Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of UK aid expenditure on decentralised renewable energy on rural communities; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing such aid expenditure.

In programming new activities, DFID works with its partners to identify priorities and establish needs across the energy spectrum, covering on-grid as well as decentralised off-grid renewable energy.

All DFID projects are monitored through regular annual reviews, which are published on the development tracker section of the DFID website. For example, the Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies project has increased access to decentralised renewable energy for approximately 560,000 people in East Africa.