Schneider Electric supports a project challenge from a Solar Mama

Schneider Electric and the IECD lend their support to a project challenge from a Solar Mama in Côte d’Ivoire and team up with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) to roll out a model for access to electricity and the development of agricultural production.

Nine months after the commitment made by French president Emmanuel Macron to a representative of the Solar Mamas association at the first summit of the International Solar Alliance, Schneider Electric, the Agence Française de Dévelopement and the European Institute for Cooperation and Development joined forces to help provide access to electricity and support agricultural production in her community in Donvagne, northern Côte d’Ivoire.

At a ceremony attended by Thierry Tanoh, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of the AFD, and Gilles Huberson, the French Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, Gilles Vermot Desroches, Sustainability Senior Vice President at Schneider Electric, and Patrick Sekongo, Côte d’Ivoire director at the IECD, presented a package of solar kits to Donvagne’s own Solar Mama and representative for women entrepreneurs in rural areas, Mrs. Marina Kra Affaoua.

As well as providing around one hundred solar kits and lamps to Donvagne’s most vulnerable households, the project’s primary purpose was to equip the local women’s cooperative with a mill, a kneading machine and refrigerators powered by a 25kW solar microgrid to accelerate the community’s economic development. Representing 67% of the agricultural workforce and handle 60 to 80% of food production, women entrepreneurs in rural areas deserve all the support they can get. To ensure they do, the IECD NGO supplies the equipment needed but also runs a support programme for the cooperative and around 20 other entrepreneurs from the village to ensure the project’s success and to maximize its impact on local entrepreneurship.

Schneider Electric and its Foundation, under the aegis of the Fondation de France, have brought together the entire Donvagne community as well as a number of partners, including the youth association chaired by Mr. Kra Kouassi, the women’s cooperative headed up by Mrs. Badou, the development cooperative run by Mr. Kouman and Mr. Boko Henri, Solar Mama Mrs. Kra Affaoua and the Kartieca association, the IECD, Côte d’Ivoire start-up LifiLED and the Schneider Electric teams in Africa. Together, they have set in place an entire process to cover the project’s needs, as much in terms of equipment as in training.

Access to energy is key to the empowerment of vulnerable rural communities. By providing women entrepreneurs in rural Ivorian villages with electrical and production equipment and supporting their projects, the AFD and its partners can help them develop agricultural processing activities. Alongside the AFD, which has followed the project from the outset, the Schneider Electric Foundation and the IECD have signed a memorandum of understanding and are building on this first experience to create a programme for the electrification of other villages.

The Solar Mamas are women entrepreneurs from rural areas trained to become solar engineers by the NGO Barefoot College in India. On 11 March 2018, during the first summit of the International Solar Alliance held in New Delhi, Mrs. Kra Affaoua challenged French president Emmanuel Macron to support entrepreneurial projects and access to electricity in her village in Côte d’Ivoire. Less than a year later, her challenge was completed. The AFD will also support the roll-out of similar projects to other isolated areas of the country.

“This project is significant. First, it’s a promise that has been kept. A promise that was made by French president Emmanuel Macron to Marina Kra Affaoua in New Delhi last March when he committed to finding the resources needed for a project in Côte d’Ivoire. Today, that has been done thanks to the efforts and commitment of Schneider Electric, the AFD and the IECD. It is also important because of the scope of the initiative and solutions that it brings together for the development of isolated rural areas in Côte d’Ivoire. There are many and often complementary ways in which we can support the development of agricultural production in these villages. Access to electricity, be it via grid or standalone system, is always a prerequisite. I would like the AFD to look into all of these different solutions so that it can offer the most effective support to the authorities or private operators driving these projects.” – Gilles Huberson, French Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire

“I am delighted to be here today to see the fulfilment of the promise made by French president Emmanuel Macron to Marina Kra Affaoua, a Solar Mama trained in India by the NGO, Barefoot College. During the French state visit to India last March, she challenged him to support entrepreneurial projects and access to electricity in her village in Donvagne, 400km from Abidjan. Thanks to the efforts of Schneider Electric and the IECD, the different equipment (mill, kneading machine, refrigerators and photovoltaic panels) is arriving as we speak, and Marina’s training in solar technology will allow her and her colleagues to operate and maintain it. The women’s cooperative will also be able to make the production equipment used to process and store the agricultural products available to the wider community. The training provided by the IECD to the cooperative and other entrepreneurs will help give the project maximum impact and cement its lasting success. The AFD will be working alongside the women entrepreneurs, and notably other Solar Mamas in Cote d’Ivoire, to roll this solution out to other villages in 2019, providing access to renewable energy and fostering economic empowerment and gender equality, all of which are fundamental to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.” – Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of the AFD