Barefoot women solar engineers
Villages choose older women to train as solar engineers, who then electrify and maintain their own community's power.
Start small
Hold a village or neighbourhood meeting (half a day, no cost) to agree who would train and how upkeep would be paid; then fund one woman to complete a short practical solar installation course and kit out a small repair bench (a few hundred to a few thousand dollars).
The problem
Off-grid villages lack affordable clean power, and women are rarely trusted with technical or leadership roles.
Where it fits
Works in remote, off-grid villages still using kerosene, where a village committee can select trainees and agree to pay a modest salary and run a repair workshop. Training is hands-on and colour-coded so literacy is not needed. Older women are chosen because they stay rooted in their villages.
The principle underneath
Placing technical skill and maintenance income with people who are most anchored in a place keeps the system repaired and the knowledge local. Paying for upkeep from what households used to spend on kerosene makes the service self-funding.
Who to call
Barefoot College International, UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme country teams.
Watch out for
No budget for replacement batteries and spare parts; village committees stopping salary payments; grid arrival making small systems seem obsolete; trainees pulled away by family duties.
Where it comes from
Barefoot College, founded in 1972 in Tilonia, Rajasthan. Open practice, but replication is usually done in partnership with Barefoot College.
Where it's worked
Rajasthan, India (Tilonia) · to 2015
Graduates of the women solar engineer programme had electrified about 20,000 households in 300+ villages.
DocumentedSource
Upper West Region, Ghana · 2023-2024
Five women in their 60s trained at Barefoot College electrified 150 households, replacing about 3,000 litres of kerosene a month.
DocumentedSource
Where it failed
Early cohorts of men trained by Barefoot College often left their villages after graduating, so the programme switched to grandmothers. Energy policy researchers question long-term viability where systems depend on continued outside funding, and note villagers may treat small solar kits as a stopgap until the grid arrives, preferring power for TVs and fridges over lighting.