What PMs Can Learn from Women Leading the Energy Transition Across the Global South

Introduction

Across the Global South, a quiet but consequential transformation is reshaping how community infrastructure, renewable energy systems, and climate resilience projects are financed, governed, and delivered. Women who were once confined to the margins of agricultural and energy systems are now managing solar irrigation networks, training as renewable energy technicians, running clean energy enterprises, and leading community-based sustainability initiatives. From the floodplains of Bangladesh to the salt deserts of India, from the hills of Nepal to the communities of Nigeria, women are not simply benefiting from the clean energy transition. They are helping lead it.

For decades, women across the Global South have been stewards of land, water, forests, and food systems. What is changing today is the scale at which their leadership is being recognised, supported, and integrated into climate and development strategies. These experiences carry valuable lessons not only for sustainability practitioners, but also for project managers tasked with delivering complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives in an increasingly uncertain world.

India: From Subsistence to Solar Entrepreneurship

One of the most compelling examples comes from Bihar, where women known as Solar Didis (Solar Sisters) are transforming agricultural livelihoods through renewable energy. Supported by organisations including the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), CGIAR, and local partners, these women operate solar-powered irrigation systems and provide affordable irrigation services to smallholder farmers. Farmers reduce dependence on costly diesel-powered irrigation; as a result, operational costs decline significantly, and women also acquire technical expertise, generate income, and eventually become recognised community leaders.

A similar story is unfolding in Gujarat through the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). In the Rann of Kutch, women salt pan workers have traditionally spent a substantial portion of their earnings on diesel fuel. Through renewable energy initiatives supported by SEWA, UNEP, and private-sector partners, women are being trained as solar technicians and entrepreneurs, with some programmes enabling surplus electricity to be sold back to the grid. The result is a cleaner energy system that simultaneously improves livelihoods, strengthens resilience, and creates new economic opportunities.

Underpinning many of these efforts is the IWMI-led Solar Irrigation for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) initiative, which has piloted community-based infrastructure managed through women-led associations. In several communities, surplus solar energy is being redirected to support local enterprises, demonstrating how infrastructure investments can generate multiple development benefits far beyond their original purpose.

India also offers important lessons in environmental governance. Research examining community forestry institutions across India and Nepal found that greater participation of women in decision-making roles was associated with stronger forest conservation outcomes and more equitable resource management. The legacy of the Chipko Movement, where rural women mobilised to protect forests from commercial logging, continues to demonstrate how community leadership can shape long-term environmental outcomes. The Solar Didis and SEWA programmes are, in many ways, a contemporary expression of that same leadership tradition.

Bangladesh: Climate Resilience Through Local Leadership

Bangladesh provides another powerful example of how women are leading adaptation efforts in climate-vulnerable regions. In the southwest of the country, women farmers have participated in renewable energy and climate resilience programmes supported by UN Women, UNEP, and development partners. Solar-powered irrigation systems have improved agricultural productivity while enabling women-led enterprises to diversify income beyond climate-sensitive farming activities.

Women’s leadership extends far beyond energy infrastructure. In flood-prone regions, community-led initiatives have long established seed banks that preserve climate-resilient crop varieties and strengthen local food security. Women leaders have organised disaster preparedness networks, volunteer groups, and community support systems that help families navigate frequent climate-related disruptions.

These initiatives reflect a leadership model built on trust, local knowledge, and strategic grassroots-level collaboration. Rather than relying solely on top-down interventions, successful programmes empower communities to design and implement solutions that reflect local realities and priorities.

Bangladesh’s growing renewable energy sector is also creating new opportunities for women engineers, entrepreneurs, and technical professionals, demonstrating that women are contributing not only as community leaders but also as builders of future energy systems.

Nepal: Scaling Inclusion Through Policy and Governance

Technological innovation matters, but long-term success often depends on governance and policy.

In Nepal, solar irrigation initiatives have expanded access to renewable energy for smallholder farmers, including women who have historically faced barriers to technology adoption and asset ownership. Yet research suggests that policy frameworks have not always kept pace with implementation. Studies examining solar irrigation programmes in Nepal and Bangladesh found that while these technologies offer significant benefits for women farmers, gender equality and social inclusion considerations remain insufficiently embedded within many national planning frameworks. This governance gap limits the ability to scale successful pilot initiatives into broader national development strategies.

