Evidence for informing optimization and scaling of youth and women led clean energy enterprises and business models in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda & South Africa
This project seeks to generate evidence to inform piloting and scaling of clean energy best practices (enterprises and business models) that have empowerment and transformational potential for women and youth. Working with investors, implementers and funders of low-carbon energy initiatives, it will enhance our understanding of the systemic factors that enhance or constrain women and youth’s access to business opportunities in clean energy innovation and entrepreneurship, and how the most promising best practices can be scaled up for impact.
The project comprises three components: transdisciplinary research, optimisation of business innovation incubation hubs, and transdisciplinary knowledge exchange and learning. The incubation hubs will pilot, optimise and scale best practices that enhance the innovation capabilities of women and youth to become entrepreneurial as they cope with climate change impacts. The evidence from the project will be used to guide policy and private and public investment decisions necessary for driving a gender-transformative, sustainable energy transition in different contexts.
This is expected to result in increased financial investments as well as participation and involvement of stakeholders in the climate innovation ecosystem, especially women and youth, as they contribute positively to the ecosystem.
project
Location
Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda,
Woman carrying a solar pannel near Yangambi, DRC. Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr under licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/27NYoQe
Gender-Responsive Renewable Energy for Empowerment and Inclusive Energy Transitions
Tuesday 10 November 2026
This side event, hosted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) as part of COP31, will explore how gender-responsive renewable energy can strengthen women’s livelihoods, agency and economic opportunities, drawing on field experiences from regional and global evidence, policy and financing perspectives. This event is in-person only, and open to anyone attending the […]
Solar panels, Bolivia
Inclusive and Clean Energy for SMEs in Rural Bolivia
7 October 2026
Bolivia has achieved high rates of electricity access, yet rural and semi-rural producers still face major barriers to securing reliable, affordable energy for productive use. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agrifood sector play a central role in ensuring national food security and creating employment. However, they remain highly dependent on fossil-fuel-powered pumps with […]
Concentrated Solar Pannels Farm, Noor III in Ouarzazate, Morocco, by Khalid Ghozlani, IDRC
Beyond electricity access: Making Mission 300 sustainable through productive use
3 November 2026
Over 560 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still live without electricity. To address this challenge, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other partners recently launched Mission 300, an ambitious USD$54 billion (~CAD75 billion) initiative to connect 300 million people in sub-Sahara Africa to electricity by 2030. But for Mission 300 to succeed, a […]