Gender Energy Report

Gender equality, women's rights and
access to energy services

An inspiration paper in the run-up to Rio+20

By Katrine Danielsen

!"#"$%&' )* +)&,"-# .**/"&$ )* 0,#1/&2

Photo: Jorgen Schytte,Danida
a
lebruary 2012 ii

Katrine Danielsen is Senior Adisor Social Deelopment and Gender Lquity at the Royal
1ropical Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

1he iews expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility o the author and do not
necessarily relect the iews o the Danish Ministry o loreign Aairs o Denmark
Gender equality, womens rights and access to energy services iii

Table of contents

1. BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 1
1.1. ENSURING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ENERGY FOR ALL .................................................. 1
1.2 ENERGY POVERTY HAS A GENDERED FACE ............................................................... 1
1.3 SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 2
1.4 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF PAPER .................................................................... 3
2. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: GENDER AND RIGHTS ....................................... 4
2.1 RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT........................................................ 4
2.2 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................. 5
2.3 GENDER ANALYSIS OF RIGHTS ............................................................................ 6
2.4 A GENDER AND RIGHTS FRAMEWORK FOR ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE .......................... 6
3. THE GENDER DIMENSIONS OF ENERGY ACCESS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY . 8
3.1 FOUR DECADES OF GENDER AND ENERGY IN DEVELOPMENT .......................................... 8
3.2 PERSISTENCY OF MULTIPLE RIGHTS FAILURES IN THE ENERGY SYSTEM ............................ 10
3.3 THE CONTRIBUTION OF MODERN ENERGY TO GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMENS RIGHTS ........ 12
4. GENDER, RIGHTS AND ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE .............................. 15
4.1 ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE .......................................................................... 15
4.2 HOW DOES HOUSEHOLD LEVEL DECISION-MAKING INFLUENCE WOMENS ENERGY RIGHTS? .... 16
4.3 NATIONAL LEVEL ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE ...................................................... 17
4.3.1 Gender-aware policy options ...................................................................... 17
4.3.2. Who is likely to support gender-aware energy policy? ................................... 18
4.4. GLOBAL LEVEL ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE ........................................................ 20
4.5 CHANNELS FOR RIGHTS-CLAIMING IN ENERGY SYSTEM GOVERNANCE ............................. 21
4.6. ENTRY-POINTS AND KEY AREAS FOR GENDER-AWARE ENERGY PROGRAMMING .................. 23
5. FUTURE AREAS OF CONSIDERATION ......................................................... 25
5.1. A GENDER AND RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO ENERGY ACCESS .................................... 25
5.2. BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES TO REALIZE WOMENS ENERGY RIGHTS .......................... 25
5.3. GENDER AND GLOBAL ENERGY GOVERNANCE ......................................................... 26
5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER ANALYSIS ................................................................ 26
6. REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 28
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... 33
ANNEX 1 GLOSSARY ...................................................................................... 34
ANNEX 2: LESSONS LEARNED ON GENDER AND ENERGY IN DEVELOPMENT .. 37
lebruary 2012 i

Executive Summary

1his study aims to increase international attention on the gender equality dimensions o energy
access in the run-up to Rio-20 and contribute to the Sustainable Lnergy or All ,SL4ALL,
initiatie and its goal o ensuring uniersal access to modern energy serices by 2030. It
conceptualizes gender and energy in deelopment rom a gender and rights perspectie and
presents an analysis o energy system goernance at household, national and global leels. 1he
study primarily ocuses on experience emerging rom Sub-Saharan Arica and South Asia, gien
the seerity o energy poerty in those regions.

Energy poverty is gendered
One o the most critical deelopment challenges is to oercome the energy poerty o billions o
people in deeloping countries who ace inadequate and unreliable access to modern energy
serices and rely on biomass or cooking and heating. People depried o such basic energy
serices are less likely to earn a liing, stay healthy and hae time or learning and ulilment.
Lnergy poerty thereore undermines the realization o the Millennium Deelopment Goals.

\omen in most deeloping countries experience energy poerty dierently and more seerely
than men. \ithout access to modern energy serices, women and girls spend most o their day
perorming basic subsistence tasks including time-consuming and physically draining tasks o
collecting biomass uels. Access to energy is gendered: it is determined by intra-household
decision-making, womens social position and the value attached to womens labour. Unequal
gender relations limit womens ability to participate and voice their energy needs in decision-
making at all leels o the energy system.

