News
Gender in Transition to Energy for All
In cooperation with nine research teams, ENERGIA released a new research program called Gender and Energy Research Program, which aims to generate and analyze empirical evidence and the related benefits that a gender approach has for energy access. In a second step, the empirical evidence will be transformed into energy policy recommendations and into practice.
The interlinkages between SDG5 (gender equality) and SDG7 (affordable and clean energy) demonstrate that in order to achieve these goals, the involvement of women is critical. Women are key players because of their inevitable role in managing households, natural resources and in educating future generations. Social and economic development requires a gender balanced approach. That is why the five-year research programme established the following thematic areas to respond to this objective:
- Electrification
- Productive uses of energy
- Energy sector reform
- Role of the private sector in scaling up energy access
- Political economy of energy sector policies and women’s energy entrepreneurship
ENRGIA published a synthesis report titled “Gender in the Transition to Sustainable Energy for All: From Evidence to Inclusive Policies”, which touches upon the different energy needs of men and women and emphasizes how both genders can benefit from and contribute to the energy transition. Six key messages were developed by the synthesis report to improve gender- sensitive practices in the energy sector:
- Increase women’s and men’s engagement in designing, implementing, and monitoring the evaluation of energy policies and programmes;
- Allow for the involvement of women in energy-system value chains and employment (by overcoming gender barriers and provided equal opportunity strategies);
- Provide increased access to and use of energy services, improve the reliability, convenience and quality of energy supply;
- Increase the ability of women to access energy services through enabling frameworks and innovative financial mechanisms
- Capitalize on the social and economic impacts of energy access by targeting women’s productive uses and social infrastructure;
- Support women’s role in energy decision-making at household, organizational, and policy levels (see ENERGIA).
The report also indicates that in order to advance universal access to sustainable modern energy, the context is what matters the most. Therefore, the national and local conditions have a substantial role in shaping the strategies and local interventions.
The full publication can be downloaded from here: https://www.energia.org/cm2/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Gender-in-the-transition-to-sustainable-energy-for-all_-From-evidence-to-inclusive-policies_FINAL.pdf
