Policies should be designed by integrating sustainable energy access through renewable energy technologies (RETs) into rural development planning, at the local, the national and the regional levels to address the following aspects: • Create new and innovative financing models to help overcome rural communities’ traditional constraints with a special focus on the separate needs of rural women who often face additional obstacles to those faced by men in accessing finance.

• Raise quality standards by increasing the regulatory and technical capacity of governments, both at national and local levels, to spread expertise in renewable energy technologies and their specific technical requirements, and in the effective regulation of their products and services.

• Improve data availability and accessibility for policymakers, to build institutional capacity within governments to transparently collect, analyze and publish data for the ultimate objective of transitioning into data-driven policymaking.