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International Women’s Day, 2022 Women lighting the way in Zimbabwe off the grid – Global issues

Chiedza Murindo decided to do something about poverty in rural Zimbabwe. She installed a triple solar system at her home and now has the light. Women play an increasingly important role in alternative energy strategies. Credit: Tonderayi Mukeredzi / IPS
  • by Tondrayi Mukeredzi (harare, zimbabwe)
  • Joint press service

Disappointed by the lack of energy around her, Murindo became one of the first customers in her area to purchase a 3-light home solar system from PowerLive Zimbabwe.. This women-led social enterprise primarily employs women to sell, distribute and install pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar power systems to rural households without grid.

“The Home 60 has three lights, including a sensor light. We don’t have electricity at the moment so we use this system for home lighting, phone charging and security at night. Our neighbors who don’t have this system also come to charge their phones with us,” she told IPS.

Murindo, a teacher at Sabina Mugabe High School, is among dozens of women PowerLive Zimbabwe has recruited to sell and install its products.

“I get a commission on the sales I make from marketing and selling the solar system, which adds to my income and helps bring the food to the table,” she says.

Sharon Yeti, founder and CEO of PowerLive Zimbabwe, says 75% of her company’s workers are women and 85% of its 40 sales agents are women. Forty percent of technicians or installers are also women.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to empower girls. The ‘how’ part comes later. But while working for a solar company, I thought I could supply solar systems to off-grid rural areas with women as our sales agents. After all, women are more affected by energy poverty,” Yeti, who founded the company in 2018, told IPS.

She said the project has raised living standards for many households, especially women with growing confidence because they can earn money. Children benefit from being able to study after dark. And people’s health has improved from the toxic use of fuel-based lighting.

Since its inception, the energy startup has distributed 4,789 solar home systems to more than 20,000 households in 10 counties of the country. The project not only focuses on solar lights but also distributes solar products for efficient uses such as solar water pumps, refrigerators, hair clippers and entertainment. .

According to the African Development Bank, Africa has the highest percentage of female entrepreneurs globally. However, they face a range of gender-specific challenges in accessing finance, with a financing gap of approximately $42 billion.

But for a startup, Yeti’s PowerLive has been particularly lucky in accessing financing. In 2020, it received a grant of 350 000 Euro from a clean energy sponsor, EEP Africa; subsequently, at the end of 2020 and 2021 secured a total of US$400 000 from the Energy Access Relief Fund (EARF) and the Distributed Financing Fund (DFF).

“The funding has helped us a lot, to buy more systems, hire more sales agents, hire more people and pay when we shut down for seven months,” she said.

“As of December 2020, we didn’t make any sales, and when we were paying wages, we had no income, our customers weren’t paying, and our goods were sold out. over. So that’s a challenge. That’s when we received funding from AERF, to support companies that have been impacted by COVID-19.

“It came at the perfect time when I started to think we needed to start downsizing, but we didn’t, the same goes for funding from the DFF. It just helps us to have more stock and to maintain people,” she said.

Dorothy Hove, executive director of the Women’s Resource Center Network, an organization on gender and development, said the cost of setting up readily available renewable energy options like solar power remains high for many people. rural households who do not want to change from traditional energy sources to modern technology.

Although girls and women are responsible for most of the household work, access to modern energy alternatives is not enough to ensure gender equality.

“Women can play an important role in the green energy transition as responsible consumers, especially in households, but also in business and policymaking, where lack of measures to support women’s greater access to affordable and clean renewable energy.

“The empowerment and leadership of women in the energy sector can help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy by promoting clean energy and more efficient use of energy, as well as help solve energy poverty. A moderate transition should also include a gender perspective, to ensure equal opportunities for both men and women in the workforce,” she said.

According to a 2019 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewable energy employs about 32% of women globally compared with 22% in the energy industry as a whole.

In Zimbabwe, Hove estimates that women make up less than a quarter of employees in the energy sector, a proportion that declines with seniority.

This feature is part of a series of events to celebrate International Women’s Day 8/3.

Report of the United Nations Office IPS


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© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service

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