Focal area: Women’s entrepreneurship

  • Build your self-confidence and improve your skills!

    Build your self-confidence and improve your skills!

    Sanumaya Shrestha is a strong and ambitious entrepreneur. She is engaged in agriculture and poultry, and she also has a store, a rice mill, and a milk collection center. “To succeed, you need self-confidence, support of the family & business skills” says Sanumaya “My husband and I were not aware of the profits and losses.…

  • I am just a step away from my dream!

    I am just a step away from my dream!

    When Covid-19 hit the country back in March and the government of Kenya in coordination with the Ministry of Health ordered the closure of borders and introduced curfew hours, Rebecca Aseyo thought her dreams would come to end. Two months before the pandemic outbreak, she had been employed as regional sales representative by Star Times,…

  • Living in ‘survival mode’ during the lockdown

    Living in ‘survival mode’ during the lockdown

    Since the lockdown was imposed at the onset of the pandemic in Senegal, Awa has seen her turnover fall from an average of USD 340 per month to between USD 70 and 110 per month. As schools closed down, market activities got suspended and travel restrictions were imposed, Awa’s customers faded away. Her mentor advised…

  • Event: Empowering women and youth to accelerate the clean energy transition – Vienna Energy Transition

    Event: Empowering women and youth to accelerate the clean energy transition – Vienna Energy Transition

    Date: January, 12 2021 Time: 2 pm CET Location: Virtual event. Register: (CLOSED). To access the webinar recording, please click here.   This session focused on women and youth empowerment to catalyse an inclusive energy transition. The Session explored local and innovative solutions that have the power to lead a transformative change in the energy sector…

  • Solidarity Fund supports female entrepreneurs during the corona crisis

    Solidarity Fund supports female entrepreneurs during the corona crisis

    Together with our partners, we have helped nearly 5,000 women energy entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia over the past five years. Through their sustainable energy businesses, these women work to create a better future for their families and their communities. But the corona pandemic has put all of that at risk. They are women who…

  • A growth path model: An entrepreneurship growth pathway for women in last-mile communities

    This report aims to create a theoretical framework to identify key stages in last-mile women entrepreneurs to formulate a growth path to develop latent subsistence entrepreneurs into transformative ones. It is organized into 7 sections. Section 1 contains an introduction into the project, the rationale, and the scope and limitations of the project. Section 2 describes…

  • A woman’s determination to excel!

    A woman’s determination to excel!

    Rose Onyango is an energy entrepreneur engaged in the production of Improved Cookstoves (ICS) liners in Nyahera village, Kisumu County, Kenya. She is a married mother of four children: two in Primary school level, one in Secondary level and one at Tertiary education level. Before joining the energy business, Rose was engaged in farming activities.…

  • Harnessing the power of digital marketing in empowering energy entrepreneurs

    Harnessing the power of digital marketing in empowering energy entrepreneurs

    Clay Works Innovation Center, an improved cookstoves liner production center in Kakamega County’s Ichingo village (Kenya), was launched in January 2020. The group started off as a pottery production center back in November 2019, with a membership of six individuals; two men and four women on a full time pottery production job and part time…

  • Rosmiaty Lantara (ENERGIA/Hivos)

    Rosmiaty Lantara (ENERGIA/Hivos)

    Rosmiaty Lantara is an Indonesian biogas entrepreneur, supported by the Hivos BIRU biogas program, which contributes to a transition toward broad renewable energy use and greener societies. Rosmiaty founded her biogas construction company, CV Rizki Abadi, in 2016, with the goal of raising awareness about clean cooking fuels throughout her province of South Sulawesi. Rosmiaty…

  • Oluwakemi Ojewoye (ENERGIA/Solar Sister)

    Oluwakemi Ojewoye (ENERGIA/Solar Sister)

    Oluwakemi Ojewoye is a solar energy entrepreneur in Nigeria. Her business journey started in 2016, when her husband bought a solar lamp from a woman entrepreneur in their district. Regular and long-lasting power cuts impacted their daily lives, leaving them completely in the dark after sunset. The solar lamp made a huge difference to their…

  • Charlot Magayi (Mukuru Stoves)

    Charlot Magayi (Mukuru Stoves)

    Charlot Magayi is the CEO and founder of Mukuru Stoves, a social enterprise that recycles waste metal to produce clean cookstoves for low-income households. Mukuru Stoves was originally based in Nairobi, selling to urban households, but moved its operations to western Kenya to better serve those most in need. Their business model focuses on partnering…

  • Neha Juneja (Greenway Appliances)

    Neha Juneja (Greenway Appliances)

    Neha Juneja is one of the co-founders of Greenway Appliances, the largest clean cooking company in India, with recently expanded operations in Zambia. India’s response to COVID19 has had profound impacts on Greenway. With India having the fourth largest number of COVID cases at the time, the country went into a strict lockdown in March,…