percent). There was no World Bank Group engagement during this scale-up program. ONEE’s share of total investment financing was split approximately fifty-fifty with government borrowings, grants, and equity. These funds were raised in four tranches over the 15-year period, from 1996 to 2009. By 2009, consumers had provided about 25 percent of total investment, municipalities and communities provided about 20 percent (enabled by earmarked allocations sourced from value-added tax receipts and municipal development fund allocations), and ONEE provided 55 percent.<sup>51</sup> It is worth noting that the advent of IPPs gave ONEE the space to reallocate its financial resources to implement the vast rural electrification initiative.<sup>52</sup> Another reason for PERG’s success is that it was systematically and effectively managed by a single competent implementation agency, ONEE. The coherence of PERG in terms of having one plan and one implementer compares to earlier experiences of peer countries such as Tunisia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.<sup>53</sup> Under ONEE's competent leadership, PERG had a clear vision –global electrification of rural households – fully aligned with the government's own developmental priorities.<sup>54</sup> This contrasted with previous unsuccessful attempts in the 1980s by MOI and local authorities. PERG at the outset was an analytically sound and comprehensive plan prepared by ONEE in a least-cost spatially optimized manner that was technologically neutral and that incorporated grid extensions for the most part, but also included mini-grids, Solar Household Systems (SHSs),<sup>55</sup> wind plants and micro power stations. ONEE performed optimal engineering design based on detailed surveys and developed an internal GIS database that captured almost all rural communities and villages in the country. This information assisted the utility and the government in opting for appropriate solutions to achieve assigned targets. PERG was flexible enough to integrate a broad range of technical approaches, enabling it to implement whichever solution was most appropriate to local demographics and geographical conditions.<sup>56</sup> For instance, several thousand families have been provided with off-grid photovoltaic kits, 51,559 households between 1998 and 2009, and another 19,438 between 2016 and 2017.<sup>57</sup> In several instances, sociopolitical and equity considerations—coupled with aspirations of communities for grid service—resulted in grid extensions not identified as part of the leastcost plan.<sup>58</sup> Typically, ONEE covered 55 percent of the cost of a connection, the local commune 20 percent and the household 25 percent. Actual installation was performed by 230 different subcontractors competing for tenders, an approach that succeeded in reducing the average cost of a connection by over 30 percent compared to the pre-program benchmark. ONEE reviewed the subcontractors and supervised all construction work.<sup>59</sup> ONEE’s approach in the initial design of the rural electrification program of minimal consultations with other stakeholders may have created risks in the electricity distribution

> 51 (IsDB - Islamic Development Bank, 2013; Nygaard & Dafrallah, 2015).

> 52 Interviews with Moroccan power sector policy makers, 8 February 2017.

> 53 (Independent Evaluation Group, 2016, p. 31)

> 54 (IsDB - Islamic Development Bank, 2013)

> 55 (Independent Evaluation Group, 2016, pp. 31-32)

> 56 (IsDB - Islamic Development Bank, 2013)

> 57 (ONEE, 2016, p. 10; ONEE, 2017, p. 10)

> 58 (Independent Evaluation Group, 2016)

> 59 (IsDB - Islamic Development Bank, 2013)

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