Gender

Facts, challenges & objective

Energy poverty affects women and men differently. Due to socio-cultural norms and traditional male-dominated structures, women in Sub-Saharan Africa lack the skills, knowledge, decision-making power and/or financial means to access energy. A 2019 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, or IRENA, describes how lack of access to training and skills development is the biggest challenge to women’s participation in the off-grid energy sector. Access to energy bears the potential to improve these circumstances.

Lighting, electricity or communications can result in better health and make time for women and girls to seek education and engage in income-generating activities. This can lead to better household incomes and community well-being. As the main users of energy in households, women have an advantage in being able to drive sales through local networks. Women can also build trust in renewable energy products.

Green People’s Energy for Africa is dedicated to promoting women in all training and business development activities – to promote economic and social rights and empower girls and women through education and increasing access to jobs. This also applies to technology and engineering, traditionally dominated by men.

In its technical training and business development activities in the field of renewable energy, Green People’s Energy is committed to:

  • Training female technicians, professionals, and users of decentralized renewable energy
  • Advancing women’s roles and improving their socio-economic position, e.g. by focusing on value chains centred around women
  • Offering bespoke consulting, specific business development measures and training, so women can respond to the needs of female entrepreneurs
  • Including implementing partners (e.g. training institutes) or women’s NGO’s in finding holistic approaches that respect both women and men’s needs
  • Following a multi-level approach for strengthening the role of women on the micro and meso levels, e.g. supporting female entrepreneurs and their representation in the energy ministries

Articles on activites promoting gender-based approaches

StorySDG 13

Overcoming gender barriers – training specifically for women engineers and technicians

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In the development and dissemination of renewable energies, female engineers and technicians are still the exception. Yet, they could play an important role in the dissemination of these renewable energy solutions. That’s why Green People´s Energy Ethiopia (GBE) has trained 33 female technicians and engineers from v…
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ProfileSDG 5

Biogas saves women time and makes them more independent

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A biogas plant in the village of Kontoubarou enables cooking without firewood while producing ecological fertiliser for agriculture.
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ProfileSDG 5

Care centres to be electrified with solar power  

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The decades-long war in Congo has brought much suffering. Some of the few centers that provide care to those affected now receive solar power so they can better provide aid.
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StorySDG 5

Dairy committees learn business 101

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40 members of the cooperatives underwent training in entrepreneurship and organisational dynamics in January.
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ProfileSDG 5

Energy cooperative empowers women

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The partners want to address, involve, qualify and integrate women in particular into the project.
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ProfileSDG 5

Energy cooperatives to empower Ethiopian women

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A concept is being developed for the creation of an energy cooperative.
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StorySDG 5

GBE Uganda’s Gender Approach – Promoting Energy Skills Development for Women

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GBE is committed to train particularly female technicians, professionals, and users of renewable energy solutions, and to advance women’s role in this field.
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FeatureSDG 4

GBE Uganda partners with second Vocational Training Institute to expand solar training offer in Northern Uganda

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Through partnerships with Vocational Training Institutes, GBE improves the quality of trainings on offer for future solar technicians and electricians-in-training.
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ProfileSDG 2SDG 8

Greenhouses create secure jobs for women

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Thanks to solar-irrigated greenhouses, solar cooling and innovative marketing, women farmers in northern Malawi can triple their income.
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NewsSDG 5

Ministry of Energy established a Unit of Women Engineers through GBE Benin

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Green People’s Energy’s Small Project Fund enables recruitment of eight women engineers for technical positions in the Ministry of Energy in Benin.
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NewsSDG 5

GBE Senegal und LVIA support 600 women

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Solar energy supports six women’s groups to upgrade their grain processing sites. GBE and LVIA support the development of profitable farms through training and coaching.
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FeatureSDG 5

Twelve Senegalese women’s and youth groups take off with solar energy

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Groups of women and young people in the Kédougou region will improve their own farms with the productive use of solar energy. The project started at the end of April.
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ProfileSDG 5

Women and Young People Take Off

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In Senegal, women and young people are supported in implementing their business plans.
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FeatureSDG 5

Women farmers switch to solar-powered water pumps

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After learning about the advantages of solar-powered water pumps in a workshop organised by Green People’s Energy (GBE) Uganda, the women of two cooperatives are now starting vegetable production in shared greenhouses.
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NewsSDG 5

Solar pump training in Benin: Second place goes to a woman

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Over a six month period a cooperation of Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and WE4Food trained online (due to Covid) 749 people in solar-powered irrigation systems – with Aïchatou Lawani from INETS Benin achieving the second-best result.
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ProfileSDG 5

Key Positions for Women Engineers

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Female engineers gain access to Benin’s energy institutions, countering gender inequality.
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NewsSDG 5

GBE supports, in collaboration with ENDA Energie, the solar electrification of women-led rural dairy micro-enterprisess

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GBE supports the solar electrification of 24 mainly women-led dairy micro-enterprises in rural Senegal, thereby adding value to milk production, and reducing production waste for 200 farmers.
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