Guest post by Sikhangele Sihangele
My time as a Monitoring and Evaluation intern at Solar Sister from June to September 2024 has been a meaningful and eye-opening experience. It was filled with a supportive environment and opportunities to learn, contribute, and witness the transformative power of clean energy businesses run by women entrepreneurs. Through this journey, l have explored data systems such as Salesforce, conducted research, analyzed data, and produced valuable reports. These responsibilities have enhanced my skills as a Monitoring and Evaluation enthusiast.
During my time at Solar Sister, I mainly focused on conducting an evaluation of its digitization programs. Solar Sister has implemented several programs to close the digital gap among women entrepreneurs, including distributing 240 smartphones to Solar Sister entrepreneurs and delivering a series of digital literacy trainings on topics such as smartphone basics, social media marketing, and digital recordkeeping.
As part of my evaluation, I collected and analyzed historical data on entrepreneur business growth, a short digital survey I designed and implemented, and focus group discussions. The main objective was to measure the impact of these digitization efforts in enhancing digital skills, boosting self-efficacy, and improving business outcomes for Solar Sister Entrepreneurs. Through this evaluation, I concluded that Solar Sister’s digitization project has significant potential to enhance Solar Sister Entrepreneur’s success. Here are some of my key findings:
- Solar Sister entrepreneurs who own smartphones sell 87% more on average than those without smartphones, indicating that smartphone ownership is potentially a key facilitator of successful business.
- Solar Sister programs where smartphones were distributed resulted in a 70-80% increase in sales in the months following the smartphone distribution.
- When comparing similar programs that did not have a smartphone distribution component to those that did, we see that entrepreneurs in the programs with a smartphone component had much more rapid business growth than those without.
In addition to these findings, I provided Solar Sister with a set of recommendations based on feedback from the focus group discussions on ways to continue to build upon and improve their digitization programming.
Overall, l gained valuable insights into how important reliable data is for making well-informed decisions. Some of my key takeaways include:
- Accurate and timely data is important for monitoring and evaluating the success of our programs. By continuously monitoring our impact, scaling successful initiatives, and pivoting where necessary, we can make informed decisions.
- Investment in women entrepreneurs is crucial. It does not benefit individuals but also ensures that their community has easy access to clean energy solutions.
I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to Solar Sister’s mission and look forward to seeing this incredible organization’s continued growth and impact among women entrepreneurs.
Solar Sister would like to extend heartfelt gratitude to our generous sponsors—Puma, Acumen, GAC, and Energy Catalyst—for their crucial support, which has been instrumental in the success of the Solar Sister digitization project. Your contributions have provided essential tools to our entrepreneurs and empowered them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed in their businesses. Thank you for your commitment to women’s empowerment and digitization efforts.