Empowering Rural Adult Women through Solar Energy Training for Sustainable Development: A Case Study

Abstract

Women in Sub-Sahara Africa are the sole providers of domestic wood energy, with half of the day invested and committed to sourcing firewood from forests and bushes. The experiences of these women are similar to other rural women in south developing countries, which led an Indian philanthropist to establish an energy unit at the Barefoot College of Tilonia, India. Through the government of India‟s international diplomacy, the college has extended the opportunity of training aged, unlettered and semi-illiterate rural women as solar energy experts across the world. Rural African women have, and still participate in the training, thereby making them solar energy „experts‟ on return to their villages. The article is a research report that elucidates the impact of solar energy training on sample rural West African women in their communities. A qualitative educational research orientation and phenomenology design was conducted. Data was collected through face to face focus groups (FGs) interviews and participant observations, while data analysis engaged both hand data analysis (HDA) and computer data analysis (CDA) using NVivo computer qualitative software. Major findings revealed major dividend of the women‟s training in social and economic development for sustainability. The article concludes with suggestions that will further engage the women for innovative and sustainable solar energy training initiatives and dividend which are supported by local governments of their