Supporting women entrepreneurship in Senegal

September 26, 2022

The Signify Foundation supports ElleSolaire’s women entrepreneur distribution network: The Women Saving 4 Resilience (WS4R) project with a grant for training and working capital. WS4R contributes to innovative COVID-19 response and recovery efforts related to Savings Groups, in the areas of women’s livelihoods, voice and leadership and clean energy in Senegal.

For more than fifty years, Senegal has experienced rates of economic growth close to the rate of population growth. Despite that, sustainable reduction in poverty, particularly in rural communities has yet to be achieved. Moreover, COVID-19 has placed additional pressure on local economies in Senegal, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of the most marginalized populations, especially women.

In a survey completed in January 2021, there was strong evidence of the negative impacts of COVID-19 on economic and mental health of ElleSolaire’s Savings Groups. 100% of women reported a reduction in both the income-generating opportunities for their group and revenues generated since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Women are the primary energy managers in their households in rural Senegal. They are thus best placed to promote the benefits of renewable energy solutions in their rural communities and across their extensive social networks.

ElleSolaire’s mission is to empower women in West Africa through clean energy entrepreneurship and community-based capacity building. The organisation partners with the women's Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), working together in response to gender inequalities and energy poverty. In West Africa 200 million people have no access to energy and women and girls are disproportionately affected.

Through WS4R, ElleSolaire’s women entrepreneur distribution network strives to create pathways towards self-reliance, professional inclusion, resilience and sustainable energy poverty alleviation. These pathways are made possible as the organisation makes life-changing solar technologies increasingly accessible and harnesses the innate capacities of its women entrepreneurs.

To help the women grow in skills and autonomy and to help shift the perception of women in their communities, ElleSolaire launched the ElleSolaire Academy - the first certified solar entrepreneurship training for marginalized women in rural Senegal. The academy offers business and technical skills empowering women’s professional integration, economic inclusion and social empowerment. Our partnership aims to train and certify over 70 women who will then start their solar entrepreneurship journey, while creating new sources of income for 2,100 rural women’s Savings Group members.

Training and economic empowerment are key to changing the way rural women live; offering the means to enhance the quality of daily life and the respect to give them stronger voices in their community. ElleSolaire will continue its partnership with the Signify Foundation to test and expand its Savings Group partnership model and ElleSolaire Academy into the Kaolack region.