Access to energy services is a right
Indiidual energy users men and women - are rights-holders who hae a legitimate claim on
the State as the primary duty bearer to protect, promote and uphold their rights to access basic
energy serices. Members o the international community also hae duty bearer responsibilities
in assisting rights-holders in realizing their energy rights.

Still, women and men ace institutional barriers to the realization o rights also reerred to as
rights failures but in dierent ways, mainly because gender inequalities are produced and
reproduced by energy system goernance institutions. Moreoer, rights o women or example
land and property rights - are suppressed because o unequal gender relations and because
women are not gien the priilege o being seen as rights-holders in their own right .

Rights ailures in energy systems concern two interrelated areas: the lack o recognition o
womens energy needs, knowledge and contribution and the unequal distribution o control oer
energy resources and beneits rom energy serices between women and men. 1hese are a result
o the underlying cultural and social norms that shape the roles and relationships between men
and women. Such norms permeate energy system structures and institutions, including its legal
and regulatory rameworks, policies and programmes.

Barriers to realize womens right to access energy services
Womens right to energy fails because there is lack of recognition of the value of womens work
,no economic alue is attached to biomass collection by women,, lack o recognition o the
Gender equality, womens rights and access to energy services

value of womens roles (investing in improved cooking technology is neither prioritized at
household nor at national leels,, and lack o recognition o womens multiple roles (womens
work in agriculture and as entrepreneurs is not suiciently recognized,. More undamentally,
women internalize social norms that place a low alue on their worth and contribution,
negatiely aecting their access to modern energy serices.

Relatedly, women also ace diiculties in beneitting rom energy serices because o inequitable
access to resources. lor example, women lack control oer land and property ,which limits their
ability to beneit equally to men rom energy acilities - such as solar systems, wind turbines, and
bio-uel plantations - that require land,, women lack income ,which is a barrier or inesting in
technology that improves the productivity of womens labour), women lack access to credit
,which limits their ability to pay the up-ront costs o improed energy technology or connection
ees to the electricity grid,, and women hae limited access to extension serice and education
,which limits their abilities to become energy entrepreneurs and earn an income,.

Energy system governance can address gender inequalities
Lnergy goernance institutions can reinorce or challenge the way in which women and men are
alued and recognized in society. 1he persistency o rights ailures in the energy system
represents goernance malunctions at all leels. In order to address the gendered nature o
energy poerty, energy system goernance, policy and programmes need to address structural
gender inequalities at the leel o institutions.

National leel energy policy-makers hae a number o gender-aware policy options to do so:
i. !"#$%&'$"& !" $"$)*+ !",)-%&)./&.)$ such as decentralized renewable energy technologies - that
directly meets the energy demands o women and makes their labour contribution more
productie,
ii. 0$*-0 -"1 )$*.0-&2)+ )$,2)' such as the creation o market incenties to promote the
distribution of modern fuels that respond to womens energy demands and reform of
laws and regulations that preent women rom owning land, controlling productie assets
or accessing credit acilities, which can proide a basis or shits in social expectations
about roles o men and women,
iii. "-&!2"-0 3.1*$& )$4-002/-&!2" to improe household energy technologies and make them
accessible, such as through innoatie inancing , and
i. !"%&!&.&!2"-0 %&)$"*&5$"!"* or example to support the design o gender-aware management
inormation systems or the energy sector.
Donors and international deelopment organisations can support the implementation o these
policy options that allows or a ocus on good goernance principles and attention to the most
disadantaged and marginalised groups o people whose energy rights are largely ignored. Other
key areas or gender-aware energy programming include proiding technical assistance to
national energy institutions in setting up accountability systems and goernance channels or
rights claiming and supporting increased representation o women in ormal energy institutions,
which in turn can create a positie change o attitudes to women at all leels o the energy
system.

Global energy system governance should realize womens energy rights
International efforts to promote womens energy rights are inadequate. Despite a growing
knowledge base on the linkages between gender, energy and poerty, much o the SL4ALL-
lebruary 2012 i

related debate is gender and rights unaware, thereby replicating multiple gender and rights
ailures.

