The informal small and medium enterprises (SMEs), irrespective of sectors that drive economic development in many African countries comprise of a significant population of women and youth or employees. This fact makes women and youth more vulnerable to external shocks like the global economic crisis and the impacts of climate change that do not spare this informal sector.
Further, structural and social-cultural barriers limit their capabilities to access finance, markets and training to grow their businesses/enterprises compared to adult men. The impact is confounded by the African challenge of burgeoning youth populations requiring formal or informal employment. Our project will engage in joined up action research involving actors in the climate innovation/entrepreneurship ecosystem (CIE) to provide evidence for informing scaling of promising youth and women led clean energy4 enterprises for their transformative impact in the African context. The overall objective is to understand within the CIE context the systemic factors that enhance or constrain women and youth’ access to business opportunities in clean energy innovation5, and how the promising best practices can be scaled up for impact.
This research to action project premises that there is increased understanding and corresponding increased efforts by both private and public sector actors to accelerate clean energy transition globally as well as in low-income economies, particularly in Africa. There is also a consensus that the on-going efforts need to be scaled across sectors, nationally and at sub-national levels towards a universal and more inclusive energy transition (IRENA, 2022). These efforts provide a baseline for more in-depth research in this regard. The overarching goal is to generate evidence through transdisciplinary research involving actors in the CIE to inform scaling of promising youth and women-led CEEs (clean energy enterprises) and business models, and document impact in the SSA context. This evidence should consequently stimulate strategic gender-responsive policy and practical actions at grassroots, local, national, regional and international level towards just clean energy transition. The overall objective is to understand the systemic factors that enhance or constrain access of investment opportunities in CIE by women and youth, and how the promising best practices can be scaled up for impact in the African context.
The project will be implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and South Africa for a duration of 36 months (1st December 2023 - 1st December 2026). It will be implemented by ACTS in collaboration with various partners; Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Platform, ACCESS Coalition, Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC), BURN Manufacturing Co., Ministry of Energy in Kenya, University of Johannesburg, Community Energy Malawi, KCA University, Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), Mzuzu University, Malawi and Makerere university, Uganda.
