Women face many challenges as entrepreneurs in the DRE sector. This is despite their great potential to drive innovation and foster sustainable development, particularly as entrepreneurs, given the large number and proportion of women working in sectors that could benefit from DRE technologies, including agriculture and food production. As in the case of employment, many of the obstacles women entrepreneurs encounter in the sector link back to wider socio-economic challenges women face in their daily lives, and addressing them more widely would likely increase women’s chances to make a positive impact as entrepreneurs in the DRE sector.
The Alliance for Rural Electrification summarises these challenges as arising from many women’s disadvantageous position to access financial means, training, information, productive use equipment and land (Alliance for Rural Electrification, 2020). Cultural barriers influence all these factors, in addition to creating a barrier of their own right, including through persistent, pre-defined social roles, and an environment that restricts their movements. In Kenya, focus group interviews also showed women entrepreneurs encounter various bureaucratic obstacles in the formal sector (Kenya Land Alliance, 2019). And, as in everywhere else in the world, women in the DRE sector also face a perpetual challenge of combining childcare and family care, expectations about their role in the home, and their work in a dynamic, technology-driven sector.
Access to finance, ownership and assets
Access to finance poses a significant barrier to female entrepreneurship both globally and in Africa and India. For example, research conducted by the IFC in 2017 indicated that women-owned SMEs globally face an estimated credit gap of USD 1.4 trillion to USD 1.7 trillion (IFC, 2022b). During the FGD for this study, participants highlighted the challenges women face in securing financing through traditional banks, where stringent requirements often exclude them, particularly those with lower incomes. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 37% of women have a bank account, compared to 48% of men (Morsy et al., 2019).
Land plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development and empowerment of women everywhere in the world, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Ownership and control of assets, notably land, significantly influence economic mobility, bargaining power within households, and access to finance. Banks and credit agencies, as well as microfinance institutions, typically require collateral. This collateral predominantly consists of assets owned by men, such as land or property ownership. The gender disparity in asset ownership, exemplified by the predominance of male-owned collateral such as land, exacerbates the financial exclusion faced by women entrepreneurs.
Land rights and ownership are influenced largely by national legislation, including land titling, public recognition of customary land use, as well as family and inheritance law (Kenya Land Alliance, 2019).
In Kenya, for instance, in most marriages, the title deed usually bears the man’s name, leaving women vulnerable to dispossession (Kenya Land Alliance, 2024). The absence of women’s interests in title deeds makes the land they depend on for livelihoods susceptible to disposal without their knowledge or consent (Morsy et al., 2019). As a result, in Kenya in 2021, evidence shows that women possess only 1% of land titles in their names and only 6% jointly (Kenya Land Alliance, 2024). In sub-Saharan Africa, recent studies show that only 13% of women claim sole ownership (Behr et al., 2023). This is striking, especially considering that women produce between 60% to 80% of the food in developing countries (Otieno Onyalo, 2019). In sub-Saharan Africa this is a rampant issue facing women specifically, as most often land, property, vehicles and livestock are under a man’s name, creating an impenetrable obstacle for women attempting to further their economic development. This gender disparity in asset ownership, exemplified by the predominance of male-owned collateral such as land, exacerbates the financial exclusion faced by women entrepreneurs.
Unequal access to modern energy
Disparities in electricity access further hinder women’s participation in entrepreneurship. Women bear a disproportionate burden of energy poverty: it is estimated that 70% of the population living in energy poverty are women (European Economic and Social Committee, 2022). They face health risks from household air pollution, carry heavy fuel loads and lack lighting, affecting their well-being and economic rights. In both India and Kenya, electricity connections are overwhelmingly registered under men’s names, surpassing 80% (Energia, 2019a). This discrepancy stems from utility regulations mandating that the connection’s name align with the household owner, perpetuating gender imbalances in energy access. Limited access to reliable electricity undermines the viability of women-led businesses, hindering their growth and productivity.
