Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and its public charity, RF Catalytic Capital’s Mission 300 Accelerator, as well as Energy Corps, fellows are deployed to compact delivery and monitoring units. CDMUs are government units focused on executing national electrification plans. Other fellows are supporting governments in establishing CDMUs.
The response has been remarkable. Thirty African countries now have National Energy Compacts, and we are on the path to deploying fellows in at least 18 of those countries. All fellows are deployed to countries of which they are not nationals.
In spring 2025, we received 3,000 applications from nearly every African country for an initial 14 fellow positions. Our first fellows deployed in October 2025, and now fellows are working in Burundi, Chad, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Based on strong demand from African governments and an exceptional pipeline of candidates, we recently announced in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation that we are growing the cohort of 14 fellows to 22, deepening the program’s reach and impact. Sharon Matongo is a Mission 300 Fellow in Liberia. She observed after her initial months in the role, “Seeing that finances are a constraint, I began to ask, ‘So how do we raise capital?’ I am learning now that our mandate is to create an enabling environment for energy investments and businesses to thrive.”
CoAction Global is now in the process of deploying four more fellows to assist with overall efforts to drive electrification progress, as well as four Clean Cooking Fellows to help strengthen institutional capacity to develop investable project pipelines, expanding access to clean, modern cooking methods.
The early results speak for themselves. As Stephanie Kumah, CoAction Global’s Operations and Partnerships Manager for the Mission 300 Fellowship, shared, “Mission 300 Fellows represent some of the brightest emerging leaders on the African continent, drawing on their lived experiences, with nuance and innovation, to address longstanding electrification challenges in some of the most complex environments. Although they have only been deployed to CDMUs for a few months, their significant contributions already demonstrate that this model works. This is what accelerating impact looks like.”
Not only are our Fellows enriching their own professional experience, but they are building a professional network across regions and the continent where they can share experience on what works, what doesn’t, and effective ways to accelerate electrification.
As The Rockefeller Foundation shared, “Every connection matters: power for jobs, health, schools, farmers, small businesses, and even data centers — everything needed to power a modern economy. This is what the fight against energy poverty is really about — economic growth and human dignity.”
The Mission 300 Fellowship is an innovative multi-sector partnership that unites governments, philanthropy, the private sector, civil society, and international financial institutions to enhance professional capacity, support future African energy leaders, and use capital in catalytic ways to maximize impact and results – all to strengthen Mission 300.
As foreign assistance and development cooperation face new pressures, I challenge colleagues across international organizations, governments, foundations and the private sector to recognize that we must find new, innovative ways to collaborate to direct funding toward job creation, and increase human dignity around the world – especially in the hardest to reach places.
We couldn't agree more with the vision behind Mission 300. And we are just getting started.
