Post COP28, keep the doors open for women to lead Africa’s response to climate change

This past December, COP28 closed with a focus on a transition away from fossil fuels. Next year, when the doors of COP29 open it’s likely that the world will have surpassed the 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement and already pundits and citizens are looking for a silver lining or even a silver bullet coming out of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference. While the world will look to renewable energy and technology solutions, we shouldn’t close the door on the solutions right in front of us; people power.?

As the African Management Institute (AMI), we’re specifically focused on scaling the outsized impact upskilling Africa’s people, its workforce, and the continent’s ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders can have.? To mitigate the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Africa continent we’re doing what is proven to work, providing practical business growth and leadership programmes for women who are central to transforming Africa’s food systems and fueling the continent’s renewable energy sector.

Here’s why and how we’re keeping the door open for people-powered solutions, led by women.

Growing Africa’s Women-Led Businesses is Good for Resilient Agribusinesses?

According to OECD , more than a quarter of all businesses in Africa have been either started by or are run by women, representing the highest proportion of women entrepreneurs in the world.? With climate change disrupting an African economy rooted primarily in agriculture, keeping agribusinesses surviving and transitioning Africa’s food systems to more sustainable and green agriculture, such as agroecology and regenerative agriculture, represents an immediate opportunity to increase food security, biodiversity and employment as highlighted by a recent UNEP report .?

To scale impact, we’re focused on upskilling women-led businesses and entrepreneurs who are fundamental to the food systems supply chain and face difficult odds in the marketplace so they can make sure their businesses survive and thrive. To achieve this, access to financial capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs won’t be enough. Increased investments in human capital and upskilling for entrepreneurs and the workforce is proven to foster resilience, grow businesses , and put investments of capital to work.

Take the story of Marthe Niyonshuti who founded Amahoro Farming Business Ltd located in Rwanda’s Karongi District in 2017 and participated in AMI’s Survive to Thrive programme.?

“Before joining the programme, I wasn’t able to identify the status of my business as I couldn’t know whether I was making a profit or a loss; I was fortunate to meet and connect with my fellow entrepreneurs operating in the same field, and I learnt from them how to address business challenges and improve my business productivity. Most importantly, thanks to AMI, I have initiated a business reporting strategy and improved my decision-making,” says Marthe.

As featured in AMI’s 2022 Impact Report The Resilience Factor , 49% of businesses reached by our practical business growth programmes were owned by women and 31% of businesses reached were agri-businesses. 54% of these ag-SMEs work to open up markets for smallholder farmers. Across our core business programmes SMEs experienced an 11% median revenue increase with 85% reporting job creation and 78% reporting increased revenue. The top 20% performing businesses created an average of 7 jobs and a median revenue growth of 135%.?

As agribusinesses learn to survive and thrive, they’re in position to provide food security and prepare to adopt new agricultural practices that mitigate the impacts of climate change.?

Read about our work with the Centre of African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) and how it fits in with our other food systems strengthening work.?

Future Females for Africa’s Renewable Energy Sector?

As of 2021, it was estimated that 150,000 people were employed in Africa’s off-grid energy sector. According to a recent study ,? women in Africa’s renewable energy sector, on and off-grid, comprise only 25% of leadership roles and about one third of the workforce. This is a missed opportunity for accelerating progress to reduce global carbon emissions. At AMI, we’re confident that investing in talented women in the sector, to advance the performance of the green businesses they work for,? is a critical piece of the climate crisis puzzle.

Since 2019, AMI has been working with the UKAID’s Transforming Energy Access (TEA) ? to empower and upskill managers across Africa’s off-grid energy sector, with a specific focus on upskilling women in Africa’s green workforce.? During the first iteration of TEA, AMI reached 500 emerging leaders across 85 companies through our Empowering Managers Programme . The results were 82% of companies participating in the programme noted improvements in their company’s key performance metric. At the same time, 73% reported increased company revenues while 100% of participants reported improved management skills after completing the programme; 41% of participants in the programme were women.

Due in part to the success of the Empowering Managers programme, in 2021 the UK government during COP26 announced new ‘scale-up’ funding for TEA. As part of the renewal, AMI is again offering our Empowering Managers programme for the clean energy sector and a new programme which is integrated into the TEA Learning Partnership (TEA-LP) called Future Female Leaders in Energy Programme with University of Cape Town (UCT).?

This collaboration between AMI and UCT is based on a pilot of AMI’s “Speak Up and Lead” course for participants in the TEA-LP Masters program. Future Female Leaders in Energy integrates both technical and soft skills and will reach 300 women at the entry level in the Energy Access Sector. The programme is divided into six modules; Introduction to the energy sector, Introduction to Finance, Speak Up and Lead, Communication, and Project-Management, Risk Management. The online courses require 8-10 hours of self-directed study. Practical tools are provided through the AMI Learn online platform, with peer networking fostering collaboration.

“My life has changed greatly since my enrollment in the TEA-LP Speak Up and Lead program,” said Palesa Nkaile, who was pursuing a Master of Science in Sustainable Energy and Renewable Energy at National University of Lesotho at the time and is now a Project Development OfficerProject Development Officer Mos-Sun Clean Energy Technologies (MOSCET).

“My communication skills are much better, I can involve others and listen to their contribution in discussions. I also spend more time with people, airing my views and I now have more will to help others in any way I can. Another significant change I saw was my decision making. I now take informed decisions considering all factors and their probable impacts.”

As AMI continues to offer the Empowering Managers programme and Future Female Leaders in Energy programme as part of TEA, we’re continuing to stay focused on keeping the doors open to emerging young female professionals to be the force, working to deliver the world’s much needed climate solutions.