Childcare and family obligations
As is the case everywhere else in the world, women entrepreneurs in the focus countries studied for this brief need to reconcile work and family life. Globally women spend on average over four hours per day on unpaid care work, which limits their ability to study, work, network and access other economic opportunities (Shell Foundation, 2024). The demanding nature of entrepreneurship often requires long hours and sacrifices, posing challenges for women balancing family responsibilities and business pursuits. In Uganda’s Mukono District, a peri-urban area located 20 kilometres away from Kampala, female restaurant owners highlighted that DRE cooking appliances significantly save cooking time, allowing them to devote more time to childcare (FGD Uganda, 2024).
Case study: Juliana Lanyero cloud-Green, Uganda
Juliana Lanyero is a self-made entrepreneur in Uganda, and her journey showcases her breakthrough as a female entrepreneur against traditional and cultural barriers, highlighting distributed renewable energy’s key role in reducing food waste and aiding community development in Uganda through her company, cloud-Green. She began her business career while still a student, launching various ventures, to understand the practicalities of entrepreneurship beyond the classroom. This hands-on, risk-averse approach, coupled with her leadership roles within the student community, laid the groundwork for her future endeavours with cloud-Green (Response Innovation Lab, 2021).
The turning point for cloud-Green came when Juliana recognised the potential of regenerative agriculture to help mitigate the alarming levels of food waste in Uganda. This propelled her to explore innovative solutions to recycle food waste through cloud-Green. Her initial idea of transforming market food waste into fertiliser evolved into a more integrated approach at cloud-Green to address food waste with distributed renewable energy technologies.
Juliana’s vision led to the development of a business model for cloud-Green that works as two separate companies to help small-scale farmers create added value for their produce. One part of the business collaborates with a company supplying solar-powered drying systems for agricultural use, allowing users to increase the durability of their fruits and vegetables. The other arm of the business collaborates with eBikes Africa, an organisation that manufactures solar bikes – as well as another company that supplies solar-powered drying systems for agricultural use, to allow suppliers to transport and deliver their food. To make the project financially accessible to smallholder farmers, cloud-Green co-operates with Akaboxi, a microfinance company that operates a digital financial inclusion system aimed at enabling smallholder farmers – most of which are women – in communities manage and monitor their savings together (Akaboxi, 2023).
The project benefits particularly refugees in settlements and self-settled refugees in urban areas. Refugees in settlements are given land by the government to grow food, mostly for subsistence. They receive training on how to use solar-powered drying systems and bikes to produce value-added foodstuff and sell it with reduced waste to final consumers. Combined, this project directly tackles food waste across the supply chain while promoting the use of clean energy. This helps create markets and significantly reduces food waste. The project also supports producers to use eco-friendly packaging to further reduce waste. For those with smart phones, there is a mobile app to further help sell produce. cloud-Green has also opened a profitable fresh food delivery service in Kampala that will be scalable to other Ugandan cities in the future (Response Innovation Lab, 2021).
When developing cloud-Green, Juliana was confronted with challenges typical of a sector dominated by men and often sceptical of women’s abilities in technical fields. Despite these obstacles, her determination and commitment to learning and improving propelled the business forward. These endeavours went beyond mere business; they began a process at cloud-Green to empower women and communities through the innovative use of renewable energy. By training women in the use of solar dehydrators and promoting the use of electric motorcycles for delivery, cloud-Green not only contributes to reducing food waste but also empowers individuals and communities to embrace sustainable practices.
Juliana’s success with cloud-Green highlights the need for better policies and support systems to encourage female participation in the renewable energy sector. Her experience underscores the importance of dismantling stereotypes and providing women with the resources and opportunities to thrive in traditionally male-dominated fields. By integrating distributed renewable energy into cloud-Green’s business model, Juliana not only addressed immediate community needs but also contributed to the broader goals of sustainable development and gender equality.
As Juliana continues her academic pursuits with a focus on energy economics and governance, her story serves as a testament to the transformative power of renewable energy not just in addressing environmental challenges but also in breaking down societal barriers. Her efforts with cloud-Green highlight the potential for distributed renewable energy to empower entrepreneurs, especially women, to create sustainable solutions that benefit their communities and the environment.
Excerpt of: Decentralised solar PV: A gender perspective (IRENA 2024)