Energy2Equal: Gender Workforce Study Assessing Women’s Participation in the Renewable Energy Sector

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is committed to promoting gender balance in its business case and client demand to harness the full value of women as consumers and a workforce in the private sector, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Therefore, IFC, supported by the Government of Canada, is implementing Energy2Equal, a five-year program aimed at closing the gender gap in the SSA renewable energy (RE) private-sector workforce. Energy2Equal is also aimed at providing a business case for closing gender gaps through knowledge and research, peer-learning platforms, advisory services, and networking opportunities. As part of Energy2Equal, IFC contracted Econoler to conduct research across SSA to analyze and demonstrate the business case for closing gender gaps in the RE private sector.

Under the mandate, Econoler carried out the following tasks:

• Established a project advisory committee that includes the main regional organizations in SSA and renowned gender focused organizations;
• Prepared a data-collection plan and research tools for conducting an online survey, interviews, and focus group discussions;
• Collected new and robust data on women’s participation and gender gaps in the RE sector from a sample of 64 RE companies representing all energy sources and working across the RE value chain; 132 participants answered the survey, including 71 manager (HR and others) and 61 staff from all subregions in SSA;
• Assessed the impacts of COVID-19 on women’s employment conditions and opportunities in the RE workforce;
• Analyzed the data collected to explore best practices that remove barriers to women’s participation in the RE sector and highlight job opportunities for women in the technological sectors assessed (solar, bioenergy, hydropower, wind power, etc.);
• Provided recommendations for various stakeholders, share evidence-based solutions on designing relevant programs and policies, as well as build a business case and rationale for pursuing greater diversity and inclusion in the RE sector. 

  This project provided IFC with not only valuable primary sex-disaggregated data on the RE workforce in SSA, but also implementable recommendations for enhancing the engagement of women across energy source sectors and the RE value chain.