The Efficient Lighting Initiative (ELI) is a market development initiative based on global experience with the Poland Efficient Lighting Project (PELP), Ilumex (Mexico), and a variety of other initiatives to promote development of the efficient lighting market. ELI was a three-year, US$15 million program that substantially accelerated the development of the market for efficient lighting technology in Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Peru, Philippines, and South Africa. The program applied a carefully tailored combination of interventions in each country, based on local market conditions and opportunities in each market including consumer education, financing mechanisms, quality standards and product labeling, market aggregation, transaction support, and regulatory reform assistance. IFC leveraged its position in the market to enhance competition, expand product availability, ensure product quality through partnerships with the global lighting industry, government and academic institutions, NGOs, and consumer groups. The program included a groundbreaking multi-year monitoring and evaluation program which was integrated with program operations and which culminated in a market transformation study, completed late 2007, which looked at sustained market impact of the program in the target markets.
One legacy of the program is the self-sustaining ELI Product Quality Certification Institute, which continues to support efficient lighting product quality in developing country markets in partnership with bulk procurement agents and the lighting industry. Based in China, the Institute is administered by the China Standard Certification Center.
The ELI Story: Transforming Markets for Efficient Lighting (May 2005)
This publication details how, seeded with a $15 million investment from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in 1999, the Efficient Lighting Initiative (ELI) catalyzed vibrant markets for energy-efficient lighting over three years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in seven countries—Argentina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Peru, the Philippines, and South Africa.
