Joining the statements of Francisca, Faustina, Radha and other participants together with the voices of women practioners outside this forum, whatever their focus is (including energy), it is crystal clear the huge distance that separates the DFIs and the local population at the margin of, or even invisible to, the institutions (multilateral, national, local).

Banks and institutions are always pressing for scaling-up successful initiatives and forget to scale-down themselves. An individual successful initiative succeeds due to, among other reasons, the closer presence of institutions/donors/personnel involved in the individual project. So, scale up the individual project presuposes the use of this closer presence of the institutions/donors/personnel.

So, to let women (and all who need) climb the long ladder Faustina mentioned in, the DFIs must not be at the faraway top of the ladder waiting each woman, child and marginalized person climbs it. DFIs must go downstairs to listen to, and learn from, those local voices and knowledge and become more locally effective. Climbing the stairs together. Change the mindset! Scale down (pulverize) the institution without losing its global governance is perfectly possible. It depends much less on money or technical issues than POLITICAL WILL.

On the other hand, pratically speaking, the comfort zone of those who are are upsteirs is a huge barrier. And politically speaking, the biggest barrier is to reduce the DFI rate-of-return mindset when there are other more profitable and easier ways of investing the money. It is a cruel human(male)-made world. Let's change it.

Rodolfo.

Question 3: Actions from DFIs and Examples
What have other organizations including Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) done to address these challenges?

Private sector has a role, but it is important not to constrain to it. Cooperatives are important arrangement institutions that can break the income-concentration, vertical-control, profit-led rationale of standard private companies. Cooperatives led by women "join their voices" and provides economic power in negotiations. A network of cooperatives can provide a room for sharing experiences, tools and solutions.

The community should decide their developmental needs and prioritize them. Organizations must learn to patiently HEAR the people and wear off preconceptions and pre-made responses to the needs of the community or families. There are many examples and lessons of it, like the Honey Bee Network in India: http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/

Example
"Rebecca [a rural farmer from Mpigi, Uganda] received a solar light and she wanted to put the light in the family’s chicken room, knowing from experience that chickens eat better when they can see, and by increasing the hours of light, the chickens eat more, get healthier, and lay more eggs. Rebecca’s husband wanted to put the light in the family room. After a family discussion, Rebecca stood her ground and the light was placed in the chicken room. Indeed the chickens laid more eggs, improving the economics of her farm and providing income that allowed her to buy seeds, and eventually a goat, pigs, and even a cow.

From the simple improvement of a single light, Rebecca built a farm and eventually a school where she teaches children to read, write, and do small plot farming."

This short story shows: the relevance of local knowledge [why in the chicken room?], the relevance of women participation in decision-making [the solution came from her and the following decisions of what to do with the extra earnings] and being courageous and stuborn (for some seemed crazy) [she stood up "against" the husband]. My question is: how many scholars or experts would "advice" to put the light in any place other than the chicken room?

We must HEAR and LEARN a lot with indigenous and local people! (by people I mean all, especially women because energy poverty, besides affecting all, is a serious gender issue)!

https://www.treedom.net/en/blog/post/solar-sister-a-passion-for-energy-a...