Major strategic entry-points or gender and rights aware energy goernance at the global leel
exist in the run-up to Rio-20 including the need or gender and rights aware international goals,
targets and indicators on energy access ,or SL4ALL but also or other international initiaties,
and inancing or gender-equitable energy access.

1he establishment o an international monitoring system to assess the progress towards
eliminating energy poerty and realizing uniersal access to energy serices would be a critical
component to improve international accountability to womens energy rights. Lach o these
entry-points require their own strategies for increasing womens participation, voice and
leadership in global energy goernance.

Claiming the right to access energy services needs support
Global, national and local ciil society is a growing orce or change in the energy system. Ciil
society organizations adocate or gender-aware policy and programmes and deelop initiaties
tharaise the awareness about energy rights amongst rights-holders and duty-bearers. 1hey also
claim energy rights on behal o rights-holders.
At international and national leels, there are seeral examples and opportunities or rights
claiming or example:
6& &5$ *023-0 0$#$0 adocating or the recognition o access to energy serices as a human right,
negotiating the explicit inclusion o gender equality in international goals, targets and related
monitoring systems related to SL4ALL, and promoting that international energy lending be
ocused on increased energy access to women through clean decentralized energy sources.
6& &5$ "-&!2"-0 0$#$0 examples include demanding the explicit inclusion o gender equality in
national energy policies, goals, and targets, the establishment o energy sector accountability
mechanisms, and demanding an increase o women in decision-making positions in the energy
sector.
7!*5&%45201$)% can use dierent methods to make energy rights claims such as engagement in
ormal stakeholder processes about global or national energy policy, legal action - or example
based on international legal rights instruments such as CLDA\, engaging with the priate
sector using Corporate Social Responsibility ,CSR, as an entry-point, and media reporting or
campaigning.

Future areas of consideration
1he study concludes by asking three questions or discussion in the run-up to Rio-20:

1. \hat can a gender and rights-based approach to deelopment contribute to national and
international deelopment eorts aimed at alleiating energy poerty, in particular o the
most disenranchised and marginalized groups
2. low can national and international deelopment eorts, including through creating enabling
environments for womens voices and through public-priate partnerships arrangements,
ensure that womens energy rights are realized?
3. low can the international commitment to gender equality in energy access be improed and
what are the strategic entry-points in the run-up to Rio-20
Gender equality, womens rights and access to energy services ii

A number o areas needing more analysis are suggested at the end o the study that would
contribute urther to the understanding o energy system goernance rom a gender and rights
perspectie.

Gender equality, womens rights and access to energy services 1

1. Background and introduction
1.1. Ensuring universal access to energy for all
Lnergy poerty is one o the most critical challenges acing the international community.
\orldwide, approximately 3 billion people rely on biomass or cooking and heating, and about
1.5 billion hae no access to electricity. Up to a billion more hae access only to unreliable
electricity networks ,AGLCC 2010,. Lnergy poerty aects people in all regions o the world.
loweer, the majority o people depried o modern energy serices lie in rural areas in Sub-
Saharan Arica, India and other deeloping Asian countries ,excluding China,. 1he lack o access
to adequate and reliable modern energy has a signiicant negatie impact on economic
deelopment, health, education and gender equality. People with no or limited access to energy
are generally poorer than those with energy access, they are less productie, ace heaier work,
are more exposed to health risks and lack the beneit o modern technologies and
communication ,Picolotti and 1aillant 2010,. 1he biggest challenge lies in proiding energy or
the most disadantaged population groups, those without capital, knowledge and inluence
,Practical Action 2009,. \ithout signiicant political commitment and inestment, energy
poerty is set to deteriorate een urther oer the next 20 years ,OLCD,ILA 2010,.
1

In 2010, the UN Secretary-Generals Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC)
called or commitment and action on two goals: ensuring uniersal access to modern energy
serices and reducing global energy intensity through energy eiciency measures ,AGLCC,
2010,. Subsequently, the Secretary General launched a global initiatie, Sustainable Lnergy or
All ,SL4ALL, and declared 2012 as the International \ear or Sustainable Lnergy or All. 1he
SL4ALL initiatie has three major targets by 2030: i, Lnsuring uniersal access to modern
energy serices, ii, doubling the rate o improement in energy eiciency and iii, doubling the
share o renewable energy in the global energy mix.
2

A Conerence on Sustainable Deelopment ,Rio-20, is scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2012
on the occasion o the 20th anniersary o the 1992 Larth Summit. 1he objectie o the Rio-20
Conerence is to secure renewed political commitment or sustainable deelopment, assessing
the progress made and addressing new and emerging challenges. Lorts towards achieing the
SL4ALL targets are expected to be prominent issues during Rio-20.

