Women on creating sustainable future in Africa’s green economy – ESI-Africa.com

The story of Africa, and indeed the world, is one where women have always been the caretakers of the environment
Image: Attendees at the Women in Green Economy breakfast at AGES 2025. Source: The VUKA Group.
Addressing a WomenIN Green Economy session at Africa’s Green Economy Summit (AGES), Deputy Minister of Public Services and Administration Pinky Kekana said the theme of women leading the charge for a sustainable future must not just be a statement of intent but a call to action.
“It is a testament of the undeniable role that women play in environmental stewardship, climate resilience and sustainable development,” said Kekana.
Pointing to the efforts of women at work in green innovations, advocating for policy change and driving community-led solutions for environmental challenges, Kekana said the role of women in green reform is not spoken about enough.
“The story of Africa, and indeed the world, is one where women have always been the caretakers of the environment.
“In rural communities, women are the stewards of natural resources, leading efforts in sustainable agriculture, water conservation and renewable energy solutions,” she explained.
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Kekana ran through some of the more recent women-led projects that have piqued her interest:
“These are not isolated success stories—they are a testament to the transformative power of women’s leadership in green reforms.
“While these and other achievements are commendable, we must confront the pressing challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation.
“The transition to a green economy is not merely an environmental necessity but an economic imperative,” said Kekana.
Speaking on a panel discussion on measures to address challenges at the same WomenIN green economy event, Teboho Makhabane, head of ESG and Impact at Sanlam Investments SA spoke about addressing biases in capital allocation structures to create more access for women-led businesses in Africa.
She questioned how many female fund managers exist to diversify choices made about where money is invested on the continent.
“By diversifying the chain, you see money being driven into different aspects. Most women-led enterprises are small and medium sized businesses, sometimes even informal.
“We need alternatives to deploy money into these businesses, whether this is impact investment or whether this is looking at how informal businesses are set up, like whether they use pay-as-you-go systems,” said Makhabane.
Liesl De Wet, Head: Accelerated Organisational Sustainability at Unitrans, explained that the Road Freight Association in South Africa has started green workshops on how they can deal with challenges such as bringing electric vehicles into the fleet, addressing knowledge gaps and talking about how to make rules work for everyone.
“There are barriers, but I’m excited to see the commitment that transport operators have, not only around actual assets such as electric vehicles but integrating more females into their driving profile,” explained De Wet.
She sees the greening of supply chains as an opportunity to make changes that affect not only women.
Road safety is a big issue for the entire transport industry, with crime putting all drivers at risk on specific routes. “Green supply chain encompasses a lot, but ultimately it has to be as efficient and economical as possible,” said De Wet.

Nikara Mahadeo, Nature-based Solutions Associate for the World Resources Institute (WRI), also stressed that the point of bringing women into the conversation is not to foreground one group over another but to get everyone’s voices heard.
She is working on the Scaling Urban Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUNCASA) project on the Jukskei River in Johannesburg.
The project mirrors similar work in Rwanda and Ethiopia on scaling up nature-based solutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
The overall project has a strong gender equity and social inclusion approach. “This is something that forms a foundation for the project, ensuring the whole of society approach, that no one is left behind.
“Part of the focus group with the community is to understand what are their challenges, and how to unlock that, and understand what are the opportunities for us to intervene and understand the implementation of nature-based solutions.
“What has come up in South Africa is that the women are feeling more empowered to speak in these focus groups and the men feel left behind, which is enlightening when compared to the other countries in Africa,” said Mahadeo.
Annelize van der Merwe, Director of Green Economy Industries at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) pointed out that she works on an almost all-women team and it does change what they look at when compared to other, similar teams at the department.
“One of the big things at work that we do is to remove red tape, to help unblock challenges that copanies face, particularly women-owned businesses. There are huge challenges,” said van der Merwe.
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