One evening several years ago, I was walking down the main street of a rural community in Uttar Pradesh, India. Everywhere I looked, there was a buzz of activity: neighbors greeting one another, vendors promoting their goods, customers browsing through shops and stalls. Smart Power India (SPI), an initiative of The Rockefeller Foundation, had just supported a private developer in installing a solar-powered mini-grid that electrified the village and its market.

Despite the excited hum in the air around me, I couldn’t help but notice who was missing: women. Stepping just a few meters away, into the village’s residential area, I found women cooking over fires and helping children with schoolwork in homes that weren’t connected to the new mini-grid. While solar power was transforming the businesses of men nearby, it didn’t seem to be economically impacting women much, or at all. The data we collected about our broader work across rural India confirmed my observation: while women marginally benefit from electricity access and report an improved quality of life, it has not translated to economic gains for them.

Our project had encountered a common development challenge. Often, organizations build green infrastructure in underserved communities without considering women and girls. They are the people who lose out on economic opportunities when electricity is not available, affordable, and reliable — and who, without explicit support, continue to lose out even when it is.

We also have to ensure women aren’t left out of employment opportunities in energy, one of the least gender-diverse industries. Renewable energy has shown promising career pathways for women, with higher female representation than other energy sectors. And with increased investment in clean energy transitions in emerging economies, we have an opportunity to boost the number of female renewable energy workers and increase the number of female consumers of energy.

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, launched by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, and development finance, country, and delivery partners at COP26 last November, has set ambitious goals along those lines.

Read the full article about renewable energy for women empowerment by Suman Sureshbabu at The Rockefeller Foundation.