When I was young, I had a dream of becoming an electrical engineer. As a woman, I worked very hard to make my dreams come true and complete my degree. My male colleagues were surprised to see me doing technical work.” These are the words of Joselyne Ingabire, a Field Verification Officer at Ignite Power Rwanda. A few years ago, Claire Nelson, Climate Change and Energy Advisor at USAID Rwanda and the Founder of the Power Africa Women in Rwandan Energy Initiative (WIRE), had a mission to increase the number of women in Rwanda energy. As we have been focusing on gender equality since day 1 of operations, so we immediately joined her journey. A few months later, we welcomed 13 female interns and ended up hiring 9 of them for full-time work. Ingabire is one of them. Her story depicts a growing trend in Africa’s renewable energy sector, where a significant focus on gender-equal employment is being placed by local governments and development agencies alike. A vital role in the lives of hundreds of millions. Energy has a crucial role in the lives of hundreds of millions across Africa, specifically women and young girls. In the sub-Saharan and Sahel villages hindered from proper electricity, women and girls are mainly responsible for procuring combustible fuels for heating, lighting, and cooking purposes. They spend up to 8 hours a day walking great distances to obtain the resources and tend to carry the burden of energy poverty, resulting in negative effects that include devoting less time to income-earning activities, education, and more. In conflict zones, the long distances they walk in search of fuels expose them to violence. Since the women and girls of the house are responsible for cooking and household chores, spending many hours at home, they are also exposed to health issues that stem from indoor smoke caused by fires used for cooking. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), household air pollution leads to a staggering 3.8 million premature deaths yearly – nearly half of all air pollution-related deaths – 60 percent of which are women and children. In recent years, many African governments have begun to recognize the importance of including women in the implementation and decision-making of energy expansion initiatives, believing that a sector that is highly influential in women’s lives should have more female thought leaders and participants. In Africa’s troubled energy sector, knowing the root of the problem and its many effects would no doubt have an advantage in coming up with proper solutions, and who better to recognize issues than those who experience them the most. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has Energy2Equal, working with large companies and small firms across Sub-Saharan Africa to close gender gaps and increase women’s participation in the renewable energy sector. USAID partnered with African governments and IUCN to launch the Women in African Power Network (WiAP), which empowers women in African energy companies through professional growth opportunities, skill development workshops, and networking facilitation that encourages connections between women in the industry. African Women Have the Power to Empower. Across Africa, women play a vital, albeit often not formal, role in economic development and prosperity. According to the World Bank, the continent leads the world in numbers of women business owners. Women in Africa are more likely than men to be entrepreneurs, making up 58 % of the continent’s self-employed population. According to Value for Women (VfW), a specialized advisory firm helping organizations advance gender inclusion, there is also a strong business case to be made for inclusion in the job force. Their research indicates that increasing female participation leads to positive improvements that can be seen in sales revenue, customer retention, and customer satisfaction, among other performance areas. When combining the data and focusing on Africa’s energy sector-specific needs, there is no clearer answer than inclusion and gender equality, both essential for the rapid transition to cleaner energy. Alongside the sector’s evident need for female influence comes a primary demand for a workforce. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that the number of jobs in renewables could increase from 10.3 million in 2017 to nearly 29 million in 2050. The ongoing global energy transition offers the chance to create new jobs and reshape all aspects of energy production and distribution. Female employment is on the rise, but there is still much room for improvement A recent World Bank research discovered that, on average, women constituted 21% of the African countries’ overall energy utility workforce. The average share of women in technical positions was 15%, and most women work in office-based corporate functions, such as HR, finance, and customer service. These figures show that there is still a long way to go if we wish to achieve equality. For its part, Ignite is working with various initiatives, striving to reach full employment equality in the coming years (today, the company has over 40% female employees). Working with WIRE, we began a Solar Energy apprenticeship with 25 trainees: 12 Women and 13 Men. After 6 months of the training program, we hired 17 good performers, and 9 of them were Women. Private companies and public authorities should be doing everything in their power to promote true equality - it is the only way real inclusion will be reached. The writer is an entrepreneur and investor,leading sustainability-driven companies in Africa and the Middle East
