Sierra Leone offers lessons on delivery
By Sustainable Stories Africa, based on Michael Sheldrick's opinion piece | Co-founder of Global Citizen, a partner in the Eastern Caribbean Alliance
This Sustainable Stories Africa opinion article adapts “Can the Commonwealth Deliver?” by Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen.
The Commonwealth helped rally action against apartheid and mobilise funding to eradicate polio.
Its latest test is whether a new Eastern Caribbean energy alliance can reduce bills and make electricity more reliable.
Sierra Leone’s Sherbro Island offers an example for African and other emerging markets where small electricity systems face high fuel costs and struggle to attract investment.
What Families Need After the Summit
Global Citizen co-founder Michael Sheldrick opens his original opinion piece “Can the Commonwealth Deliver?” by noting that a Commonwealth summit can have all the trappings of a bygone era, from the opening ceremony to the family photograph.
- If you live in Antigua and Barbuda, you might look at the flags, the motorcades and the road closures and wonder what will be left now that everyone has gone home.
- For most working families, the test is what changes in their daily lives because leaders came together for a few days.
One promising answer emerged on 4 November at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St John’s, when partners announced the Eastern Caribbean Alliance.
- The agreement, signed in the presence of King Charles III, aims to attract investment in renewable energy so island nations can reduce their dependence on expensive imported fuel and get more affordable, reliable electricity.
The alliance brings together Octopus Energy, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Sustainable Markets Initiative and Global Citizen.
- The partners are still exploring which projects might work.
Their first task is to find projects that can secure financing and make a difference to the people who pay for electricity.
Why Imported Fuel Keeps Power Expensive
Many wealthier countries can draw electricity from large power grids and a mix of energy sources.
- Small islands with isolated grids often rely on imported fuel to keep the lights on.
- According to the International Energy Agency, generating electricity can cost up to ten times as much on islands as on the mainland.
In Antigua and Barbuda, the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) saw its monthly fuel bill almost double between January and July 2026.
- In October, households faced another increase after APUA raised the fuel variation charge, the part of a bill that tracks the cost of fuel used to generate power.
- The change added about EC$24 to the fuel charge for a household using 300 kilowatt-hours that month.
For families already juggling food, transport and other essentials, that is money they have to find elsewhere.
The Caribbean has abundant sunshine and wind, and the technology to turn both into affordable electricity already exists.
- Batteries can store that power for when the sun goes down or the wind drops.
- Together, renewable generation and storage offer islands a way to make their power supply more reliable and less vulnerable to global fuel prices.
Progress has been slow. An October 2026 analysis by energy think tank Ember found that renewables supplied just 9.1% of electricity across 13 Caribbean countries in 2024.
- In the Bahamas, the state utility contracted for solar power at less than half the price of gas-fired generation in the same round.
- The Dominican Republic also awarded contracts for renewable power with batteries at a lower price than its distributors had paid generators, on average, the year before.
Antigua and Barbuda has set a target to generate 86% of its electricity from local renewable sources by 2030, as set out in its updated national climate pledge.
The challenge is finding the investment. Small, isolated electricity systems can struggle to attract financing on terms that make new projects affordable.
What Regional Cooperation Could Deliver
Working through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) lets the alliance a way to consider several island markets together.
- The organisation’s members include Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
- Partners can pool expertise and group projects at a scale more likely to attract investment and reduce costs for renewable power, battery storage and electric transport.
This regional approach reflects the priorities Antigua and Barbuda’s energy minister, Melford Nicholas, set out at January’s IRENA Assembly.
- He argued for a transition that reduces the country’s vulnerability to swings in imported fuel prices, strengthens its electricity infrastructure against hurricanes and other climate impacts, and attracts financing suited to small island states.
- He called for concessional finance and for islands to pool procurement and share training.
Families will know whether the partnership is working when it becomes easier to budget for electricity from one month to the next.
Reliable power matters in ordinary moments, too.
- A child can keep the light on to finish their homework.
- A midwife can count on lights and equipment staying on when a mother is giving birth.
Lessons from Another Island
Thousands of miles away, Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone offers a practical example of what it takes to build a cleaner electricity system.
- Octopus Energy, the Elba Hope Foundation and their partners launched the Hope Power Project to bring reliable electricity to Bonthe and surrounding communities.
- The project was originally due in March 2026.
- All five wind turbines are now in place, and the foundation says the solar and battery systems are nearing completion.
Once fully operational, the mini-grid is designed to serve about 14,000 people across nearly 1,300 homes and more than 120 businesses and public buildings.
It was fitting, then, that Sierra Leone’s chief minister, David Moinina Sengeh, joined Antigua and Barbuda’s energy minister, Melford Nicholas, at Global Citizen Sessions during the summit.
- Nicholas joked that Antigua and Barbuda would get there faster than Sierra Leone, while Sengeh stressed the need to deliver quickly enough to meet people’s expectations.
It was a moment of friendly rivalry between leaders on opposite sides of the Atlantic, united by the same challenge of getting reliable electricity to their communities.
From Regional Agreement to Funded Projects
As Sengeh put it at the session, we should all count ourselves as part of “Generation D”, whatever our age.
- The D stands for delivery.
- It is a useful challenge to every institution that claims to bring people together.
The Commonwealth has shown before what it can do when members work towards a common goal.
- Its members helped rally international pressure against apartheid.
- The 1985 Nassau Accord called for restrictions on government lending, arms and oil trade with South Africa.
Several Commonwealth governments went further, even as members disagreed on how far sanctions should go.
- A 1989 United Nations report on corporate activity in South Africa and Namibia records the wider effort to apply economic pressure.
At the 2011 summit in Perth, I helped secure pledges worth $118 million for polio eradication.
- The campaign used a concert the eve of the summit to urge governments to back the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
- Leaders made the pledges the following day.
At the summit in Antigua and Barbuda, governments, businesses and campaigners again found common ground, this time around getting affordable, reliable power to island communities.
- The alliance’s partners now need to select viable projects and secure financing.
Governments and utilities should agree on how to connect the projects to the grid and set prices so households benefit from lower generation costs.
- The alliance should publish a timetable and report on progress.
Residents should be able to see which projects have secured financing, when they will start supplying power and how bills and service interruptions change once they are running.
Path Forward for Reliable Island Power
Over the next two years, the alliance should witness its first projects financed and give communities a way to track progress.
Fuel savings should reach the people paying for electricity.
When the flags go up for the next Commonwealth summit, families in Antigua and Barbuda should be able to point to lower electricity bills and lights they can count on.
