Submitted by Sheila Oparaocha on Tue, 18/10/2016 - 12:38 Permalink
Many thanks to the participants who have replied to the online discussion on Light Up and Power Africa for Women and Men: Gender Inequality and Access to Energy!
At this juncture I’d like to summarize the main points covered so far, in response to our three key questions.
1) What does energy poverty mean for the welfare, income-generation, and empowerment of women and girls in Africa?
Several participants have described the effects of energy poverty on women and girls in Africa. Margaret Kilo speaks to the issues of safety, food security, time poverty, fertility, and education in her neighborhood in Monrovia. In a separate forum topic, we learned that girls spend 40% more time on chores than boys. Gareth Phillips cites the role of energy access in the ability of households to withstand shocks, demonstrate resilience, and adapt to climate change. Adaptation finance could be justified based on the positive benefits of affordable supply of electricity for freeing up women’s and children’s time for income generating opportunities, safer food preparation and storage, studying & attending school, and possibly substituting for biomass cooking with its time and health burdens. Faustina Boakye points to the existing gender inequality that tilts the responsibility for energy provision to women. Lovette Merchange-Topoh draws our attention to women’s role in food provision and vividly describes the threat of violence present without street lighting for security and safety. Finally, Patrice Horugavye and Dosse-Sossouga do not want us to forget the negative burden of cooking energy collection and use, especially on women and girls in rural areas but also on the environment.
2) How can these realities be integrated into the Bank’s interventions and projects to improve energy security within the Light Up and Power initiative? What can Development Finance institutions do to ensure Light and Power to support the prosperity of African women and girls?
A number of proposals are put forward by the participants. Several insist on the important role of other actors, not only the Bank. Margaret notes the role of government policy in ensuring that utilities reach the poorest, not only through subsidies but also by developing local renewable energy and making energy more affordable. And Faustina shows that it is important to include both male and female genders in finding solutions to energy poverty. Patrice points out that African utilities will need substantial reforms and huge financial support, which will take time and develop partnerships between IPP and public sector. The Bank usefully encourages this.
Appropriate financing solutions for the poor are a top priority, and climate finance can be an opportunity. Dosse also emphasizes the need for AfDB to participate in partnerships, and focuses in on the need to encourage women and girls in careers in the energy field and provide training.
Gareth informs that the AfDB has proposed creation of an Adaptation Benefit Mechanism (ABM) as a financing instrument under the Paris Agreement, as a formal or voluntary mechanism to encourage private sector engagement in adaptation. This could be a way to finance household electricity connections if they can be defined as part of adaptation (see Q1).
Being able to measure verified adaption benefit units in different ways could mean the possibility of including a variety of energy access, clean cooking, mini-grids, etc.
3) How have other organizations tackled this challenge? What can we learn from these experiences?
Elizabeth Cecelski has provided some examples that ENERGIA has collected and often supported, of gender challenges in energy access that electricity utilities have sought to address in their operations. These include marketing strategies and products to target women users, equal opportunity policy and affirmative action, gender-disaggregated data, improving policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks, strengthening partnerships with microfinance institutions to improve energy access by women’s businesses, and working with private contractors to identify employment opportunities in the electricity sector.
Gareth believes that energy poverty has not successfully been tackled through CDM mitigation finance, and that adaptation can be a much more powerful lever to attract climate finance, learning from the successes and failures of CDM. The AfDB is moving forward with establishing modalities and procedures and is currently seeking an off-taker (donor, CSR buyer or impact investor) willing to sign the first Adaptation Benefit Off-take Agreement to demonstrate that this new financial mechanism can work.
Dosse cites experiences in Asian and Australian companies, where women produce renewable energy: solar cookers, improved stoves, solar photovoltaic panels. He believes a similar approach could be used in Africa, and could also help transform women’s livelihoods and gender inequality.
I thank all those who contributed for their insights and excellent points. These are excellent lessons and ideas on how to move forward. I’ d appreciate if we could share and examine more experiences from other organizations. Can others come in to the discussion and react to the above?
