To ensure efficient use of public resources and avoid a risk of distorting market dynamics as well as political challenges , end-user subsidies must be designed ‘responsibly’ to be effective in reaching the poor. These risks can be mitigated by designing responsible programs, with learning and adaptive mechanisms embedded in them, which this toolkit sets out to support.

This toolkit provides a framework to design responsible subsidies across different markets to address the affordability gap, building on lessons learned, considering different contexts and objectives, and balancing tradeoffs. It is primarily focused on subsidies for the purchase of off-grid solar products and clean cookstoves; it is limited in its application to fuel or electricity subsidies.