Mainstreaming the gender dimension into the development of energy services calls for business models that integrate gender throughout the energy value chain: from government policy and community involvement to the supply of energy products and services by companies, utilities, and energy end users. These business models are anchored on the economic justification for integrating gender issues in the sector in terms of equitable access to markets and capital: 1. Cooperative Framework for Governments on Mainstreaming Gender and Energy
An overall institutional framework is needed with regard to gender and energy, because this issue does not belong to one single ministry and in most countries there is no one who has the specific responsibility to ensure and report progress. The cooperative framework outlined below can be adapted to each country’s requirements and administrative structure. Currently, the efforts of individual ministries are fragmented and fail to deliver results. Strong political will is needed and representatives of several ministries must collaborate in a forum or commission to successfully coordinate and implement initiatives. National energy policies and planning should include specific goals for rural and household energy, and politicians should recognise the importance of gender-sensitive participation processes when formulating energy programs at national, regional and local levels. A variety of stakeholders concerned with energy and development, including women's organisations, should be involved in policy formulation
Energy ministries typically carry out large-scale projects involving supplies of coal, oil and gas, and electricity generation and distribution. Staffed with engineers and civil servants, they deal with major corporate sectors and have no social or gender-based expertise or personnel. Rural energy needs, and supplies of LPG and kerosene for household energy usage, should also be specifically addressed within energy ministries, in coordination with other ministries, development agencies and local communities. Agriculture or environment ministries, or forestry departments often have issues relating to supplies of traditional biofuels are often within their purview. These ministries can address the needs of rural women with regard to supplies of traditional fuels through policies promoting fuel wood plantations and sustainable land management. This can be done in coordination with village-level organisations with incentives to use the land in a sustainable manner. Transparency and accountability are also vital, to ensure that the benefits are shared fairly throughout the community, including among local women. Health ministries can work with energy and environment ministries, and local institutions on community-level rural energy programmes to improve family women’s health, including issues related to energy use such indoor air pollution which affect women and children more than men. Housing ministries have a responsibility for fostering the development of housing standards and solutions that reduce the negative health impact of biofuel use in the homes (ventilation), improve lighting, and improve the energy bill of the poor and their living standards (ceiling isolation), both in rural and urban areas. Finance ministries play a critical role to enable financial incentives that benefit the poor, including micro-financing schemes targeted at poorer women to acquire suitable energy systems of their choice or start their own energy business. These systems enable women to take part in self-fulfilling and economically productive activities. (This section was largely derived from J.Parikh:Mainstreaming Gender in Energy in South Asia, Energia, 2002)
2. Community Participation and Gender Analysis
Community participation is important when selecting a energy solutions, in particular in rural areas where local resources can satisfy most of the people’s energy needs, and in poor urban settings. Gender analysis is needed to better understand the relationship between women's status, the value of women's unpaid labor, the division of labor, intra-household distribution of subsistence resources, access to productive resources and assets, income-earning opportunities and participation in decision-making, and appropriate energy interventions.
Biogas provides appropriate energy solutions for 3 million households in India: Example of the Andarhalli Community Andarhalli is a community of farmers with small landholdings or farm laborers. There is no alternative income source. Women in this region are overloaded with many household and agricultural tasks. Before the biogas program was implemented, women and children spent as much as 20 hours per week per household collecting firewood for cooking. from nearby forest areas .Now 40 households have successfully installed biogas plants. These installations were possible due to the collective engagement of men and women in the community as well as support from government. How the change took place. Government departments, local institutions and NGOs supported collective community efforts. A series of steps led to the achievement of the goal: - Understanding the problem. The government, local institutions, and men and women in the community collectively considered the energy scarcity problem in the area. They determined what the real issues were and identified possible solutions. Then, the community acquired the skills needed to reach a practical solution.
- Selecting a solution. Biogas was selected as an energy source due to the availability of the necessary raw materials.