Denmark supports the SL4ALL initiatie and considers Rio-20 as a strategic opportunity to
increase the international ocus on gender equality and womens rights. Against this background,
the objectie o the study is to proide an analysis o the gender dimensions o energy access
and eiciency and its potential contribution to gender equality and womens rights.
1.2 Energy poverty has a gendered face
\hile both poor women and poor men suer rom energy poerty, women are
disproportionately aected, as their access to energy resources and beneits is urther curtailed
by unequal power relations ,Kohlin et al 2011,. 1here is eidence rom all oer the deeloping

1
According to projections o the 2010 \orld Lnergy Outlook, energy access problems will persist and een deepen in the
longer term. 1.2 billion people will still lack access to electricity in 2030, 8 o them liing in rural areas. And the number o
people relying on biomass or cooking will rise rom 2. billion in 2010 to 2.8 billion in 2030 ,OLCD,ILA 2010,.
2
http:,,www.sustainableenergyorall.org,about ,accessed on 5 December 2011,.

lebruary 2012 2

world that womens needs, views, and participation have persistently been excluded from energy
policy and practice. Everywhere, mens energy needs and interests are given higher priority than
womens and girls needs and interests (Cecelski 2000, Cecelski 2004, Clancy et al 2003, Cecelski
and CRGGL 2006, Lambrou and Piana, Balmer 200, Practical Action 2010, Kohlin et al 2011,.

\hen women experience energy poerty and their energy needs are not met, the consequences
are seere. As a result o time-consuming and physically draining collection o biomass uels,
women and girls health conditions are poor, their options to earn additional income are
minimal, the opportunities to improe their labour productiity are low, the options or social
and political interaction outside the household are restrained, the chances o beneitting rom
training and extension are limited, and schooling carries high opportunity costs oten making it
inaccessible ,especially or girls,. Moreoer these conditions create further barriers to womens
ability to voice their energy concerns and claim rights, reinforcing womens exclusion and
exacerbating the problems. All other members o the household, including men, are negatiely
aected when women hae limited access to modern energy serices.

1he importance o a ull understanding o the energy speciic needs and responsibilities o
women and men is important, howeer een more important is the understanding o the
broader context o unequal gender relations in which these are played out. Unequal gender
relations shape rights o access to energy serices and consequently also the dierent beneits
women derie rom them. Lxplicitly addressing gender inequality in access to energy serices is a
necessity or SL4ALL to succeed in meeting its goal o ensuring uniersal access to energy
serices by 2030.
1.3 Scope and methodology
1he paper is deeloped as an inspiration paper. It attempts to conceptualize gender and energy
in deelopment rom a gender and rights perspectie. On that basis, it suggests key issues or
urther discussion with a broad range o stakeholders in the run-up to Rio-20.

1he study concentrates on the challenges encountered in making energy access uniersal in
deeloping countries. 1he study takes an energy systems approach, which links the challenges o
energy access, energy security and climate change ,eiciency or example has emerged strongly
because o the climate change challenge,. It also means looking beyond energy supply ,energy
proision, technological innoation and easibility, etc., and ocusing on the demand-side, i.e. on
energy needs and the alues and meaning gien to energy use.

1he paper has a number o limitations. Gender dimensions o energy access ary across social,
cultural, economic, and political contexts. 1he scope o the paper, howeer, allows or
presenting more generalized indings based on a reiew o literature rom the last ten years on
gender and energy in the context o deelopment. 1he most recent literature on access to
modern energy has been considered in order to explore to what extent gender equality concerns
are addressed in the mainstream debate on universal access to energy services. The study also
draws on writing on human rights and access to energy, and energy system goernance. 1hese
are howeer emerging themes and the literature is still deeloping. 1he paper ocuses on
household, national and global leels o energy system goernance. Community, local
goernment and regional leels are equally important but an analysis o all leels is beyond the
scope o the paper. linally, the paper is not a comprehensie global study, but is primarily

ocused on experience emerging rom Sub-Saharan Arica and South Asia, gien the seerity o
energy poerty in those regions.
3

1.4 Structure and content of paper
Section 2 presents the analytical basis or the study by introducing the key principles o right-
based approaches and gender and deelopment thinking. Section 3 explores the main shits in
thinking about gender and energy in deelopment policy and practice with lessons learned on
the realization of womens rights to access energy services. It also highlights the contribution o
modern energy serices to gender equality. Section 4 proposes an outlook on gender-aware
energy programming based on a gender and rights analysis o energy system goernance. 1he
section discusses channels or rights-claiming in the energy system and suggests key areas or
support to a gender and rights approach in energy programming. linally in section 5, our
critical aspects o gender equality and energy are recommended or urther discussion in the run-
up to RIO-20.

Annex 1 proides a glossary with deinitions o important gender, rights, goernance and energy
concepts used in the paper.

Box 1: Some energy definitions

a. 3&"1/&' ,#,&-'4 Lnergy contained in energy carriers such as oil, coal, wood and other biomass.
b. 5#678$, ,#,&-'4 1he energy sold to priate users, e.g. uel-wood, kerosene, electricity.
c. 9$,*8: ,#,&-'4 Lnd-use energy and appropriate equipment proides useul energy, e.g. heat, light, mechanical drie.
d. 5#,&-' $,&;"<,$4 1he beneits that result rom using energy, or instance a cooked meal, illumination, a warm room, a
hot bath, inormation and communication, earning a liing.
e. 5#,&-' /<<,$$4 Access to clean, reliable and aordable energy serices or cooking and heating, lighting,
communications and productie uses.
. 5#,&-' ,**"<",#<'4 ligher energy eiciency can reduce the end-use energy consumed to produce the same leel o
energy serices.
g. =,#,>/?:, ,#,&-'4 Lnergy coming rom naturally replenished resources, i.e. wind power, solar power, hydro-power
and energy rom biogas, biomass or biouels.

Sources: Pachauri and Spreng 2003, AGLCC 2009, and Bast and Krisnaswamy 2011.
lor more deinitions, please reer to the Glossary in Annex 2.

3
1he linkages between gender and energy in other regional contexts hae been documented among others by lAO
,Lambrou and Piana 2006,, and by the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Lnergy ,LNLRGIA 200,.

lebruary 2012 4

2. Analytical framework: Gender and rights

1he study approaches access to energy serices as a right. 1he rationale is three-old: lirstly,
energy access and eiciency hae proound implications or human deelopment. 1he
enjoyment o the right to access energy serices is a prerequisite or realizing other interrelated
human rights such as ood, health, and gender equality. 1he right to access energy cannot be
seen in isolation rom the realization o other basic economic and social rights ,1ully 2006,.
Secondly, access to energy serices is increasingly positioned as a rights concern by the
champions o global energy goernance. 1hus, the UN explicitly employs the terminology o
human rights in the SE4ALL initiative which calls for global commitment to the universal
access to modern energy serices. Thirdly, access to energy so far has not been established
explicitly as a right, which can be seen as a serious gender ailure o international accountability
systems (Goetz 2006). These failures happen when the violations of womens rights or the
neglects o their needs are not considered as accountability problems by the international
community.
4

1his section proides a brie oeriew o key principles o rights-based approaches and gender
and deelopment thinking, and their synergy in a gender and rights analytical ramework
5
.
2.1 Rights-based approaches to development
Rights-based approaches to deelopment emerged in the 1990s in response to the ailure o
deelopment assistance to reduce poerty and inequality. 1here are many interpretations o
rights-based approaches but most share common principles, emphasized in this study, beginning
with the understanding o deelopment as an expansion o human reedoms. 1he three most
signiicant concepts in rights-based approaches are ,Mukhopadhyay and Meer 2008, Boesen and
Martin 2010,:

8.&+ 3$-)$)%: States are widely seen as the primary duty-bearer. loweer, within global debates on
rights-based approaches to deelopment, there is increasing recognition o the related
obligations o non-state actors and members o the international community ,Nyamu-Musembi
and Cornwall 2004, Lyben and lerguson 2004,.

