The Global Distributors Collective (GDC) unites and empowers the unsung heroes of development: last mile distributors. These are organisations that bring solar lanterns, clean cookstoves, water filters, nutritional products and other essential items to the hard-to-reach and low-income communities that mainstream markets overlook.
The GDC was launched in 2018, at a time the sector was highly fragmented, by Practical Action, Bopinc, and Hystra. Distributors operate in isolation, facing high costs, limited access to finance, and little visibility; while customers struggle with unpredictable incomes and lack credit histories, making it difficult to sustain demand. The challenges are systemic, and so the solution has to be systemic too.
With support from the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform, the GDC built a vibrant network for last mile distributors to learn from each other, share tools and insights, and avoid reinventing the wheel, which wastes time and money. Through advocating for last mile distribution and tailored capacity-building programmes, the GDC has helped its members strengthen their operations and has built a collective voice for the sector.
Seven years on, in 2025 the transformation is clear. The GDC now connects 250 last mile distributors across more than 60 countries, collectively reaching over 44 million people with life-improving products.
Rather than competing or picking winners, GDC members are remarkably open in sharing their learnings — a spirit of collaboration that strengthens the entire last mile distribution sector.
Jessica Utichi, Head of the Global Distributors Collective
Futureproofing last mile distribution
The GDC has used TEA funding to build the collective expertise of last mile distributors, raise their profile, support best practice development, and identify innovations. Its activities include bespoke training, peer learning, finance accelerators, webinars, product tradeshows, and digital tools like a funding database and knowledge hub. The topics they explore range from unit economics and investor engagement to gender inclusivity and how to add productive-use-of-energy (PUE) to services.
GDC is getting at the heart of all the issues we are having, and every time I think, ‘we really need X’, I find it in previous work.
Sumba Sustainable Solutions, GDC Member
The GDC is also scanning the horizon, exploring 12 emerging trends that could benefit the sector, its members and their customers. Among them are e-mobility to deliver products to the last mile market, product repair services to improve the sustainability of the sector, and e-commerce to sell products online. These innovations help members build resilience, save costs, and better serve their customers.
TEA’s continued backing has enabled us to support many of our members directly. By funding our research and advocacy work, TEA has helped amplify the voices and needs of last mile distributors — voices which were largely ignored before.
Jessica Utichi, Head of the Global Distributors Collective
The power of peer-to-peer replication
One of GDC’s most transformative initiatives is the Innovation Launchpad. It enables members to adopt proven innovations from peers — accelerating impact through replication. Between 2024 and 2025, three companies from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Kenya piloted business models to add repairs to their after-sales services, inspired by SolarAid’s repair-as-a-service model. SolarAid’s team trains locals to become repair technicians for the community while an app guides customers step-by-step in identifying and repairing common faults. These offer a cost-effective solution for remote and low-income households when items break down. Natfort Energy in Zimbabwe, a solar energy provider offering PAYGO solutions and engineering services to off-grid communities, received hands-on training from SolarAid and six months of tailored advisory support on how to adapt their business model. With these, Natfort integrated repair services into its app, trained 25 technicians (including 16 women) on assessing and addressing product issues remotely and completed 320 product repairs with a 72% customer satisfaction rate.
This initiative has extended the lifespans of products and reduced product downtime, ensuring that households can continue to benefit from essential services, while building trust in clean energy solutions. It has also created new income streams for local technicians, many of whom were women, contributing to gender-inclusive economic development. By embedding repair services into its operations, Natfort Energy not only improved customer satisfaction but also strengthened its community ties, making it a powerful example of how peer-to-peer replication can catalyse systemic change.
Following the success of the first Innovation Launchpad cohort, the GDC is gearing up to establish its next cohort, which will support members to better understand and leverage AI solutions in their business.
The repair cohort of our Innovation Launchpad demonstrates how replicating proven models can accelerate innovation, increase customer satisfaction, and deliver tangible benefits to underserved communities
Jessica Utichi, Head of the Global Distributors Collective
Many customers expressed satisfaction with our repair services and a willingness to recommend them to others, suggesting strong community support and potential for last-mile repair to be scaled
Jessica UtiNatfort Energy
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GDC members have provided 44 million people with access to products like clean cooking solutions, safe water, and sanitation and hygiene (WASH) products, improving customers’ health and wellbeing.
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MOPO-powered e-motorbikes increased commercial driver earnings by up to 50% while reducing passenger fares by 10% in 2022. The savings have increased since as petrol prices continue to rise.
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Over two thirds of customers (67%) served by GDC members live beneath the poverty line on less than $3.20/day and 78% are rural. This highlights the need for solutions like repair services, lease and share services and e-mobility to ensure these products are viable and accessible.
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