Making Waves: The Role of Women in East Africa’s Blue Economy

Reliable electricity underpins everything from healthcare and education to manufacturing and investment, yet more than 600 million people across Africa still live without it. Closing the continent’s energy gap is not just about expanding access. It is one of the biggest infrastructure challenges shaping Africa’s economic future.

An imbalance sits at the heart of the global green energy transition. There is a good chance that the cobalt, manganese, and graphite in your EV battery came from African soil. And yet the continent contributing so much to a decarbonised world is receiving relatively little help dealing with the consequences of a warming one. Understanding this gap is one of the most important conversations in global climate policy today.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo powers the global cobalt economy, yet too little of that mineral wealth is being converted into electricity, industry, jobs, and long-term prosperity at home. The real challenge is no longer extraction alone. It is how to retain more value on African soil and how to turn that value into African industrial power.