Solar Sister’s network of more than 11,000 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs bring climate-resilient technologies to their communities while building a pathway to prosperity for themselves and their families through entrepreneurship. The communities Solar Sister works in often face immense barriers to accessing economic opportunities including gender disparity, economic and political instability, and climate disaster. Solar Sister meets women where they are by adapting our model to these unique  contexts to remove barriers to entry and provide the Solar Sister opportunity to as many women as possible.

In recent years, Nigeria in particular has experienced an increase in climate-related disasters. In October 2022, major floods disrupted activities across Nigeria, displacing over 1.4 million people and destroying an estimated 110,000 hectares of agricultural land, which has a tremendous effect on the local economy and the livelihoods of displaced families. The socio-economic impacts of flooding and the resulting  displacement have the most severe impacts on women and children, increasing their financial, security, and agency risks and disrupting opportunities for income generation. Solar Sister identified 50 women living in vulnerable conditions following the flooding in Taraba, Benue, and Nassarawa states and  supported them to become Solar Sister entrepreneurs. Recognizing the unique challenges these women were facing, Solar Sister adapted their model to remove barriers to entrepreneurship for these women and developed additional, targeted support systems to help enable their success.

This program and funding from Acumen and GAC provided invaluable learnings and insights about the flexibility and adaptation of the Solar Sister model, demonstrating the effectiveness of economic  opportunity through entrepreneurship and the value of localized clean energy distribution in a variety of contexts.

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