- Financing and support. The government initiated the process by financing and subsidising the installation of biogas plants, providing trained masonry workers and assuring that the construction of the plants complied with all required technical specifications. They even supported service back-up to assure long-term sustainability of the programme. The government also loaned land to poorer landless families, allowing them to purchase cattle so that they could participate in the program.
Outcomes of the program. The overall socio-economic and environmental situation in Andarhalli has improved due to the successful implementation of the biogas programme. The major outcomes of the programme are: - Energy supply security and diversity.
- Reduced fuel wood and kerosene consumption.
- Better management of dung and organic wastes.
- Agriculture has improved due to the extra labour available (which was earlier used collecting fuel wood and other energy sources) and due to the availability of organic manure.
- Women and children’s health has improved due to reduced exposure to smoke and pollutants and because of more hygienic conditions in the village.
- Improved economic opportunities related to the improvements in agriculture have enhanced people’s power to invest in other income-generating activities. Those who are financially better off have employed many poor people, who lacked employment opportunities, in biogas maintenance.
- Education has been improved as women have had more time and resources to nurture their children and send them to school.
- Better environmental conditions related to the use of biogas include reduced deforestation, preservation of pasture land, reduced indoor pollution, increased use of manure rather than chemical fertilisers, and reduced soil erosion and silt in lakes.
Jyoti Parikh, IGIRD, Mainstreaming Gender in Energy in India, Energia- August 2002
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3. Equitable Access to Energy Labor Markets
Two of critical issues for the equitable economic empowerment of women and men are the valuation of their labor and their time poverty. This is a particular acute issue in the energy sector. At one end of the spectrum, women in rural areas in particular deploy a greater amount of labor than men both on energy-related activities – fuelwood production, transport, condition and use for cooking and on productive activities to sustain the household – caring (e.g. cooking, water transport), reproductive (child care), and traditional crop production and transport. This labor – like the labor spent on caring and reproductive activities -- is grossly undervalued (even close to nil) both in national statistics and in households as it does not generate easily quantifiable value-added to the economy or cash income to the households. This undervaluation is a serious constraints on households’ decision-making both to adopt modern forms of energy – mechanical energy or fuels that would increase women’s productivity in their energy-related and other activities.(Gender Relations and the Rural Energy Transition in Rural Asia, G. Kelkar, UNIFEM) There is also some evidence that when mechanical energy is introduced – e.g. grinders – those tasks are transferred to men who then through these tasks join the formal labor market, and women stay behind in the ‘unpaid’ labor market (Electricity Options for the Poor, State of Madya Pradesh-India, CIDA, Document 430-01). At the other end of the spectrum, fewer women than men have equal access to the formal labor market in the energy field, and when they do, there is continued prevalence of wage and salary discrepancies. Understanding gender equality in energy labor markets is critical both on equity and economic efficiency grounds. Providing equal opportunities enables growth. Gender Distribution in the Oil and Gas Sector in Pakistan and China In January 1997, 669 women were employed in Pakistan’s oil and gas sector out of a total workforce of 33,380. In 199, women made up 2% of the Pakistani petroleum workforce, which represented an increase of 419 women (or 1.3%) from 1994. Higher proportions of these women worked in oil marketing companies and in office-based jobs, as compared with transmission and distribution and exploration and production companies. About 30% of women working in Pakistan’s petroleum industry were professionals. Most of these professional women specialized in human resources, medicine, teaching and financial areas. The number of women with technical specializations is however increasing, as more female students choose petroleum-related fields of study. For example, of the 24 interns who were placed in oil and gas companies in the summer of 1998, nine were in mechanical engineering, seven were in administrative sciences, three were in geophysics, two in computer science, one in electrical engineering, one in economics, and one in Pakistan studies. Overall, 62% of the female interns in the industry were in technical areas. With about 2.1 million employees, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) accounted for at least 90% of employment in China’s petroleum industry in 1999. Women (540,000) made up 25% of CNPC’s labour force. Significant numbers of the women working within CNPC were employed in professional positions. Almost 30% of female employees were Department Directors within CNPC and about 26% of CNPC engineers were women. However, women were still under-represented in the highest management and professional positions. Women made up only 13% of senior engineers, and only 3% of top managers were women.
