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The Rise of Professional Women in Rwanda
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CASE STUDIES
Connecting Last-Mile Women Entrepreneurs with Data
The Goal
Use the power of data science to put data directly into the hands of female clean energy entrepreneurs in last-mile communities in Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.
About
Solar sister has reached 3 million Africans, kickstarted 7,000+ solar entrepreneurs and hopes to train 10,000 women by 2023 and is actively exploring new markets in Africa. In pursuit of this goal, Solar Sister partnered with Fraym to identify the key markets ready for solar energy products for female clean energy entrepreneurs across Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya, allowing them to use data to identify where target customers may live.
Through this project, Fraym and Solar Sister also developed data-driven profiles that allow Solar Sister field staff to identify where potential Solar Sister Entrepreneurs are located, thereby creating operational efficiencies in expansion and recruitment activities.
Fraym created valuable data visualization outputs for this project which Solar Sister has now integrated into its core business model and uses to make data-backed decisions at all levels of the organization. Leveraging data in this way builds healthy markets for renewable energy solutions by driving innovation and sales, increasing community access to modern energy, catalyzing socio-economic development, and improving community productivity and livelihoods of women by reducing the gender access gap.
This two-year effort was made possible with support from data.org, in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and The Rockefeller Foundation, through the Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge.
The Report
Solar Sister and Fraym have published a report to share guidance, insights and lessons for organizations interested in how to use data in new ways to understand needs of unique customer groups, create social impact, enabling people and communities around the world to not only survive, but thrive.
Both partners hope that the report will be a useful tool for like-minded social entrepreneurs and organizations who have yet to embark on or are at any point in their own data journeys.
Profile Components
Segmenting the Population
First, we identify the population with the largest impact potential. Then, we segment this population into three groups based on ability to acquire solar products.
Defining Need
Households that have no access to electricity or unreliable access are defined as having a need for Solar Sister products.
Ability to Pay
Cash customers are households that have a modest ability to pay for Solar Sister products demonstrated through ownership of one or more assets.
1
M
women matched profile for ideal candidates for new business in Nigeria
600
K
women met the threshold for ideal candidates for new business in Tanzania
10
%
of the candidates live in Tanzania
