At Solar Sister, 2024 has been a pivotal year in our ongoing commitment to learning and continuous improvement with the launch of our Organizational Learning Agenda. This initiative underscores our belief in the power of knowledge to fuel innovation, empower our team, and drive change. As we continue to expand our impact, this agenda represents an intentional shift toward more structured learning, ensuring that we evolve with purpose.
Why a Learning Agenda?
Our organizational learning agenda isn’t just a formal document—it is a roadmap designed to guide us through critical areas of inquiry that will shape Solar Sister’s future. As we work to empower last-mile women through entrepreneurship, we must adapt, learn, and grow from our experiences to meet women where they are. By launching this agenda, Solar Sister acknowledges that while the core of what we do will always be to recruit, train, and support women entrepreneurs, our work is dynamic and requires us to consistently reflect on and refine our strategies for doing so.
The Learning Agenda helps us:
- Identify key areas of growth: Whether it’s increasing the efficiency of our data collection systems or enhancing the way we support entrepreneurs, this agenda focuses on asking the right questions to uncover the best solutions.
- Make data-driven decisions: Through focused and de-siloed monitoring and evaluation efforts, we are committed to using evidence-based insights to inform our strategies.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement: We want our team and our partners to remain flexible, curious, and adaptive so that we can meet emerging challenges head-on.
Progress Update: Uncovering the impact and importance of digitizing entrepreneurs
Over the past year, Solar Sister has actively engaged our networks—entrepreneurs, staff, and partners—to gather insights, evaluate current practices, and implement changes based on the findings. The lessons we have learned and will continue to learn will guide us toward an even greater impact.
One key area we’ve made progress on is understanding the extent to which our Digitization Programming efforts lead to increased digital skills, self-efficacy, and improved business outcomes for our entrepreneurs. Over the past year of dedicated monitoring and evaluation, we’ve learned that digitization is not just a tool but a key growth catalyst for women’s businesses. It has enhanced Solar Sister Entrepreneurs’ ability to manage their businesses more efficiently, connect with broader markets, and improve their confidence in using digital platforms.
Digitization is not just a tool but a key growth catalyst for women’s businesses.
We’ve cataloged successes, challenges, and lessons learned to help us grow and expand our digitization programming going forward. Ultimately, this learning has demonstrated that we need to continue to invest in building digital capacities—especially in terms of expanding access to tools and training that will help our entrepreneurs thrive in an increasingly digital world. Read our full digital programming evaluation report here for insights into what we’ve learned so far.
Looking Ahead
We have learned much over the past year, but learning never stops at Solar Sister! We will continue documenting insights and addressing key questions that will move Solar Sister toward an even greater impact. The Learning Agenda is not a static document; it is a living framework that will adapt annually to reflect emerging priorities and challenges, ensuring that learning and innovation remain at the heart of our efforts to better support and empower our entrepreneurs.