RTC 100 winners Solar Sisters present insights report

ISES is happy to announce that Solar Sisters - the winning project of the ISES & Elsevier Renewable Transformation Challenge 2023 - has launched their   2023 Entrepreneur Insights report.
 
Solar Sister conducts this annual end-of-year entrepreneur survey to gather insights about their businesses, experiences with Solar Sister, and the changes in their lives and livelihoods over the past year. Gathered from 350 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs across Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania, the report highlights key insights about women’s entrepreneurship and access to clean energy.
 
The takeaways are clear:
When empowered female entrepreneurs bring affordable, clean energy products to their communities, livelihoods are improved, and the effects of climate change are mitigated.
 
Women gain footing on which to build a more equitable future for themselves and their families. 
 
Eight in ten women reported improved livelihoods after at least one year of entrepreneurship with Solar Sister. 84% reported being better off than they were 12 months ago.
 
One of the most striking findings:
The probability of Solar Sister households living in poverty, calculated using the standardized Poverty Probability Index, was reduced by 87% from the baseline.  
 
Solar Sister generates a pathway to prosperity for women through entrepreneurship, which elevates women out of poverty.
 
Also notable:
The positive outcomes from Solar Sister’s model don’t stop at the entrepreneur; entrepreneurs reported significant positive impacts on their families, children, and communities in 2023, including a 22% increase in the number of respondents’ girl children who attend school.
 
Dive into the full report to explore the detailed findings around the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, decision-making power, and economic well-being and join us on April 25th for our Last-Mile Learnings Webinar where we will take a deep dive into the report!
 
Last-Mile Learnings Webinar- April 25th, 10am EST
 
Register here to learn from our Solar Sister entrepreneurs as we dive into the insights from Solar Sister's 2023 year-end entrepreneur survey. In this webinar, we will discuss the ways Solar Sister's work is driving positive change and empowerment not just for our entrepreneurs, but across their families and communities.

About the RTC 100 Challenge and Solar Sisters

The Renewable Transformation Challenge is a contest issued by Elsevier and ISES every two years which aims to recognize accomplishments by organizations such as private enterprises, NGOs, and research institutions for undertaking projects and programs that help move the world toward an energy system supplied entirely by renewable energy sources, or for conducting the critical analyses that provide meaningful roadmaps for the transformation.

In 2023, a total of 84 applications were submitted and had to go through a rigorous review by our international expert jurors and judges.

In early September, Elsevier and ISES were pleased to announce Solar Sisters with their initiative to empower women to eradicate energy poverty has been selected as the 2023 RTC winning project.

Since 2010, Solar Sister has worked to fight energy poverty across this region by recruiting, training, and supporting women entrepreneurs as they create clean energy distribution businesses. Solar Sister Entrepreneurs sell products produced by trusted manufacturers, ranging from a small phone-charging lamp to larger solar home systems and clean cookstoves.

After over a decade of operations, Solar Sister remains the only organisation working at the intersection of women's empowerment, energy poverty and climate change in Africa. Solar Sister’s theory of change is that through developing women entrepreneurship, both the women entrepreneurs and their communities benefit from positive impacts in the areas of energy access, climate justice and gender equity.

Fotosource: SolarSisters