A practitioner’s view on clean energy and female health outcomes in Africa with case studies from Nigeria

The intersection between energy access, health and gender inequality in Africa and Nigeria is laid open from the perspectives of different social entrepreneurs in the field of energy and health services. Case studies of social enterprise projects demonstrate how the clean energy sector engages with persisting major challenges such as energy poverty, low agricultural productivity and low access to quality healthcare. Women leaders illustrate how their work as social entrepreneurs impacts women’s health outcomes, such as through a reduction of exposure to harmful pollutants, improvement in women’s livelihoods and access to health micro-insurance, and the provision of energy to healthcare facilities and consequent improvement of maternal health. It is these stories of success, especially of women-led initiatives, that partly drive action in the sector. However, there remain several challenges to scaling such interventions and broadening their impact, especially in a continent characterized by large rural and informal populations.