Sub-Saharan Africa

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


SECTOR : , Commercial

Client

International Financial Corporation (IFC)

Implementation

2020-2021

 

Description of Project

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 of the private sector, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, IFC, supported by the Government of Canada, is implementing Energy2Equal is a five-year program that is aimed at closing the gender gap in the sub-Saharan Africa renewable energy private-sector workforce. Energy2Equal is 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 a research across sub-Saharan Africa to analyze and demonstrate the business case for closing gender gaps in the renewable energy (RE) private sector.

Description of services

Econoler carried out the following tasks:

  • Establish a project advisory committee that includes the main regional organisations in sub-Saharan Africa and renowned gender focused organizations;
  • Prepare a data-collection plan and research tools for conducting an online survey, interviews, and focus group discussions;
  • Collect new and robust data on women’s participation and gender gaps in the RE sector in a sample of 50 RE companies representing all energy sources and working across the RE value chain;
  • Assess the impacts of COVID-19 on women’s employment conditions and opportunities in the RE workforce;
  • Analyse 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 technology assessed (solar, bioenergy, hydropower, wind power, etc.);
  • Provide 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 not only provides valuable primary sex-disaggregated data on the RE workforce in sub-Saharan Africa but also implementable recommendations for enhancing the engagement of women across energy sources and the RE value chain.

> View the final report published in 2022

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