7!*5&% 5201$)%: Indiiduals and groups who are entitled to rights, entitled to claim rights and
entitled to hold duty-bearers accountable.

7!*5&%: 1o hae a right means to hae a legitimate claim on some person, group or organization,
i.e. a duty bearer. 1he duty bearer is under the obligation to ulil the right or to assist the rights-
holder in realizing the right and the associated entitlement or beneit. I the rights o the rights-
holder are not realized, it is reerred to as a rights ailure. Duty-bearers are accountable or rights
ailures ,Moser & Norton 2001,.

4
Gender ailures o the international accountability systems ,related to the international human rights conentions or treaties,
happen because women as a political constituency lack the leerage to demand answers rom powerul duty-bearers. Social
and cultural systems in general do not gie women the priilege o being seen as indiidual rights-holders and oten women
do not see themseles as such because o unequal power relations ,Goetz 2006,.
5
1he conceptual and analytical ramework on gender and rights applied in this study has been deeloped, tested and reined
oer recent years by the Social Deelopment and Gender Lquity Area o the Royal 1ropical Institute ,KI1,.


Rights are not only understood as written in the constitutional and statuary law or as the
normatie ramework proided in the Uniersal Declaration o luman Rights and other
international treaties. Most societies hae dierent leels o co-existing rights regimes
6
and social
institutions that govern peoples lives. Rights defined at one leel may be denied because o
social norms operating at another leel. Lery leel has dierent goernance structures where
decisions about rights and entitlements are made including the determination o which needs
and priorities are gien the status o rights, allocation o resources, and administration o
serices. Lery leel also has goernance channels
through which claims can be raised. Rights-

based approaches to deelopment call attention to strengthening the negotiating power o
disadantaged groups and developing their voice so that they can use these channels and
demand a response rom these structures.

1he key principles o most rights-based approaches are: the promotion and protection o rights,
the accountability o duty-bearers to rights-holders, the participation and empowerment o
rights-holders both as a means to ensure accountability and as an end in itsel, treating people as
entitled citizens who are agents o their own deelopment rather than mere beneiciaries, and
the non-discrimination and attention to ulnerable groups. Many o these principles are similar
to those associated with good goernance ,Mukhopadhyay and Meer 2008,.
2.2 Gender and development
1he social position o people is shaped through social relations o gender, class, age, ethnicity,
location ,rural,urban, etc. Social relations are relations o power that are created by people,
groups o people or social categories are deined and alued in relation to each other based
on social categories, such as gender ,women in relation to men,. Unequal gender relations create
and reproduce systemic differences in womens and mens position in society.

Social institutions proide the structures and rules that produce and reproduce unequal social
relations such as o gender, class, age, ethnicity, location ,rural,urban, and thereore maintain
these dierences and relatie alues gien to dierent groups o people. 1hey are ormal and
inormal structures through which people learn the explicit and implicit social norms that goern
what an indiidual should do or not, depending on his or her social identiy. Lxamples o social
institutions are the state, the market, and the amily.

A gender analysis explores the condition and position o women relatie to men in a gien
context. It highlights inequalities in gender relations within the household and how they
interrelate with power relations at international, state and community leels. A gender analysis is
based on sex-disaggregated inormation and applies analytical concepts such as the gender
division of labour, access to and control over resources, and gender needs and interests.

6
Rights regimes include international human rights law, constitutional and statuary law, religious law, customary law and
liing law. Liing law describes inormal processes and mechanisms o making claims within the household and community
,Moser and Norton 2001,.
People may pursue dierent types o claims through dierent institutional channels such as the political and legal systems,
or through policy, administrative, social or private sector channels. Moser and Norton (2001) refer to channels of
contestation. In this study, these are referred to as governance channels.

lebruary 2012 6

In gender and deelopment literature, gender-aware is a term used to describe programming that
identiies and addresses the dierent gender needs o women and men based on gender analysis.
Gender unaware programming, in contrast, is blind to dierent gender needs and can harm
women by reinforcing mens privilege to the disadvantage of women.
8

