This report aims to provide the emerging lessons from a representative sample of 20 country case studies that could help policy makers to address implementation challenges, including overcoming political economy and affordability constraints, by looking at complementary instruments to compensate vulnerable groups for energy price increases.

The case studies were selected on the hypothesis that energy dependence and per capita income appear to be the key drivers of subsidy reforms in developing countries.

Each of the case studies is divided into four key sections, to facilitate comparison: “Incentives to Energy Subsidy Reforms”, “Reform Efforts”, “Poverty Alleviation Measures” and “Key Lessons Learned”.