Solar Grandmothers in Burkina Faso

The project will increase access to sustainable energy in Burkina Faso for 250,000 people across 250 rural villages in Burkina Faso – through supporting both installation of solar systems (solar photovoltaic panels and batteries) and building communicate capacity for the system’s operations and maintenance. The project will recruit and train elderly rural women in the installation, operations and management of the solar systems. The approach to train semi-literate and illiterate women – many of them grandmothers –to become solar engineers has proven successful in many developing and least developed countries. They have then returned home to install solar panels and batteries, maintain and repair them, changing lives in their villages forever. Moreover, they have trained others in neighboring villages to do the same. Populations in rural villages are projected to be the first and hardest hit by climate change. The project will contribute to (i) bringing a positive change in the status of older rural women, making them genuine actors in local development; (ii) raising awareness of the need to combat climate change and protect the environment, (iii) reduce urban/rural inequalities and improve the living conditions of beneficiary households, (iv) reduce gender inequalities in rural areas through the involvement of women as key actors and beneficiaries of the project implementation, and (v) accelerate local development through increased income-generating actives in villages.