About Greenovations

Background

Across Africa and Latin America, women play a pivotal role in driving grassroots climate action, and often through green entrepreneurship in sectors such as agriculture, energy, water, waste management, and sanitation. However, their contributions remain under-recognized and structurally unsupported. In Africa over 58% of the self-employed population in Africa are women entrepreneurs and they face disproportionate barriers due to unpaid care responsibilities, informal work conditions, and restricted access to climate finance. These challenges are further compounded by climate change, which amplifies the women’s caregiving and resource management roles, especially in vulnerable communities. As global and national climate financing mechanisms expand, a gap persists: existing models rarely account for the realities of women operating at the intersection of caregiving, informality, and environmental stewardship. Many women are forced to choose between earning income and meeting household needs—leading them to work hyperlocally, informally, and often without protection or access to green capital. These emerging challenges call for inclusive, gender-responsive, and care-aware solutions that bridge the disconnect between global climate finance frameworks and local women’s climate action. Greenovations Africa 2 addresses this gap by recognizing women’s environmental and caregiving contributions, reducing unpaid care burdens, and improving their access to climate finance tools and support. The project applies Oxfam’s “5R Framework for Decent Work”—Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, and Represent—as a lens to develop integrated support systems for women in green sectors. A major focus is the development of accessible, community-informed tools that simplify and localize climate finance requirements for women entrepreneurs, including those working outside formal structures. These tools will help entrepreneurs demonstrate their environmental impact, apply for climate funding, and navigate policy and financial systems. The project also prioritizes knowledge co-creation, working directly with women to identify their needs, solutions, and policy recommendations.

Project Focus and Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to advance women’s climate action by developing a model to quantify the contribution of women green entrepreneurs to climate action, reducing the gender gap in access to climate finance, and co-designing gender-just and care work-sensitive solutions with green women entrepreneurs and enterprise support organizations.

The specific objectives of the Project are as follows:

  • Document the impact of unpaid care work on the entrepreneurial journey of women in the green sectors in Africa.
  • Assess the contribution of women green entrepreneurs to climate action.
  • Leverage lessons from Latin America to co-design solutions with and for women green entrepreneurs to tackle unpaid care work.
  • Position evidence for uptake by engaging relevant stakeholders and institutions at national, regional, and global fora.

The project explores critical questions:

  • How does unpaid care work impact women’s ability to grow and sustain green enterprises?
  • What types of green entrepreneurial ventures are most accessible to women working informally or at the community level?
  • How can climate finance be made accessible, inclusive, and responsive to women’s time and economic realities?
  • What co-designed solutions can support income generation and environmental impact, while alleviating care burdens faced by women entrepreneurs in green sectors?

In its initial phase, Greenovations Africa 2 aims to:

  1. Analyze the profiles and motivations of female “necessity” and “opportunity” green entrepreneurs across African countries.
  2. Assess and document the effects of unpaid care work on the business trajectories of women in the green economy.
  3. Quantify and communicate the positive climate impact of female-led green ventures.
  4. Map, classify, and assess climate finance mechanisms that could support women-led green businesses, particularly in informal contexts.
  5. Co-design localized, gender-responsive solutions to reduce unpaid care work and improve access to climate finance.
  6. Engage national, regional, and global stakeholders to translate findings into policy and institutional uptake.

Implementation and Innovation Focus

The results of Greenovations Africa 2 will provide:

  1. Comparative research reports and case studies on the impact of unpaid care work on the entrepreneurial journey of female green entrepreneurship in Africa and Latin America
  2. A digital platform that showcases the contribution to climate action by women green entrepreneurs in urban and informal rural and urban settings
  3. An evidence-based framework and digital platform that showcases women green entrepreneurs’ contributions to climate action
  4. Co-created and piloted solutions addressing care-related constraints in women’s green entrepreneurship in Latin America and Africa
  5. Policy briefs and advocacy products informed by Oxfam’s 5R Framework to influence governments and financial institutions.
  6. Capacity-building workshops and a knowledge exchange platform connecting African and Latin American partners.
  7. Learning and scaling roadmap consolidating evidence for broader application in climate and development programs.

Institutional Collaboration and Governance

The Greenovations Africa 2 project is led by a transnational consortium including:

  • United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-VIE) (Lead)
  • Fundación Avina
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
  • Women Entrepreneurship Access Centre (WEAC)
  • Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC)

This diverse partnership brings together expertise in gender, climate finance, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The consortium ensures broad regional reach and cross-sectoral alignment.

Geographic Scope and Future Vision

The project is currently being implemented in Africa and Latin American, ánd long-term vision is to scale the co-created solutions and tools to other countries and regions, informing donor frameworks and national climate strategies.

Funding

Greenovations Africa 2 is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), under its program supporting inclusive, gender-just, and climate-resilient economies.