While some industries move away from the JEDI acronym, we haven’t — and for good reason. If your north star is an abundant world powered by 100% clean energy for 100% of people, who gets to build that future isn’t a side issue; it’s the strategy. Diverse founders are essential to distributed solutions and to ensuring the clean energy transition’s benefits reach communities equitably. That’s been our working premise at New Energy Nexus, one of the largest non-profit entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in the sector.​

Recently, we turned the lens inward and asked harder questions about our own practice: Who was missing from the ecosystems we support? What barriers were we not seeing? Two conclusions reshaped our approach. First, across every region where we operate, women entrepreneurs remain consistently underrepresented and underpaid in energy — making support for women a global priority. Second, “underrepresentation” beyond gender can’t be defined from headquarters; local teams must lead, country by country, to identify who’s excluded and why.

For founders, funders, and ESOs reading this, the takeaway is practical, not philosophical. Equity isn’t a compliance box; it’s how you unlock pipeline, product-market fit, and durable impact. That’s why we equipped country teams — not a central committee — to diagnose gaps and design responses. We also created a JEDI Council to provide a simple framework and guiding questions that build local capacity and keep equity work disciplined and actionable.

What follows are early lessons from applying that approach — insights from Southeast Asia and East Africa that any ESO or impact investor can adapt to their context. Our aim in sharing them here is straightforward: help peers avoid the generic playbook and instead invest in inclusion as a growth strategy for climate innovation.

Image Courtesy of New Energy Nexus

Why Local Leadership Unlocks Inclusion

To support local teams in making critical decisions — especially those lacking prior expertise — our Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Council developed a set of guiding questions. These questions were designed to help teams:

1. Assess underrepresentation in their local contexts.
2. Build capacity among local staff through intentional, collaborative exploration.
3. Foster clarity and intentional thinking to identify and address inclusion barriers effectively.

This framework surfaced important regional insights:

Regional Diversity

In many Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, clean energy innovation ecosystems remain nascent. Resources and opportunities are often concentrated in major cities. According to the NEX Philippines 2024 Clean Energy Ecosystem Report, there are only 91 startups operating in the clean energy and climate sector, with most (65) clustered in the capital region and a handful in northern Mindanao and Calabarzon.

Even in China, where the ecosystem is more mature, resources are still concentrated in tier-one cities like Shanghai and Beijing. These patterns prompted teams to develop entrepreneurship programs in rural and underserved regions, bridging gaps and supporting local solutions where they are most needed.

Salinee Hurley, founder of the solar energy social enterprise SunSawang; Image Coutesy of New Energy Nexus

Youth as a Priority

Uganda identified youth as a key demographic priority. Over 75% of Uganda’s population is under 30, yet youth unemployment remains high at 13.3%. By empowering young people to start renewable energy businesses, New Energy Nexus Uganda is tackling both employment gaps and energy access.

Tribal and Indigenous Groups

Uganda also prioritized marginalized tribal groups such as the Batwa and Ik communities. Often living in remote areas with limited access to clean energy or entrepreneurial opportunities, these groups face structural exclusion. Supporting sustainable income-generation pathways for them has become a central dimension of inclusion in Uganda’s program.

These early insights underscored that underrepresentation looks different in every geography — and that local leadership is essential to defining and addressing it.

Kuantek community-driven climate solutions; Co-founders Abraham Talluta (CEO), Abdi Nenotek (CTO), and Ben Vasco Tarigan; Image Courtesy of New Energy Nexus

Embedding Inclusion in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

To sustain progress, organizations must embed an equity lens in their Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) practices. At New Energy Nexus, we have begun disaggregating data across key dimensions: representation, access, inclusion, empowerment, and long-term success.

Across every region where we operate, women entrepreneurs remain consistently underrepresented and underpaid in energy.

This data-driven approach ensures that equity work is not episodic but continually shapes decision-making and strategy. By linking inclusion to measurable outcomes, MEL practices become a tool for accountability as well as learning.

Extending Impact Without a Local Footprint

Not all organizations operate with globally dispersed teams. Yet even without direct local presence, impact actors can support excluded communities effectively. Our colleagues on the ground in Indonesia (Rainy Putri), the Philippines (Hilda Carreon), and Uganda (Cyprian Odyek), shared practical strategies that any organization can adopt:

1. Build Local Partnerships — Collaborate with universities, nonprofits, and community groups that bring local expertise. For example, WWF–Philippines connected us with a local government unit in Butuan City, which shared insights on implementing the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act (RA 11285). Our Philippines chapter also partnered with Circular Cities Asia to run workshops and startup competitions with local universities focused on circular economy technologies.
2. Invest in Relationships — Authentic engagement requires more than surveys or reports. Informal conversations — coffee chats, open forums — often surface unfiltered insights. Investing in travel to communities, or hiring local staff, is essential for building trust and designing effective programs.
3. Assemble Diverse Teams — Employing staff with varied cultural and regional backgrounds improves an organization’s ability to identify and understand local challenges. Team members who speak local languages or have community ties can be instrumental in surfacing hidden barriers.
4. Learn from Local Government — Local offices often hold insights and maintain representation for marginalized groups. In Uganda, for example, government representatives work with youth and people with disabilities. Liaising with such offices can help organizations identify key challenges and local leaders who can become program advocates.

Driving Change Together

By thinking beyond a Western lens of diversity, entrepreneur support organizations can drive meaningful, inclusive climate action in the Global South. At New Energy Nexus, locally informed strategies remind us that empowering underrepresented entrepreneurs isn’t just a goal — it’s a pathway to a just and abundant energy transition.