Submitted by Karen Stefiszyn on Thu, 10/11/2016 - 02:31 Permalink
From the Moderator:
Voir ci dessous pour ce message en français.
Thank you to those who have contributed so far to the discussion on gender inequality in the production and distribution of energy.
There is consensus that women have an important role to play in the production and distribution of energy in Africa. Dosse Sossouga, Anteneh Dagnachew, Kimbowa Richard and others have raised women’s catalyzing role as consumers and entrepreneurs; as well as the fact that women have much to offer and can assume any role in the sector, including those that are traditionally reserved for men. Rodolfo Gomes insists that women should also be included in the decision making processes relating to energy technologies and planning. Space needs to be created for women at all levels of the value chain, including technical roles. More should be done to target women for male-dominated roles and build women's technical skills to enter into the field through, for example, incentives and stipends for study in the engineering field.
To strengthen women's role in energy distribution, specially in relation to cookstoves Radha Muthiah, from the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, shared the Alliance's experience using the agency-based empowerment training model. The evidence that she provided regarding the successful outcomes of the model is encouraging. She notes that women's entrepreneurial capacity to sell cookstoves significantly improved following training.
A number of challenges to women's engagement in the production and distribution of energy were highlighted including: lack of control over assets and resources, limited free time because of the multiple roles women play in society, discrimination against women based on cultural gender norms, limited education and/or technical business knowledge, undervalued and under compensated labour, lack of self confidence, low representation in decision-making, and barriers to financing.
Towards addressing these challenges, Margaret Matinga says that there is a need to change attitudes about women 's roles and the work place environment, as well as building capacity and making financing available. She notes that the inclusion of women in energy production and distribution needs to move beyond selling ready-made solar lanterns or micro-scale solar PV and micro-grids. Importantly, she raises the business case for women's participation in the sector noting that according to research, gender diversity results in positive financial outcomes for companies.
Some suggestions were provided towards increasing the evidence base on the impact of women's successful engagement in the production and distribution of energy. Erika Auer recommends that baseline assessments during project design are undertaken and that appropriate monitoring indicators and targets are included in the design. She also speaks to the need to document consultations with women during project design. Radha noted the importance of measuring social impact and referred to existing tools from the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves to facilitate social impact measurement. She encourages organizations in the household energy sector to download and use the social impact measurement system, available here, in order to capture and share evidence.
Regarding the third question I posed for this discussion, there have been few inputs as yet. What have other organisations including Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) done to address the challenges of women's engagement in the energy sector? Dosse Sossouga noted the importance in working with the private sector to address these challenges. Responses to this question are very welcome and encouraged, particularly from those members representing DFIs.
There is one week remaining for this discussion and I would love to hear from the wealth of voices on this platform. A contribution need not be lengthy should you have time constraints - even sharing links to resources are most welcome or succinctly stated stories or examples from within your sphere of work in this field are valuable.
Cordially,
Karen Stefiszyn| Gender and Energy Advisor
Power Africa Transactions and Reforms Program (PATRP)
Français
Merci à tous ceux qui ont déjà partagé leurs réflexions sur l'inégalité entre les sexes dans la production et la distribution de l'énergie.
Les femmes ont un rôle important à jouer dans la production et la distribution de l'énergie en Afrique. Dosse Sossouga, Anteneh Dagnachew, Kimbowa Richard et d'autres ont soulevé le rôle catalyseur des femmes en tant que consommateurs et entrepreneurs dans ce secteur. Ils ont aussi remarqué que les femmes ont beaucoup à offrir et peuvent assumer n'importe quel rôle dans le secteur, y compris ceux qui sont traditionnellement réservés aux hommes. Rodolfo Gomes souligne que les femmes doivent également être incluses dans les processus décisionnels relatifs aux technologies et à la planification énergétique. L'espace doit être créé pour les femmes à tous les niveaux de la chaîne de valeur, y compris les rôles techniques. Il faudrait faire davantage pour cibler les femmes pour les rôles à prédominance masculine et renforcer les compétences techniques des femmes afin de faciliter leur entrée sur le terrain, par exemple par des incitations et des bourses d'études dans le domaine de l'ingénierie.
Afin de renforcer le rôle des femmes dans la distribution de l'énergie, en particulier en ce qui concerne les cuisinières, Radha Muthiah, de l'Alliance mondiale pour les cuisinières meilleures, a partagé l'expérience de l'Alliance en utilisant le modèle de formation à l'autonomisation. Les preuves qu'elle a donné concernant les résultats positifs de ce modèle sont encourageantes. Elle note que la capacité entrepreneuriale des femmes à vendre des cuisinières a été considérablement améliorée par la formation.
Plusieurs défis ont été repérés sur l'engagement des femmes dans la production et la distribution de l’énergie en Afrique : manque de contrôle de leurs biens et ressources, manque de temps en raison des multiples rôles joués par les femmes dans la société, discrimination à l'égard des femmes, et / ou connaissances techniques sous-évaluées et sous-rémunérées, manque de confiance en soi, faible représentation dans la prise de décision et obstacles au financement. Pour relever ces défis, Margaret Matinga affirme qu'il faut changer les attitudes à l 'égard des rôles des femmes et de l’environnement dans les lieux de travail. Il faut aussi renforcer les capacités et rendre le financement disponible. Elle note que l'inclusion des femmes dans la production et la distribution d'énergie doit aller au-delà de la vente de lampes solaires, micro PV solaires et micro-réseaux électriques. Elle soulève l'analyse de rentabilisation de la participation des femmes dans le secteur, notant que selon les études, la diversité des sexes se traduit par des résultats financiers positifs pour les entreprises.
