• Small grants are mobilizing major investments across Latin America and the Caribbean. In countries such as Bolivia, Peru, El Salvador and Suriname, philanthropic support has enabled more than $400 million in electrification programs, expanding access through grid extensions, solar systems and mini-grids.
• Through initiatives like the Universal Access Coalition, the IDB and Global Energy Alliance, are preparing future investments in countries such as Belize and Panama to accelerate universal electricity access across the region.
For two decades, Latin America and the Caribbean made remarkable progress in expanding electricity access. Regional coverage rose from roughly 89% in 2000 to more than 97% by 2024.
Yet progress has slowed as countries confront the challenge of reaching the most remote and dispersed communities where the cost and complexity of electrification are highest. Though governments remain committed to universal access, the approach that got countries to 97% will not be the one that gets them the rest of the way.
Reaching the last three percent with investable programs requires something missing from traditional development finance: early-stage risk capital.
That is where grant funding can make a difference. By financing project preparation, technical studies, environmental assessments, community consultations and implementation support, relatively small philanthropic grants have unlocked much larger streams of concessional financing and accelerated energy access in last-mile communities. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet are playing a significant role in helping catalyze these types of investments.
For example, in Kewinal, a remote Indigenous community in Bolivia's Andes Mountains, families have lived without electricity for years. Teachers lack projectors and computers, health workers cannot maintain electronic medical records, and local artisans depend on manual tools that limit their productivity.
Stories like Kewinal's helped galvanize Bolivia's Rural Electrification Program III, one of the most ambitious energy access programs in the region. Philanthropic funding totaling $2 million in grants provided through the IDB by the Global Energy Alliance and its partners, including The Rockefeller Foundation, helped prepare and implement rural electrification investments. These investments played a catalytic role in the mobilization of more than $200 million in financing from the IDB and Germany's KfW to expand energy access in underserved communities. The program is expected to benefit approximately 56,000 rural households through grid extensions, solar systems, and hybrid mini-grids.
Bolivia is not alone. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, grant funding is making critical, early-stage, flexible, and patient funding available and helping governments build the technical foundations needed to secure similar major financing packages.
In Peru, technical assistance supported feasibility studies for renewable energy mini-grids throughout the Amazon. Those studies became critical inputs for the Sustainable and Productive Rural Electrification Program; an $88 million operation approved in 2025 with $70 million financed by the IDB. The resulting program is expected to provide cleaner and more reliable electricity access to approximately 7,600 rural households.
In El Salvador, grants helped develop technical, financial, and environmental studies for the country's Universal Access Program. Once the foundational work was completed, a $93 million IDB operation moved forward. By the end of 2025, procurement activities had already begun, positioning the program to connect nearly 8,800 consumers in underserved areas.
In Suriname, a $1.5 million philanthropic investment grant to expand services to Indigenous communities in the Amazon helped pave the way for the Bio-economy Empowerment in Suriname's Indigenous Communities through Access to Water, Energy and Telecommunications (Bio-SWEET) backed by a $45 million IDB loan, a program that is being implemented to serve 1,200 households of communities living in remote isolated areas.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of philanthropy's catalytic role can be found in countries where investments are still being prepared. In Belize, technical assistance is supporting feasibility studies and community engagement for renewable energy mini-grids in Indigenous communities.
Household surveys, site assessments, and social and environmental analyses are helping define future investments. The work has already advanced preparation for Belize's Rural Electrification Program, expected to electrify approximately 3,000 households.
Similarly, in Panama, grant funding has helped develop technical standards and regulatory frameworks for solar micro grids. These activities may not receive much public attention, but they are essential for scaling future investment. The country's long-term vision could benefit more than 13,000 households through expanded electricity access in remote communities.
The technology to reach the last three percent exists. The challenge is creating momentum and delivering the finance that can build the pipeline of bankable projects.
Building on these experiences, the IDB and Global Energy Alliance, together with other partners, have kickstarted the Universal Access Coalition to accelerate progress toward universal energy access and inject new energy into the agenda.