) addresses complaints by people who believe they are negatively affected or may be affected by projects or programmes funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The complainant can raise issues related to any of GCF’s policies and procedures, including those relating to social and environmental issues, indigenous peoples, gender, and information disclosure, among others. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may seek to address the issues raised by facilitating problem solving or conducting a compliance process. You can learn more about the Independent Redress Mechanism and how to file a complaint at https://irm.greenclimate.fund/.

You can access a video about the IRM (English) at: https://youtu.be/1LanbriVhfs.

A brochure about the IRM can be accessed in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Mandarin, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian, Korean, German, and Kiswahili at: https://irm.greenclimate.fund/.

How it works

How it works