National child project under the GEF Africa Mini-grids Program Malawi Supporting access to clean energy by increasing the financial viability and promoting scaled-up commercial investment in minigrids in Malawi. Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. All the people of Malawi stand to benefit from accelerated investments in clean energy. All taxpayers and electricity users stand to benefit from more cost-effective ways to deliver clean energy to end users. More specifically, rural communities currently without access to electricity will benefit from solutions that will enable affordable, clean energy to be delivered to their communities as well as the multiple, broader socioeconomic benefits that will accrue into different socioeconomic aspects of rural livelihoods including a healthier environment, opportunities for income generating activities and improved management of natural resources. Data from 2019[1] showed employment creation and energy expenditure savings as direct benefits resulting from minigrids. While productive use impacts would differ depending on the country context, rural microenterprises in India experienced an income growth of 13% after connecting to minigrids.     The focus of the productive use overlay pilot at the two sites is on introducing various productive use applications, powering a range of commercial and agricultural electrical appliances coupled with technical and business development support. These will contribute indirect benefits associated with income growth and productive use job creation. Improved economic buoyancy should in turn contribute to the sustainability of the minigrid operations, creating a virtuous cycle of growth and resilience.     Across all outputs of the AMP in Malawi, at least 763 beneficiaries are expected to benefit directly. The largest number are the ~300 farmers who will benefit from having access to agricultural processing equipment. The two communities will also benefit from small businesses development support and/or subsidized electrical appliances or equipment. Across the other activities of the project, there will be multiple participants in training and knowledge sharing events, participants in the regional Community of Practice, and users of the online One Stop Information Centre.     Guidance from the Gender Analysis and Action Plan will help ensure that gender equity and empowerment remain a key part of the project implementation, while disaggregated indicators as well as monitoring and reporting will enable an understanding of gender specific impacts that can inform improved future planning and decision-making. Particular attention will be given to strengthening the role of women as beneficiaries, decision-makers, participants, managers and owners of mini-grid systems or energised end-uses as detailed in the gender action plan.    Socio-economic impacts will also be tracked more broadly for both pilot sites to allow refinements and inform future planning and decision-making. By linking this information back to the appropriate forums including the regional project, benefits can be replicated and enhanced in future mini-grid developments. The impacts of minigrids on poverty, gender, health and education have been difficult to quantify and demonstrate because of the high costs associated with impact data collection and lack of understanding of relevant impact metrics. In this respect, the standardized quality assurance and monitoring framework and digitization aspects of the AMP will contribute significantly to the understanding and further refinement of the minigrid contribution to the benefit of each AMP partner country, including Malawi.     The overall program is expected to mitigate significant amounts of CO2 emissions and will be accompanied by co-benefits. At the national level, direct and consequential (indirect) emission reductions are expected to occur, calculated to be 1,068 metric tons of CO2e from direct interventions and 2,043,000 metric tons of CO2e accrued indirectly.          [1] Power for All Fact Sheet. October 2019. powerforall.org. On average, every 1MW of mini-grid installed capacity requires about 180 direct jobs and as much as US$100 can be saved annually per rural household connection.