Certaines suggestions ont été formulées en vue d'accroître la base factuelle sur l'impact de la participation des femmes à la production et à la distribution d'énergie. Erika Auer recommande que des évaluations de la ligne de base pendant la conception du projet soient entreprises et que des indicateurs et des cibles de suivi appropriés soient inclus dans la conception. Elle parle également de la nécessité de documenter les consultations avec les femmes pendant la conception du projet. Radha a souligné l'importance de mesurer l'impact social et a fait référence aux outils existants de l'Alliance mondiale pour les cuisinières propres pour faciliter la mesure de l'impact social. Elle encourage les organismes du secteur de l'énergie des ménages à télécharger et à utiliser le système de mesure de l'impact social, disponible ici, afin de recueillir et de partager les données probantes.
En ce qui concerne la troisième question que j'ai posée pour cette discussion, il y a encore peu de réponses. Que font d'autres organisations, y compris les institutions de financement du développement (IFD), pour relever les défis de l'engagement des femmes dans le secteur de l’énergie ? Dosse Sossouga a souligné l'importance de travailler avec le secteur privé pour relever ces défis. Des réponses à cette question sont encouragées.
Il nous reste une semaine pour cette discussion et j'aimerais lire les opinions des autres voix présentes sur cette plate-forme. Votre réponse ne doit pas être longue si vous avez des contraintes de temps - même un partage de liens web vers les ressources sont bienvenus ou des partages d’exemples dans ce secteur sont précieux.
Cordialement,
Karen Stefiszyn| Conseillère Genre et Energie
Power Africa Transactions and Reforms Program (PATRP)
From the Moderator (Phase 2):
Submitted by Karen Stefiszyn on Sun, 20/11/2016 - 14:52 Permalink
From the Moderator (Phase 2):
Phase 2 of Light Up and Power Africa for Women and Men has now concluded.
Thanks to Dosse Sossouga, Erika Auer, Radha Muthiah, Anteneh Dagnachew, Kimbowa Richard, Margaret Matinga, Rodolfo Gomes , Mme Gueye, Lizzy Igbine, Francisca Ansah, Faustina Boakye, Milika Chande, Ana Rojas, Soma Dutta, and Aimtonga Makawia for their contributions and responses to the discussion questions.
The input was extremely informative and there is much to take away from this most recent sharing of information. Aimtonga Makawia noted that across professions and roles, women can play an important role in the production and distribution of energy. For example, women in policy making positions (parliamentarians, ministers etc.) can help to ensure national policies are conducive for women to take part in the energy sector. It has been established that women have a role to play in the production and distribution of energy although there are unique challenges faced by women in the sector, which I summarized in my earlier post. Contributors to the discussion offered solutions to the challenges identified including changing attitudes about women’s roles in society, changing the workplace environment, building women’s capacity, and making financing more easily accessible.
Concerning interventions from the AfDB and other DFI’s, Rodolfo Gomes noted the importance of respecting local knowledge and listening and understanding the needs of beneficiaries. He illustrated this point through the example of Rebecca, a rural farmer in Uganda whose insistence to place a single solar light in her chicken room instead of inside the home, enabled her to enjoy greater economic returns due to increased egg production by the chickens. Francisca Ansah, agreed that local voices, especially women’s voices, must be considered in energy planning. Rodolfo also highlighted the distance that exists between the DFIs and the local population and recommends a closer institutional presence in project implementation. According to him, cooperatives also have an important role to play, particularly those that are women-led in alleviating some of the existing challenges for women. Milika Chande raised the importance of women’s equal involvement in the management of community energy programs.
Ana Rojas offered two examples of initiatives by climate funds to strengthen women’s engagement in climate change mitigation and renewable energy projects. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) requests its implementing entities to have, or work towards the development and implementation of, a gender policy as one of the requisites for accessing the fund. The Climate Investment Funds (CIF), in their second finance round, have called for countries putting forward their investment plans to address gender considerations in their plans and facilitated connections with gender experts within the regional development banks to support the process. Ana suggests that the AfDB borrow from those experiences.
Soma Dutta shared experience from ENERGIA towards addressing the challenges of financing for female entrepreneurs and women’s general lack of confidence with respect to business. She referred to some successful interventions of ENERGIA’s ‘Scaling up Energy Access through Women’s Economic Empowerment’ program in Africa including for example, equipment financing through loan guarantee funds and pay-as-you-go systems and working with village savings and loan associations that can provide loans to its members and aggregate financial resources to the purchase off-grid products in bulk and sell. ENERGIA has also been working with partners to provide training that builds women’s confidence and leadership in general as well as providing one to one ‘mentorship’ support to women entrepreneurs.
This summary provides only highlights from the contributions to this discussion. I encourage you to read through all the comments if you have not done so as there is a wealth of insight that has been provided.
I commend the AfDB for establishing the platform and initiating the discussion and I look forward to following the third and final phase.