A Marshall Plan for Energy and Water Supply for Developing Countries

This effort aims to develop a consensus on the priorities and approaches to be used by the Marshall Plan for Energy and Water Supply to address policy and financing.

The Plan would develop:

• Priority lists determining time frames and order of selection of individual developing country should be developed.
  
  
• Individual country reports outlining energy and water requirements, technology, techniques, procedures and capital outlays necessary to establish clean energy and water foundations to support national economies.

In addition, the project advances the following ideals:

• Public and private institutions should move expeditiously to address the developing countries’ energy and water problems.
  
  
• Senior (energy/water experts) executive corps should be made available to advise and provide know-how to developing nation leadership in preparing and implementing clean energy/water programs.
  
  
• An extensive list of public/private institutions should be developed, briefed and encouraged to aggressively support Marshall Plan goals objectives and capital requirements.

With these objectives in mind, the Atlantic Council of the United States convened a working group in September 2004 to discuss a proposal for launching a new initiative – loosely modeled on the Marshall Plan – for the development of energy and water resources in appropriate developing countries. A preliminary report, A Marshall Plan for Energy and Water Supply in Developing Countries was published in March 2005. The report underlines the view that without the availability, accessibility and affordability of clean energy and water provided by market-based approaches, the political stability in many developing countries that is a prerequisite for economic growth and sustainable democratic governance will not be achieved.

In a second phase of this project, the working group will apply the criteria identified in this report for selecting 6 to 12 countries to be considered for participation in an initial pilot program. The Atlantic Council plans subsequently to establish a broader working group to include key experts from the European Union, Japan, selected developing countries and international financial institutions to narrow the list of initial participating countries and propose an action plan for the project. A steering committee would be established to provide oversight of the development of reports, recommendations and plans emanating from the participating countries, and to facilitate the commitment and support of financial institutions, governments and private corporations.