Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 14
8th Report - Empowering Development: Energy Access for Communities
Published 14 Nov 2025
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Aid for community-led energy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The FCDO should ensure women are central to community energy projects by supporting their leadership, and designing interventions around their needs, so they act as agents of change rather than just beneficiaries. It should report on the extent to which the recommendations of the GEDSI guidance note are implemented by June 2026. (Recommendation, Paragraph 53)
From: International Development Committee, 8th Report - Empowering Development: Energy Access for Communities (HC 849), 14 November 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 22 January 2026 (deadline 14 January 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government gives a mixed response to the Committee's report, marking most recommendations "Partially Agree" and a smaller number "Agree", while stating it is unable to make firm commitments beyond FY25/26 budgets.
- On protecting energy access funding, it "intend[s] to continue this work" but says it is "not reasonable to expect that energy access investments can be fully protected" with ODA moving to 0.3% of GNI.
- It marks "Agree" on making inclusive community participation a condition of funding, and on a clear definition of clean energy, which it sets out as "Low and zero carbon energy generation sources" and which "does not include nuclear energy".
- It says it is "unable to commit" to reporting on GEDSI guidance implementation by June 2026, or to adopting a multi-dimensional evaluation framework by June 2026, with any decision depending on "future resourcing beyond FY25/26".
- On multi-year funding, it "aim[s] to prioritise multi-year planning and greater programming predictability, subject to future years’ budget allocations".