The USAID-funded Power Africa Off-grid Project (the Project) provides technical assistance and targeted grant funding to help develop off-grid energy in sub-Saharan Africa. Technical assistance includes tailored support to companies looking to expand and increase sales in underserved markets. In line with its gender integration strategy, the Project seeks to support ventures, programs, and policies that strive to reduce gender inequality in the off-grid energy sector, ensuring that women are beneficiaries of increased access to energy for household and productive use.
Within this framework, the Project supported Simusolar, a supplier of clean energy products for agribusinesses in Tanzania and Uganda, to develop a market-focused gender strategy to help increase the share of women benefiting from productive uses of energy (PUE). The Project’s support was a response to Simusolar’s expressed interest in better understanding female customers and to tailor its business strategy to serve female customers effectively. To provide the support, the Project contracted management consulting firm E Co. Based on field research with female farmers and other stakeholders, E Co. aimed to solve the challenges and needs of Simusolar’s clients in an inclusive way.
This Gender Strategy helps close some of the knowledge-gaps in understanding women’s energy needs and identifies approaches to reach women with appropriate products and services. By pioneering gender inclusion in the off-grid and PUE sector, Simusolar and the Project wish to encourage other businesses operating in these industries to become more gender-inclusive.
Also read: Increasing Women’s Access to Productive Use of Energy For Agriculture: A Roadmap for Developing a Market-Focused Gender Strategy (13 MB)
