When the sun sets in the West African village of Gbekandji, Benin, all but the bare necessities of daily life wind down with it. This scenario is played out across Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 609 million people—six out of ten—live without access to an electric grid, preventing them from reaching modern standards of development. As encapsulated by the World Bank in its 2017 State of Electricity Access Report, “energy is inextricably linked to every other critical sustainable development challenge—health, education, food security, gender equality, poverty reduction, employment, and climate change.”

Photographer Pascal Maitre chose the country of Benin as one of the backdrops for this larger story since it is a stable country where the reality can be seen clearly, uncomplicated by political unrest or environmental disaster. Children do homework, women give birth, vendors sell their wares, by the light of kerosene or solar powered lanterns. And while the scenes are bathed in a warm glow, the shadows speak of the potential risks to public safety and health when emergencies arise. "For these villagers, the lack of electricity is their biggest problem," says Maitre.

Text by National Geographic.