SOURCE: Gender Equity in the Oil and Gas Sector, CIDA, May 1999. |
4. Equitable access to land and other energy assets
In many developing countries women have no land tenure rights. While they are the main suppliers of wood energy, they have, as a result, little or not opportunities to develop sustainable fuel-wood plantations. Another example is in poor urban areas, women-headed households which are often more numerous, are unable to access water or electricity services. One of the key reasons is that Utilities require formal employment references or a billing address, and women tend to be more active in the informal sector and often cannot register their house in their name – because housing registration is denied to women. Ensuring that women have equal tenure rights to land and other energy assets is critical to developing equitable access to energy services. Gender Equity In Ahmedabad Slums Successful networking between the Ahmedabad Municipal Coporation (AMC), and two NGOs, SAATH and the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, which enabled the provision of 11,000 slum households with indivual water supply, toilets and sewage connections, inspired a similar networking approach in the Parivartan Slum. Networking between the AMC, the NGOs and the Ahmedabad Electricity Company (AEC) provided tenement security to the residents from the municipality, loan for one-time connections by the NGOs, which in turn, enabled the AEC to provide legal electricity connections to 800 households. Prior to the Networking Project, average losses to the ARC of 27% were reduced to 4% after legalization, average daily consumption of electricity increased by 200% at affordable rates. With the support of the community, the connections were issued in women’s names, thereby ending the discrimination between female and men headed households. Presentation by Ahmedabad Team, Peri-Urban Electrification Workshop, Salvador do Bahia, Brazil, September 2005 |
SEE ALSO: Participatory Exclusion, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework. (PDF 176KB)
5. Equitable Access to Financial Assets and Credit
Micro finance can be a powerful instrument for poverty reduction that enables the poor to build assets, increase incomes, and reduce their vulnerability to economic stress. Access to credit is critical to scale-up access to energy services, both to energy suppliers, in particular those interested in starting or growing their businesses, and to energy users, in particular those striving to switch to modern fuels. For example, micro-credit is an effective way to enable household users to acquire the first LPG bottle or a connection to the electricity grid. In many countries, gender disparities are common in accessing commercial credit, in particular where women do not have titles to assets requested as collateral. By contrast, micro-credit has flourished amongst informal women associations. Ensuring gender-equity in credit policies will leverage the creation of additional energy enterprises and will facilitate the energy consumers to acquire energy appliances and services to increase their productivity and welfare.
Micro-Finance Empowers Woman Farmer in Brazil Dona Maria, in the small municipality of Nobres, in Mato Grosso quickly recognized the benefits of renewable energy for enhancing her productive capacity as when she decided to participate in the Regional Market Manager (RMM) model in 1999. The RMM, promoted by the Ministry of Mines and Energy program, PRODEEM, and BRASUS, and NGO, emphasizes local capacity building, decision-making, and implementation by a unified group of local private institutions. Borrowing R$ 700 (RS1=$1 at the time) in 1999 from the PROCERA program (rural producers), originally intended for 5 cows, Dona Maria purchased 2 PV panel system (70 Wp x 2) with 2 batteries for water pumping for irrigation of watermelon and melon, and invested another R$60 for fertilizer and seeds. She earned R$13.500 from ~4.500 watermelons sold at R$3,00 each within 3 months and paid back her loan. In 2000, she borrowed R$2.700 from Ajiota (lender which charges 10%/month in interest), to purchase an additional 8 PV panels (70Wp) and 2 batteries for irrigation . The loan included costs for hoses, seeds (2 sacks of corn seed for R$120; 3 bags of fertilizer for R$180; watermelon seeds for R$15) and a machine for planting the seeds. She earned R$8,000 per hectare of corn, and from R$9450 to R$15,570 from watermelons, and repaid her loan. Her next project was to purchase using cash from her savings an electric fencing at R$2,750 for pigs, goats and sheep. Dona Maria built a new house based on proceeds from the initial irrigation crops, vastly improving her living conditions with a larger concrete and ceramic structure, tiled floors replacing mud floors in her previous home (built of wood and cardboard), energy and an a greatly improved kitchen as well as indoor bathroom facility. This new house is supplied with electricity for water pumping, lighting, refrigeration, TV, stereo, shower and a simple washing machine from a PV system. Dona Maria is planning to build a “pousada” or simple bed and breakfast for tourists on her property, near her house.Dona Maria is a well-known community leader, a pro-active participant in all training courses made available to her, and a convincing spokesperson on renewable energy benefits for rural producers.
