Building a more sustainable world alongside women while enabling them to improve their income and living conditions. That is the goal of the Faredeic project (For its acronym in French, which means Argan and Rural Women Engaged for Inclusive Economic Development and Climate). It was created in Morocco, one of the African countries most threatened by climate change, which suffers an increased pressure on natural resources, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Today, each citizen has access to 600 cubic metres of water per year on average, four times less than in the 60s. Hence the importance of implementing innovative solutions, to favour both the energy transition, particularly in the rural areas, and women’s inclusion.
Locally, the project launched in 2019 is led by the international network Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF, an international network of women’s and environmental organisations), and its local partners; the Association for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (AERDD), the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Research and Conservation of Argan Trees (a local endemic tree, and the second most abundant in Morocco) and REMESS (Moroccan Network for Social and Solidarity Economy).
The goal is to develop a local sector of renewable energy through the creation of energy cooperatives led by women, to produce simple and affordable solar solutions such as cookers, dryers, and ovens. Indeed, while many international organisations such as the United Nations agree on the fact that women are the most affected by the harmful effects of climate change, they are often dismissed in the response to this major challenge.
As sustainable alternatives, these cookers contribute to the involvement and recognition of women in the energy transition, the founders of this program explain. In order to do so, they rely on the economic, social, and environmental role of these women, who are active in agricultural and argan cooperatives and using ancestral, eco-friendly techniques. All the while in a country where wood and butane gas are traditionally used for cooking food, particularly in rural areas, despite their negative impact on people’s health and the environment.
The three-year-long project required $1 million (£720,000), of which $452,000 were financed by the French Development Agency (AFD). The remaining funds are provided by the French Ecological Transition Agence (ADEME) and the Foundation of France (FDF).
Overall, the project hopes to raise awareness about the advantages of the energy transition and green tech among 600 women, through meetings and workshops. Among them, only 40 cooperatives’ directors will start manufacturing simple and environmentally-friendly solutions dedicated to agricultural and argan oil production, or fisheries in two regions – Tangier-Tetouan, northern Morocco, and Souss Massa, in the south. The latter has been hit hard by climate change, but it has an exceptional rate of sunshine of over 300 days per year.
At the end of the program, scheduled in a few months, 40 young women technicians will be trained in manufacturing solar thermal technologies. The best among them will be selected and further supported to create their own energy cooperatives. They will also benefit from a capacity-building program on management and sustainable production, dedicated to rural businesses.