Powering Healthcare, Closing the Access Gap
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC) has one of the world’s largest energy access gaps, despite significant clean energy potential in hydropower, solar energy and critical minerals. Closing the access gap is central to the country’s development and Africa’s wider drive for universal energy access.
As a Mission 300 country, the DRC was among the first to present a National Energy Compact at the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in early 2025, setting out its commitment to expand electricity access and reform its energy sector. SEforALL serves as Secretariat to Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank initiative to connect 300 million people across Africa to electricity by 2030.
In the DRC, our work focuses on one of the places reliable power matters most: the health system.
Our Projects
The DRC’s health system reaches millions of people through a vast network of health posts, health centres and referral hospitals. Yet more than 15,000 facilities still operate without reliable electricity. Reliable energy access underpins almost everything a health facility does, from safe childbirth and vaccine storage to diagnostics and emergency care.
Developed by SEforALL and UNICEF with the Government of the DRC, the Market Assessment and Roadmap is the first comprehensive national framework for electrifying the country’s health facilities. Drawing on extensive stakeholder consultations, national datasets and field assessments across 43 health facilities, it:
• Identifies the priority needs and investment pathways for universal energy access in the health sector
• Sets out a phased, context-specific approach to electrifying more than 15,000 health facilities
• Combines technical solutions, delivery models, financing mechanisms and governance reforms to ensure long-term sustainability
Why is our work with the DRC important?
In a country with one of the world's widest energy access gaps, electrifying health facilities is among the most direct ways energy can improve and save lives. By providing the Government with a single national roadmap grounded in evidence, the work replaces fragmented, ad hoc efforts with a coordinated and financeable plan. It offers a model for linking energy access to the essential services that depend on it.
In collaboration with:
The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
