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Challenge

The Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) is a program housed within the Keough School for Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, located in the United States. This program addresses the challenges of building just and equitable societies by leveraging the University’s signature strengths to promote development and human dignity worldwide.

What Accenture did

Accenture Development Partnerships and the University of Notre Dame co-developed a transformational, self-sustaining energy model—Connectivity, Electricity and Education for Entrepreneurship (CE3)—with three primary objectives

  • Provide off-grid communities with access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity.
  • Support its own operating costs through the electricity generated.
  • Establish an environment that fosters local entrepreneurship development and economic growth.

Following a successful pilot project implementation in Uganda, Accenture Development Partnerships was engaged by NDIGD to conduct project oversight of a full scale CE3 project in South Africa, including market assessment and business model development.

Value delivered

Accenture Development Partnerships worked on the project in South Africa leading the sustainability efforts, including including training local staff, developing local management tools, assessing business models, and providing training materials.

Early into the project, forecasts and results indicated that the model achieved operational sustainability from day one, as well as recovering some capital expenditure. It has enabled the development of new businesses and also contributed to the growth of existing businesses resulting in the creation of local jobs.

"The broad-spectrum impact of CE3 at the community level is truly inspiring. Providing access to energy and lighting – CE3 creates new job opportunities driven by skills-building and entrepreneurism."

— Roger Ford, Managing Director – Accenture Development Partnerships

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