S. Maia, Brasus, 2006 |
Energy 101: A Primer for the “Workshop on Consumer Lending and Microfinance to Expand Access to Energy Services” (May 19, 2004)
This document is intended to provide non-energy practitioners with a general introduction to issues associated with the provision of modern energy services for poverty alleviation.
6. Equitable Access to Product and Services Markets
Increasing opportunities for women to earn income may be the best way to reduce reliance on fuel wood collected using women’s unpaid labor. With proper training and opportunities, women can be effective energy entrepreneurs and compete in energy markets for the provision of products and services. Ensuring gender equality to provide access to information, ICT, training (formal and informal), and to join professional associations, is essential for both women and men to become more engaged in energy product and service markets. Having more women entrepreneur undertaken gender-sensitive market analysis will also lead to a great adaptation of market services and products to the full spectrum of energy needs by both women and men. Women Energy Entrepreneurs in Char Montaz, Bangladesh An ESMAP-financed project piloted a community-driven, decentralized rural electricity delivery service, operated as a micro enterprise that is cooperatively owned by women. The objective of the project was to: increase opportunities for women in commercial energy sector, improve the quality of life in remote, marginalized areas by creating employment and income opportunities through technology transfer and electrification; provide an expandable, replicable business model for off-grid service delivery. A Costal electrification and Women's Development Microenterprise (CEWDM) was established with 35 rural women trained in energy technology. The following activities were undertaken: Assembly and Sale of DC lamps and controlloers, Operation of BCSs, Operation of a microgrid for rural market electrification, and planning for future solar home system services to dispersed households. The project developed different training modules to serve the women's needs. The project has demonstrated not only that the private sector can make a significant contribution to rural electrification in Bangladesh, but also that such efforts can be operated by rural women and provide good service at an affordable price. The project has empowered the CEWDM members as evidenced by their increased income and knowledge, use of modern technology and business management practices, change in traditional roles, enhanced decision-making authority in their households and community and performance in production, marketing, sales. The shift in traditional gender roles has given the women greater confidence and improved their status in the community. The women's average daily incomes have increased by about US2dollars. Source: http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/esmap/site.nsf/files/055-04+Final+for+web.pdf/$FILE/055-04+Final+for+web.pdf |
Energy Access also Results in Better Economy. Access to lighting, television, and refrigeration is seen to have a positive impact on women’s education and health. In turn, better educated women have improved employment opportunities, generating higher incomes for the families. Better educated women are also better able to profit from new forms of technology, see the benefits of schooling their children, thereby improving the welfare of the next generation.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia Projects According to at least 86 percent of the rural doctors interviewed under the Sri Lanka study, connection to electricity at rural health centers improved the quality of health center services, particularly the quality of medical treatment, and made possible the use of their facilities in the evenings. High proportions of children in Indonesia devote the additional time made available to them by household electrification to reading either in the morning or more in the evening. More than a third of the electrified households covered by the Indonesia survey stated that children use the additional time for homework in the evening.
Source: http://www.worldbank.org/astae/enpogen/index.htm |
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