Since women do 60% of the agricultural work on average in Africa along with managing households, they spend a lot of their time fetching water, carrying it on their hands, selling or bringing the produce. In many parts of rural Africa, there is a lack of proper infrastructure and transport options and neither electricity nor fuel is available regularly. As a result, most modes of transportation are costly, most inefficient, and do not meet many rural off-road areas. 

An organization in Zimbabwe, called Mobility for Africa, has launched an initiative directed at bringing affordable, zero-emissions transportation in rural areas with the introduction of their three-wheeler, Hamba. This Hamba gets leased out to women of groups of 5 within a pay-as-you-go system. Mobility for Africa aims to enable rural women in Africa with transportation that will allow them to save time, better sell their products at the market, bring their children to the clinic and school, collect water, and increase their economic prospects within their households and local communities, in addition to mitigating climate change by renewable energy. They have teamed up with Betteries, a company based in Germany, which repurposes second-hand electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Betteries offers a battery-as-a-service business model, where they give used EV batteries from Europe a second life by putting these batteries into transport vehicles in Zimbabwe, and later at the end of life of these batteries, they recycle them.

Women were reported to save time, increase their income levels as they become more productive because of being able to use transport instead of walking. Additionally, their health has seen to improve, as it is easier for these women to go to clinics. The use of second-life batteries with a battery-as-a-service model has also contributed to a more circularity and reducing e-waste levels. Lastly, one betteries battery unit translates to 14 tons of CO2 avoidance, therefore, using renewable energy has contributed to lower emissions levels.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash