LocationsReflections on Women Creating Jobs in Eswatini’s Circular Economy
In Igniting More Than Energy
March 26, 2026
Women entrepreneurs whose work extends far beyond running businesses face challenges including high electricity costs.
UNDP/Anthonette Quayee
Ahead of International Women’s Day, I had the opportunity to visit 17 businesses across all four regions of Eswatini as part of the UNDP-led Joint Programme Igniting Eswatini’s Green Engine: Empowering MSMEs for a Just Energy Transition, implemented in partnership with WFP. What immediately stood out was that half of the enterprises we visited are women-owned, with these entrepreneurs striving to keep their businesses afloat despite rising operational costs, including electricity.
Accompanied by renewable energy engineering consultants, I participated in a three-day pre-site assessment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that have been selected to receive renewable energy solutions through the programme. While the mission was designed to evaluate technical readiness, it quickly became something more empowering. The visits offered a rare opportunity to engage directly with entrepreneurs, youth groups, and women leaders who are creating jobs and strengthening livelihoods through circular economy models.
The programme is designed to address these barriers by supporting MSMEs with context-appropriate renewable energy technologies, including solar photovoltaic systems and solar-powered pumping solutions. A cohort of 17 enterprises has been selected for support based on operational credibility, potential for social impact, and readiness to adopt clean energy solutions.
I soon learnt that across the country, MSMEs face persistent constraints that limit their productivity and growth. High and volatile energy costs, frequent electricity outages, and limited access to renewable and energy-efficient technologies continue to affect business operations. These challenges are particularly severe for energy-intensive sectors such as agro-processing, hospitality, irrigation systems, and cold-chain management.
Over the course of the assessment mission from 02–04 March, I encountered women entrepreneurs whose work extends far beyond running businesses. They are community leaders, job creators, and problem-solvers who are reshaping local economies despite structural barriers.
Electricity costs have significantly increased the cost of doing business in Eswatini. This project aims to support small businesses by enabling them to power their operations with renewable energy.
UNDP/Anthonette Quayee
Women as Catalysts for Community Transformation
One such leader is Bongiwe Dlamini, founder of Ingcebo Yetfu Foundation around Mhlumeni in the Lubombo Region. Working with other women in her community, she leads initiatives that range from savings groups and funeral cover schemes to a foundation supporting early childhood development for vulnerable children between the ages of zero and five.
Beyond these social programmes, Bongiwe has also worked with youth groups to establish a mushroom production initiative. By repurposing an unused building into a greenhouse, young people in the community grow and sell mushrooms, generating income while building entrepreneurial skills. Through partnerships with government institutions, international organisations, and agricultural enterprises, her team continues to mobilise resources that sustain these initiatives.
While most of the people driving this work are women, their initiatives are inclusive – actively collaborating with men in the community to maximise impact.
Yet the challenges remain significant. The group operates without reliable electricity, as electricity price is high, and lacks even a functional borehole to supply water. Vandalism, gender-based social bias, and limited infrastructure continue to threaten the sustainability of their work. However, the project has brought a ray of hope to the community.
Under this project, Ingcebo Yetfu Foundation is earmarked to receive a solar-powered borehole pump and LED lighting — and the impact of that intervention goes far deeper than electricity. Water is the most fundamental need on this site. Without it, the early childhood care point cannot maintain safe hygiene for the young children it serves, and the garden cannot be irrigated. Currently, water is carried to the kitchen by hand, in buckets, by women. That is where the day begins. A solar-powered borehole pump changes that entirely, providing reliable, clean water to the foundation year-round and freeing up the time and energy of the women who keep this place running.
This project would be truly transformative for the children and community. For the Ingcebo Yetfu Foundation, reliable solar energy is one of the foundational cornerstones upon which their long-term vision of a local preschool can become a reality, ultimately eliminating the long commute these children currently endure and giving them more time to learn, grow, and simply be children.
With green energy powering the space, the organisation would be positioned to create a welcoming early childhood environment — one with light, water, and the essential equipment like computers they are already reaching out to other organisations to secure. This is exactly what the programme was designed to ignite: sustainable, community-rooted change that reaches the most vulnerable
The project demonstrates both the barriers’ women face and the transformative impact that can occur when those barriers are overcome.
UNDP/Anthonette Quayee
When Opportunity Meets Resistance
During my visit, I also met Busisiwe Shabangu, founder of P&M Garden Delights at Makhwane, just outside Mbabane, Eswatini’s capital city. Her entrepreneurial journey began with a challenge that many women still face – lack of access to land.
Although the land belonged to her family and had been lying unused, Busisiwe had to fight to secure permission to use it simply because she was young and unmarried. Questions such as “Why do you need land if you are not married?” reflected the attitudes she had to overcome.
Across Eswatini, only a few chiefdoms have constituted women’s ownership of land at all. And even where they have, a woman often needs to kukhonta — a formal process of allegiance – with a male child to secure that right, which immediately disadvantages women with only daughters or no children at all. The structural barrier is not just for young, unmarried women; it cuts across many stages of a woman’s life and impacts them deeply.
Today, her enterprise temporarily employs up to ten people, most of them women. What was once dormant land is now a productive enterprise that contributes to livelihoods in her community.
Stories like Busisiwe’s demonstrate both the barriers’ women face and the transformative impact that can occur when those barriers are overcome.
The solar project is really the backbone of where P&M Garden Delights wants to go. A solar dryer means vegetables can be dried and sold as herbs — longer shelf life, versatile income stream. The lighting pole unlocks those 4am starts and nighttime security. And stable solar-powered irrigation finally replaces the generator that broke down and became too costly — which, given the hailstorm losses the business took last year, is no small thing. This is not just powering a garden. It is what the next chapter of the business runs on as she dreams of owning five hectares of land and planting many more crops within the next five years.
My reflections
My engagement with these women made me realise that when women entrepreneurs are given the tools, opportunities, and support to succeed, their impact extends far beyond their businesses – it strengthens communities, economies, and the future of sustainable development.
Expanding access to renewable energy for MSMEs is increasingly recognised as a critical enabler of inclusive economic growth. Across Africa, small businesses account for most employment opportunities, yet many remain constrained by unreliable energy infrastructure. For women entrepreneurs – who often face additional barriers such as limited access to finance, land, and technology – energy insecurity can significantly restrict productivity and market expansion.
As we mark International Women’s Day, it is important to recognise the women who are quietly driving change across Eswatini and the African continent.