The SHINE Evolution

 

Launched in 2017 by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll), IKEA Foundation GreenFaith, and the Wallace Global Fund, and supported by the Charles Stewart Mott and DOEN Foundations, SHINE brought together an international network of renewable energy advocates, experts and funders committed to promoting decentralized energy alternatives that would redirect investment to serving local communities, their people and the planet. Defined originally as a campaign, between 2017 and 2023, SHINE built its network, convened conferences and workshops, advocated and provided small grants to energy innovators and projects.

 

Our driving principle and belief is that decentralized renewable energy systems are fundamental to create a Just Energy Transition. 

 

In 2023, the SHINE Collab was renamed to reflect a strategic emphasis on community-driven renewable just energy solutions, supported through transformative cross-sectoral partnerships. Today, it is led from the African continent, mobilizing partnerships, resources and bold advocacy in support of women-led, community-based renewable energy enterprises and organizing initiatives that enable gender just and climate just solutions, including country programs in Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, building the evidence base to scale a new energy paradigm – a true just transition that enables local women, their communities and protects our climate.

The SHINE Collab goals are to:

  • Support Africa-based women-led small-scale enterprises and grassroots organizations to access and control renewable energy to improve livelihoods, safety and wellbeing and build their collective power to influence a better future.
  • Combine knowledge, networks and financing in support of frontline gender-just energy solutions and leadership, forging cross-sectoral partnerships across the gender justice, feminist, climate and energy sectors.
  • Shape the field and change the narrative that currently focuses on large-scale, top down energy and climate solutions using data and knowledge from practice to make the case for community-driven, women-led energy and climate alternatives.
  • Promote a gender just, power-building approach to the just energy transition in policy and practice that challenges the ongoing impact of extractives and fossil fuels, and promote people-centered alternatives.
  • Build the organizational capacity of the SHINE Collab to lead from the African Continent.

MEET THE TEAM

Mela Chiponda

 Director

Christine Eibs Singer

Program Advisor

Lisa VeneKlasen

Strategy and Partnerships Advisor

Tsitsi Thelma Mashandudze

Program Officer

Advisory Council

Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director, Wallace Global Fund 

The Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith

Rachel Kyte, Dean Emerita, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Women’s Leadership Council

Ajaita Shah – Frontier Markets 

Ellen Dorsey – Wallace Global Fund

Emira Woods – Green Leadership Trust

Katherine Lucey – Solar Sister

Mariama Kamara – Smiling Through Light

Sheila Oparaocha – Energia

The SHINE Collab is a sponsored project of GreenFaith