I also want us to delve further on question 2 about how the Bank can integrate these realities into its work. Could colleagues share information on concrete strategies that could be pursued in the Light Up and Power Initiative? Are there existing or ongoing AfDB projects with good strategies that can be replicated?
Finally, how can we ensure that women and girls actually benefit from electrification or ABM, is this automatic? How can we ensure that the Bank and other organizations address women’s priority need for cooking energy?
Sheila
[Facilitator’s Note: Please
Submitted by Sheila Oparaocha on Tue, 01/11/2016 - 13:55 Permalink
[Facilitator’s Note: Please find below a message from Sheila Oparaocha of ENERGIA on the first phase of the online discussion on Gender inequality in the Energy Sector. Many thanks to Margaret Kilo, Gareth Phillips, Faustina Boakye, Elizabeth Cecelski, Lovette Merchant Topoh, Patrice Horugavye, Amitav Rath, Dosse Sossouga, Genevieve Macfarlane Smith, and Alvin Munyasia for their comments. Sheila Oparaocha, our facilitator for Phase 1 provides below a summary of the comments This online discussion is organized by the Gender in Practice Community of Practice in partnership with ENERGIA, Power Africa and various private sector organizations. I invite you to engage in this discussion and share your views and ideas on this topic by registering on the GiP-CoP platform or submitting your responses by email to genderinpractice@afdb.org. All contributions will be posted on the GiP CoP discussion forum.]
Closing Message: Phase 1 - Online Discussion: Light Up and Power Africa for Women and Men - Gender Inequality in Access to Energy
As we prepare to launch Phase 2 of this discussion which will address gender inequality in the production and distribution of energy, I take this opportunity to thank all the participants who have engaged in Phase 1 of the online discussion on Light Up and Power Africa for Women and Men: Gender Inequality and Access to Energy! Adding to the previous summary (copied below), I would like to add a brief reflection:
• Evidence is overwhelming that energy poverty has severe negative implications for the welfare, income-generation, and empowerment of women and girls in Africa, and conversely, that alleviating energy poverty can have wide-ranging benefits for gender equality and development;
• We should not forget that cooking energy access disproportionately impacts women and girls’ time and labour – AfDB needs to address not only electricity access but also cooking energy;
• Africa already has progressive women’s rights policy mandates and instruments. What is needed now are concrete actions, strategies and programmes that can translate policy into reality for women in the energy sector. As Genevieve Macfarlane Smith noted, recommendations on promoting gender equality can be translated into the energy sector;
• Many solutions and experiences exist on promoting gender equality in the energy sector, that can be drawn on by the AfDB. These include:
o Building government and utility capacity on gender and energy policies and programs as part of sector reform
o Gender-disaggregated data collection for planning and M&E
o Improving policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks on gender and energy
o Including both male and female genders in finding solutions to energy poverty
o Operational actions for gender mainstreaming and Gender Action Plans in electric utilities
o Appropriate financing solutions for the poor and women
o Participating in partnerships with private contractors and private sector as well as other actors
o Encouraging women and girls in careers in the energy field and providing training
o Climate finance can be an opportunity. AfDB has proposed an Adaptation Benefit Mechanism (ABM) to finance household electricity connections as a part of adaptation, that could include a variety of energy access if it could demonstrate verified adaptation benefit units
• All of these solutions aiming to attract development finance will require agreement on key indicators for benefits on women’s and girls’ welfare, income-generation, and empowerment, and their verification through sex-disaggregated data. Discussion participants suggested that indicators such as:
o Time savings – how can these be monetized e.g. one hour is worth one dollar?
o DALYs the WHO metric for burden of disease, can measure health improvements?
o Empowerment of women measured through control over household income, participation in income activities, decision making about investment in own businesses, and political participation?
Finally, I strongly encourage participants to continue to engage and provide their valuable input to the final two phases of this exciting discussion!
Sheila