Solar Power Has the Potential to Uplift Zambia’s Women

Sitambi Inonge Nancy, 32, wakes up every day at dawn with a long list of obligations ahead of her. Before the sun goes down at the end of the day, she must finish her household chores and teach a spate of classes at Kaongeta Primary School in Limulunga District, Western Province, Zambia.

The village where Nancy lives has no electricity, so even the smallest tasks are done manually and must be completed before she runs out of daylight. The responsibilities often feel overwhelming, she told More to Her Story.

Nancy’s story is typical for many women in Zambia, who shoulder most domestic responsibilities, including running errands, attending to chores, preparing food, and finding ways to light their homes during dark hours through collecting wood or charcoal that can often originate from far distances. All of these tasks must be completed during the day while also managing farm work.   

Zambia generates 83 percent of its electricity from hydropower, yet in rural communities like Nancy’s, only 14.5 percent of Zambians have access to the national power grid. Even then, Zambia’s hydropower is routinely unreliable. In August, the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, Zambia’s largest source of hydroelectricity, had just 10 percent of its water available for power generation due to the knock-on effects of the country’s crippling El Niño year which contributed to a longstanding drought across the region. Throughout 2024, routine power cuts lasted up to 21 hours, and a nationwide blackout in November led to the disruption of hospital services and miners being trapped underground for hours on end.

To meet Zambia’s electricity needs and prevent further disasters, the Zambian government has accelerated efforts to cultivate solar power as an alternative energy source. In August, they introduced tax-free imports of solar power equipment to encourage businesses and household to adopt solar energy.

Prem Jain, a physics professor at the University of Zambia and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Renewable Energy and Environment, says that access to electricity through solar energy or other means is incredibly beneficial for African women.

“It enables [women] to engage in such income-generating activities as tailoring, running hair salons, and storing perishable items like fish, milk, and vegetables,” he says.

He adds that with proper lighting, women can extend the hours of operation for businesses they run. Additionally, having electricity allows them to raise more chickens for poultry farming. Access to electricity avoids the use of paraffin lamps, which are harmful to humans and the environment as they emit greenhouse and other harmful gases.  

“Solar-powered hammer mills can assist in grinding maize, which is a staple food. Women often have to pound maize by hand or travel long distances to find grinding services,” he adds.  

Since gender norms continue to shape Zambian society, research has shown that providing access to electricity plays an important role in helping women gain economic independence and become more self-reliant.

“[Solar power] is helping the women pace out their household work. They can cook at night if they want to. Cooking on a gas stove cooking has also become hassle-free, which was a major challenge during blackouts. The children can study in their rooms without disruption,” Sitambi says.

Community electrification in Zambia also has the potential to enhance maternal health, improve newborn care, and mitigate maternal death risks by powering health clinics and enabling refrigerated medicines. A study conducted in electricity-starved communities in India found that power outages had a negative impact on maternal health services in India and found that electricity interruptions greatly reduced the likelihood of women giving birth in healthcare institutions. The study also found that frequent outages lowered the chances of skilled health professionals attending births, especially in institutions that serve rural women.

Despite the growing emphasis on solar power, Jain highlights that many projects still rely heavily on donor funding via NGOs and nonprofits due to stretched government budgets. The current energy crisis in Zambia has added to the country’s economic woes. 

SunnyMoney, a solar social enterprise in Zambia owned by the UK-based NGO SolarAid is one such organization that has established a network of solar entrepreneurs, known as agents, in Zambia. The agents work with rural communities to eliminate the use of harmful products like candles and kerosene for light and distribute solar lights across the country at subsidized prices.” says Diana Zulu, who is the Human Resources and Operations Manager at SolarAid, Zambia. 

Access to electricity also significantly increases the consumption of television and radio, which helps raise awareness about important issues such as domestic violence and contraception. The EU-funded Natwampane project, led by the Zambian government, helps three radio stations produce weekly programs on gender equality and provide information about state and NGO services. In 2022, a study with 1,003 people in Northern and Luapula provinces showed differences between regular, occasional, and non-listeners of these programs. Regular listeners believed women had more rights and could make more decisions compared to occasional listeners and non-listeners. They also had more progressive views on sexual and gender-based violence.

Claudia Ringler, the Director of Natural Resources and Resilience at the International Food Policy Research Institute, has conducted extensive research on the effects of providing electricity in Ethiopia. She emphasizes that electricity must be available at the household level, not just at the village level, to benefit women and girls.

Ringler points out that the government of Ethiopia considers a village electrified if there is a power grid that reaches near a village. However, this doesn’t mean that households have complete access to electricity. For instance, if there is a main road, electricity poles are placed along it, but that doesn’t ensure that the nearby village has any real electrical service,” she says. “Having electricity at the village level benefits boys more, as they are mobile and can study in the evenings at the houses of their friends who obtained a household connection. In contrast, girls generally are often not permitted to go out in the evening, which limits their ability to benefit unless their own household has electricity.”

So far, Zambia’s electricity infrastructure has only reached 43 percent of villages in rural areas.

One way to overcome the lack of household electricity access is the establishment of decentralized rural energy (DRE) systems that are self-contained systems that produce electricity for one or more communities often drawing on a combination of energy sources, such as solar, diesel-operated generators and wind turbines.

For now, the solar power that is available in Zambia is relegated to the household level as solar mini-grid initiatives haven’t shown much promise.

“In the rural communities we serve, there is often a lack of economic activities that specifically empower women, which makes it difficult for them to access the necessary finances for capital to become solar agents,” Zulu says.

For Sitambi, access to electricity would open up a whole range of opportunities for her and women like her. It would also mean a world of difference for her students, allowing them to use real computers instead of merely imagining what they could do in theory.

“If there were electricity, it would provide me with a wide range of business opportunities to pursue in this rural area. It would also enable me to open businesses that require electricity, offering even more possibilities,” she says.

Updated Dec. 22, 2024, 9:45 AM ET. A correction was made to the age of Sitambi Inonge Nancy.