Women continue to face systemic barriers to economic participation — from limited access to decent jobs and income disparities to balancing paid work with domestic responsibilities. Addressing these challenges requires more than intent; it calls for a transformative shift in how businesses, startups, and ecosystem enablers approach gender inclusion.
This gender playbook is a practical and user-friendly guide developed to help social enterprises, accelerators, investors, financiers, funders and development practitioners integrate women meaningfully into green and sustainable businesses. It offers five actionable strategies: embedding women in core operations, attracting gender-smart investments, tapping into rural women consumer segments, enabling clean-tech adoption, and supporting women-led enterprises.
Drawing from the Powering Livelihoods initiative — a joint programme by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Villgro Innovations Foundation (Villgro) — the playbook features success stories from over 20 clean-tech startups promoting solutions like solar dryers and silk-reeling machines. It includes 12 ready-to-use tools such as checklists, progress indicators, and templates to support on-ground implementation.
Developed in collaboration with SEWA Bharat and Development Alternatives, the playbook is a first-of-its-kind guide to help ecosystem actors champion inclusive entrepreneurship in the green economy.
Written by Mousumi Kabiraj, Divya Gaur
