Hardest-to-Reach Gender Assessment

The report identifies systemic barriers to gender equality in the off-grid solar (OGS) sector across sixteen Sub-Saharan African countries, highlighting a critical lack of sex-disaggregated data and the prevalence of restrictive social norms. It finds that women generally have less access to OGS technologies and are underrepresented in technical and leadership roles within the workforce. To address these gaps, the Hardest-to-Reach (H2R) initiative proposes a strategy focused on elevating women as customers, employees, and entrepreneurs through gender-lens investing, technical assistance for portfolio companies, and dedicated training facilities.

• The off-grid solar (OGS) sector suffers from a significant lack of sex-disaggregated data at both consumer and workforce levels, which leads to missed opportunities to meet women's needs and design transformative business strategies.
• Women generally have lower access to off-grid electricity than men, typically utilizing lower-tier technologies such as pico-solar products and lanterns; on average, OGS companies serve approximately 37% women in their customer base.
• Women represent approximately 33% of the global clean energy workforce, but they are disproportionately concentrated in corporate support roles (administration, communications, and sales) rather than high-paying STEM or technical positions.
• Restrictive gender and social norms, including discriminatory property and tenure laws, limit women's ability to access credit, mobile phones, and mobile money, which are essential for purchasing OGS products via PAYGo models.
• Indigenous populations in H2R countries, such as Pygmies in the DRC, face extreme marginalization, including lack of state recognition and vulnerability to sexual violence and land eviction.
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo, women's human development is approximately 83% of men's, and the country has one of the highest incidences of rape globally, with 51% of women experiencing lifetime physical or sexual intimate partner violence.
• Uganda shows a high rate of women's political participation with 34.9% of parliamentary seats held by women, yet women in the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) sector are concentrated in unskilled work, making up 35% of unskilled mini-grid workers.
• Benin has one of the world's highest percentages of women graduating from Engineering (54.6%) and ICT (55.1%) courses, yet these women are not being absorbed into the clean energy sector.
• In Sierra Leone, the 'Barefoot' women solar engineers program trained 50 technicians between 2014 and 2017, resulting in solar PV installations in 3,500 households and 60 community clinics.
• Guinea has one of the world's highest rates of female genital mutilation (FGM), with 94.5% of women aged 15-49 reporting the practice.
• Burundi's electricity access rate is only 11.7%, and the SOLEIL project aims to address this by earmarking 20% of start-up grants for female-headed or majority female-owned companies.
• Togo's female labor force participation is 55.5%, with 90% of women working in the informal sector, which limits their access to formal employment benefits.
• In Malawi, women spend an average of 800 hours per year collecting fuelwood, and only 14.9% of the population has access to electricity.
• Lesotho has a high female literacy rate of 92%, surpassing men's literacy (76%), yet women in the private sector energy workforce are concentrated in administrative rather than technical roles.
• Burkina Faso has a very low energy access rate of 19%, and 76% of women have undergone female genital mutilation despite a ban in 1996.
• In Chad, the average woman receives only 1.5 years of formal schooling compared to 3.7 years for men, and 98.8% of female workers are in vulnerable employment.
• Somalia's energy access is limited to 18% nationally and less than 5% in rural areas, with 99% of women and girls having undergone female genital mutilation.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2023). Hardest-to-Reach Gender Assessment. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp211-gender-assessment_0.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Hardest-to-Reach Gender Assessment. 2023. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp211-gender-assessment_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Hardest-to-Reach Gender Assessment |date=13 July 2023 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp211-gender-assessment_0.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2023hardesttoreach, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Hardest-to-Reach Gender Assessment}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp211-gender-assessment_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }