Abstract
The Liberia Energy Sector Support Program (LESSP) was designed by USAID/Liberia to increase access to affordable renewable energy services in geographically focused rural and urban areas in order to foster economic, political and social development. LESSP interventions were designed to effect the following changes in Liberia: (1) increased, sustainable access and affordability of electricity within urban and rural poor communities; (2) improved performance of local governments, civil society and the private sector in monitoring, regulating and managing the use of renewable energy; (3) an increase in the percentage of households and businesses utilizing clean energy, and a corresponding increase in economic activity; and (4) policy changes that improve the investment climate for the energy sector. Key evaluation objectives of the mid-term evaluation included the following: (1) identifying and assessing progress toward achieving each LESSP objective; (2) identifying unexpected implementation obstacles and the program's responses; (3) identifying which aspects of the program worked, which did not, and why; (4) assessing the effectiveness of the program's grant component; (5) analyzing the relationships between resources available, resources used and results achieved to determine the specific cost-effectiveness of USAID's programming in each objective, as well as the program as a whole; and, (6) making specific recommendations for the final two years of the program, including eventual modification of the program. The evaluation team's findings suggest the following: (1) strengthen the government of Liberia's (GOL) capacity to implement plans for rural electrification as expressed in the National Energy Sector Policy; (2) establish commercially viable pilot plants that provide renewable energy services to population centers in Bong, Lofa and Nimba counties; and (3) collaborate with other international donors for the expansion of Monrovia's power distribution network. (Excerpt, modified)