Powering Impact at the Last Mile

According to the recent Energy Progress Report, at today’s rate of progress, the world is still not on track to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal #7 by 2030. Despite the remarkable resilience of renewable energy during the pandemic, advances in energy access have been impeded, particularly in the most vulnerable countries and those that were already lagging. This report is a timely pause for reflections on the impact of the work we do at Fraym.

Closing the Access Gap

Improving energy assessments to capture rural, remote and the most vulnerable communities at scale will be a key factor in achieving affordable, sustainable energy access for all. Over the last few years, Fraym has continued to develop a highly replicable and scalable approach to address two key data challenges affecting the sector: 1. data gaps and 2. data quality.

Our innovative approach has been driven by our work with partners like the Shell Foundation, SEforALL, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, African Development Bank, UNDP, and other global institutions to produce and deliver critical custom datasets for key policy and advocacy issues.

Now implementers, policymakers, and researchers can have reliable, longitudinal information for bridging the gaps that currently exist in measuring and addressing energy access challenges.
How will we do this?

Fraym’s roadmap for tracking progress towards SDG7

• New, targeted, rapid data collection: Assess the electricity access needs and challenges of local populations with near real-time insights that include; the pandemic’s impact on household incomes,the impact of increased cost of energy, and the barriers that make basic energy services unaffordable for millions in Asia and Africa.

• Expert approaches to analysis: By combining detailed household level energy profiles and community-level demand estimates in baseline energy assessments, our expertise delivers settlement-level analysis needed to measure impact at the grassroot level.

Impact Milestones achieved

To date, Fraym data supports energy investments in the top 20 countries with largest unserved populations including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Chad, Tanzania. In collaboration with great partners like SEforALL, Shell Foundation, USAID Power Africa, Clean Cooking Alliance, and Data.org,, our work supports all of the benefits of energy access; better lit homes, access to the outside world, safer streets, and productive commerce.

As 2030 beckons, our commitment to continuously improve novel data capabilities remains strong and we are confident that our efforts will accelerate investments in sustainable last-mile energy solutions and improve access to electricity in energy poor communities globally.