This report presents findings from a baseline assessment conducted to provide contextual analysis of the Solar Harnessed Entrepreneurs (SHE) project’s target population, capturing initial data against selected indicators in the project Results Framework. The SHE project aims to provide women groups and individual run enterprises with a package of support, including financing for energy-enabled appliances, training in their use and an enhanced market access and linkages with the aim to leverage the new access to energy for business growth. The ideal setting of the project is to cover over 330 newly enabled businesses by engaging 7,120 women, living in Sierra Leone’s mini-grid locations.
Although quantitative data collection was largely used to get primary information using structured questionnaires for personal interviews, the research team also used qualitative methods through Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), with respondents drawn from the renewable energy sector/mini-grid power stations. The study also used Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides to interview Project’s target groups and individual women entrepreneurs in the study areas. The coverage of the assessment was to include twenty (20) communities in all seven (7) intervention districts (Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba, Pujehun, Kambia, Koinadugu and Bombali), but based on initial targets for the first phase of implementation, only sixteen (16) communities were reached during the assessment.