- Women must not be left behind in The Gambia’s clean energy shift — AfDB report
The African Development Bank has called for women in The Gambia to be recognised as full partners in the country’s renewable energy transition, warning that clean energy investments will deliver weaker development outcomes if women remain excluded from finance, skills, ownership and decision-making.
In a new report, the Bank said The Gambia’s shift towards renewable energy presents a major opportunity to improve access to power, expand productive activity and create new jobs, but stressed that the transition must be deliberately designed to include women as entrepreneurs, technicians, investors, consumers and community leaders.
The report identifies limited access to finance, training, land and markets as some of the main barriers preventing women from participating fully in the renewable energy sector.
It argues that while women are often among the most affected by energy poverty, they are too frequently treated only as beneficiaries of clean energy projects rather than as economic actors capable of shaping and driving the transition.
The African Development Bank said recognising women as full partners would require policy, financing and institutional reforms that make it easier for women-led businesses and community groups to access renewable energy opportunities.
The findings are significant for The Gambia, where energy access, affordability and reliability remain central to economic development, especially for households, agriculture, small businesses and rural communities.
For women, reliable and affordable energy can improve livelihoods by reducing time spent on unpaid domestic work, supporting food processing and storage, enabling small-scale manufacturing, powering digital services and improving safety and access to public services.
But the AfDB report suggests that these gains will not be automatic unless women are deliberately included in energy planning and implementation.
A gender-inclusive renewable energy transition would mean ensuring that women have access to credit for solar businesses, clean cooking solutions, productive-use equipment, mini-grid enterprises and other energy-linked ventures.
It would also require technical training to help women enter areas such as installation, repair, maintenance, energy auditing, sales, distribution and management of renewable energy systems.
Land access is another important constraint. Renewable energy projects, particularly solar installations and productive-use energy ventures, often require secure land or business premises. Women who face legal or customary barriers to land ownership may therefore be excluded from opportunities created by the transition.
Market access also matters. Even when women are involved in energy-related enterprises, they often struggle to connect to procurement opportunities, distribution networks and larger commercial value chains.
The Bank’s report therefore points to the need for renewable energy policy to go beyond infrastructure delivery and address the wider economic ecosystem in which women operate.
For The Gambia, this means clean energy planning must be linked to gender-responsive finance, skills development, enterprise support, land policy, public procurement and local economic development.
The call also comes at a time when African countries are seeking to accelerate renewable energy deployment to improve electricity access, reduce reliance on imported fuels, lower emissions and strengthen climate resilience.
Across the continent, development institutions are increasingly arguing that the energy transition must also be a jobs and inclusion agenda, not only a climate or infrastructure agenda.
In The Gambia’s case, expanding renewable energy can support rural transformation, improve productivity and help businesses operate more reliably. But if women are locked out of the value chain, the transition risks reinforcing existing inequalities.
The AfDB report’s central message is that women should not be seen only as end-users of solar home systems, clean cooking technology or community power projects. They must also be positioned as suppliers, technicians, financiers, cooperative leaders and policy participants.
This approach could strengthen both social equity and project performance.
Women often play central roles in household energy decisions, food systems, informal trade and community organisation. Including them in renewable energy planning can therefore improve uptake, affordability, local ownership and long-term sustainability.
The report also aligns with a broader development argument that gender equality is not simply a social objective, but an economic productivity issue.
Where women are excluded from finance, land, skills and markets, countries lose part of their enterprise base and reduce the development impact of public and private investment.
For The Gambia’s renewable energy sector, closing these gaps could help expand the number of local businesses participating in the clean energy economy and ensure that women benefit from emerging jobs.
The policy implications are clear.
The Gambian authorities and development partners will need to design energy programmes that include targeted credit lines for women-led enterprises, technical and vocational training for women and girls, gender-responsive procurement, support for women’s cooperatives, and safeguards to ensure that land and market barriers are addressed.
Energy companies and investors will also need to rethink recruitment, supplier development and community engagement models to create space for women in technical and leadership roles.
The AfDB’s intervention is therefore both a warning and an opportunity.
The warning is that a renewable energy transition that ignores women will be incomplete. The opportunity is that a gender-inclusive transition can expand jobs, strengthen households, deepen enterprise development and improve the social returns from energy investment.
For The Gambia, the question is not only how quickly renewable energy can be deployed, but who gets to participate in building, owning and benefiting from that new energy economy.
The African Development Bank’s report is clear that women must be at the centre of that answer.