For project professionals, the lesson is clear: successful projects require more than technical performance. They also require institutions, policies, and governance systems capable of sustaining impact over the long term.

Nigeria: Expanding Access Through Women-Led Enterprises

In Nigeria, women are playing a critical role in expanding access to clean energy in underserved communities. Through organisations such as Solar Sister, thousands of women entrepreneurs have been trained to distribute solar home systems and clean cooking technologies across rural regions. These women serve as trusted intermediaries between technology providers and local communities, helping accelerate the adoption of decentralised energy solutions while creating sustainable livelihood opportunities. This effort combats energy poverty while advancing the fight against climate change.

The model highlights an important reality for project managers: infrastructure alone does not guarantee success. Trust, local relationships, stakeholder engagement, and community ownership are often just as important as the technology itself.

Beyond Energy: Agroforestry, Disaster Resilience, and Community Leadership

The pattern of women-led climate leadership extends well beyond the energy sector.

In Honduras, the Inga Foundation’s agroforestry model, later replicated in Madagascar, has engaged women as key participants in restoring degraded landscapes while strengthening local livelihoods. Beyond environmental benefits, these initiatives have contributed to greater decision-making authority for women in land management and household planning.

In Mozambique, women have played important roles in community-based early warning systems and post-disaster recovery efforts. Where climate risks are highest and institutional capacity is often most constrained, women frequently emerge as critical leaders in building resilience and coordinating collective action.

Leadership Lessons for Project Professionals

Across these geographies, the most successful initiatives share several common characteristics. They treat women as decision-makers, operators, entrepreneurs, technicians, and asset owners rather than passive beneficiaries. They leverage collaborative governance structures to distribute both risk and opportunity. And they recognise that infrastructure, livelihoods, climate resilience, and social inclusion are interconnected challenges that cannot be addressed in isolation from one another.

This is, at its core, a systems-thinking approach to project delivery.

The same principle is reflected in tools such as En-ROADS and C-ROADS, which demonstrate how environmental, economic, technological, and social systems influence one another. Effective leaders understand that sustainable outcomes emerge not from isolated interventions but from successfully managing these interdependencies.

The women leading these initiatives are demonstrating competencies that are increasingly sought in modern project leadership: systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, adaptive decision-making, collaborative governance, resilience and risk management, and long-term value creation. These are not soft skills. They are the skills that determine whether a project delivers lasting impact or delivers outputs.

The Global South is often framed as a recipient of climate solutions developed elsewhere. These examples tell a fundamentally different story. They show women in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities designing and implementing practical solutions that address energy access, climate adaptation, economic empowerment, and social inclusion at the same time. They are doing this not despite constrained resources and institutional barriers, but through them, by drawing on trust, collective knowledge, and a long-standing commitment to the communities they steward.

That is a form of leadership the project management profession cannot afford to overlook. As governments and organisations accelerate the transition toward a low-carbon future, one lesson becomes increasingly clear: climate solutions designed without women’s leadership are likely to underperform. The most effective projects are those that place local knowledge, inclusive governance, and community ownership at their core.

The green transition will only be truly equitable when the people most affected by climate risks are empowered to help lead the response. Across the Global South, women are not waiting to be included. They are already designing it, delivering it, and leading it.

References

1. Agarwal, B. (2009). Gender and forest conservation: The impact of women’s participation in community forest governance. Ecological Economics.
2. Aryal, S., et al. (2023). Can water, energy, and food policies in support of solar irrigation enable gender transformative changes? Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
3. Bhaduri, T. (2024). Solar pumps are empowering women farmers in India. International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
4. CGIAR. Solar Irrigation for Agricultural Resilience (SoLAR) Project.
5. Climate Interactive & MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator.
6. International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW). Women and Climate.
7. Solar Sister. 2024 Annual Report.
8. UN Women Asia-Pacific. Women show how they are building climate-resilient agricultural communities in Bangladesh.
9. United Nations in India. ReNew Power, UNEP and SEWA launch programme to train women salt pan workers as solar technicians.
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