March 2026 | Across energy-poor markets, women face disproportionate barriers to accessing productive assets that enable them to grow businesses and generate income. Productive-use energy (PUE) appliances — such as solar water pumps, cold storage, agricultural processing equipment, and clean cookstoves — have the potential to transform livelihoods. Yet affordability constraints, financing gaps, and business model risks have limited their adoption at scale.
A recently completed Gender Results-Based Financing (RBF) pilot, jointly funded by Shell Foundation and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with CrossBoundary Advisory and Odyssey Energy Solutions, offers new evidence on how targeted incentives and digital program infrastructure can help close this gap. The pilot explored how results-based financing could encourage appliance distributors to intentionally reach women customers and support their ability to acquire income-generating energy assets.
The results were striking.
With just $500,000 in grant funding, the pilot supported the sale of 2,494 productive-use appliances to women, including solar irrigation systems, solar-powered cold storage, ag-processing machines, and clean cookstoves. Over the lifetime of these assets, the appliances are expected to generate more than $4.6 million in incremental income for nearly 2,500 women — representing a 9.2x return in income generation relative to the original funding.
Beyond income gains, the pilot demonstrated broader livelihood benefits. According to the impact assessment:
- 81% of women reported increased income
- 77% reported improved ability to save
- 57% reported time savings in their businesses, allowing them to serve more clients
- 77% reported improved health outcomes for themselves or their families
These findings reinforce the powerful multiplier effect of productive-use energy: when women gain access to income-generating appliances, they increase business productivity, strengthen household financial resilience, and improve health and well-being.
Importantly, the pilot also generated valuable operational insights for designing scalable programs. Participating distributors tested new sales strategies and financing approaches to better reach women customers, including women-led marketing channels, flexible repayment models aligned with income cycles, and targeted partnerships with women’s networks. In some cases, companies reported temporary increases of up to 70% in sales to women as a result of these changes.
At the same time, the pilot highlighted key lessons for future RBF design. Longer program timelines, stronger automation of data collection, and clearer integration with enterprise systems can significantly improve program efficiency and scalability.
Odyssey’s Role: The Digital Infrastructure Behind the Program
Odyssey provided the digital infrastructure that enabled the RBF program to operate efficiently and transparently.
Through the Odyssey platform, the pilot was able to:
- Track appliance sales and customer data across participating distributors
- Track repayment performance
- Monitor key impact metrics such as income changes, time savings, and appliance usage
- Verify milestone achievements tied to the RBF structure
- Automate and streamline the disbursement of results-based payments
By centralizing program data and automating key workflows, the platform helped reduce administrative burden for both the program and participating companies while improving transparency, data integrity, and accountability across the program.
More broadly, the pilot illustrates the critical role digital infrastructure can play in scaling results-based financing programs. Technology platforms can enable real-time data collection, automated verification, and efficient capital deployment — all essential capabilities as RBF programs expand to reach larger markets.
Looking Ahead
The Gender RBF pilot provides compelling early evidence that targeted incentives, combined with thoughtful program design and digital infrastructure, can unlock new opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the productive-use energy sector.
As the clean energy transition accelerates, programs like this highlight an important opportunity: by intentionally designing financing mechanisms that reach women, we can simultaneously expand energy access, strengthen local businesses, and drive inclusive economic growth.
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