2.3 Gender analysis of rights
Rights-based approaches ocus on achieing basic entitlements or all ,such as uniersal access
to modern energy serices,. Gender and deelopment thinking adds to this a ramework or
analysing unequal power relations amongst disadantaged people and between social groups. It
challenges that women are only seen as haing rights through their relationship with men ,as
mother, sister, daughter, or wie, and recognizes women as rights-holders in their own right. A
gender analysis o rights draws attention to how social relations shape access to rights or
women and ocuses on rights ailures, i.e. identiying barriers to realising rights through
goernance structures at dierent leels. A gender and rights analysis highlights the need or
identifying rights failures of recognition and redistribution when examining gendered
dimensions o deelopment challenges:

7$/2*"!&!2" ,-!0.)$% are based on the unequal alue gien to women relatie to men. An example is
the inerior alue attached to womens informal knowledge of natural resources management.
Failures of recognition lead to claims for recognition such as making womens contributions
visible and assigning equal value to womens and mens work in order to transorm unequal
gender relations.

7$1!%&)!3.&!2" ,-!0.)$% on the other hand result in unequal access to and control oer resources.
Redistributie claims can be about the reallocation o resources and power between men and
women with the aim o ensuring gender equitable outcomes ,Mukhopadhyay et al 2010,.
2.4 A gender and rights framework for energy system governance
1he paper has thus arried at a ramework or a gender and rights analysis o access to modern
energy serices in the context o deelopment. 1he key elements o the ramework are:

1, Considering access to modern and eicient ,#,&-' $,&;"<,$ /$ / &"-@%, i.e. a legitimate claim.

2, Changing the outlook o disadantaged and marginalised people and their relations with the
State and the international community rom a position o needy beneiciaries to a position o
&"-@%$7@):6,&$A

3, Looking at the State and the international community as 68%'7?,/&,&$ with obligations to
realize access to energy serices or all.

4, Analysing how gender and other social relations influence the realization of peoples right to
access energy serices. 1hat implies understanding how the $)<"/: B)$"%")# )* >)1,# /#6
1,# aects their day-to-day lies and ability to access energy serices and addressing gendered
rights ailures that result rom these realities.

8
1hree types o gender-aware programming are oten considered. lor more details, please reer to Glossary in Annex 2.

Gender equality, womens rights and access to energy services

5, 1aking into account &"-@%$ )* >)1,# >@"<@ /&, #)% &,<)-#"$,6 or suppressed because
women are perceied as occupying a lower social position than men and may be seen as haing
rights only through their relationship with men ,or example land rights,. Realizing these rights
are oten a precondition or achieing access to modern and eicient energy serices or
women. A gender and rights analysis o access to energy serices thereore employs an ,CB:"<"%
focus on womens rights.

6, locusing attention to key goernance structures and actors at dierent leels o ,#,&-'
$'$%,1 -);,&#/#<, ,i.e. household, local and national goernment and global institutions,.

, Looking at dierent -);,&#/#<, <@/##,:$ *)& 1/2"#- ,#,&-' <:/"1$ ,i.e. both claims o
recognition and redistributive claims) and ways to strengthen the voice of rights-holders to
ensure accountability to gender equality and womens rights in energy systems.

8, Identiying entry-points and key areas or supporting the &,/:"D/%")# )* &"-@%$ %@&)8-@
-,#6,&7/>/&, ,#,&-' B&)-&/11"#-A

lebruary 2012 8

3. The gender dimensions of energy access and energy efficiency

National energy systems hae two main interrelated goernance domains: biomass and modern
energy
9
. 1he biomass domain ,proiding uel-wood, charcoal etc. based on biomass resources
mostly rom natural orests, is requently characterized by pluralistic goernance regimes,
including arious orms o decentralized goernance. 1he major goernment actor is the
Ministry o lorests, Lnironment, Natural Resources Management ,or similar goernment
agency,. 1he modern energy domain ,proiding electricity, bottled gas etc., is based on modern
sources o energy such as oil, coal, natural gas, liquid petroleum gas ,LPG,, but also renewable
energy sources such as wind and bio-uels. 1his domain is characterized by strong centralized
goernance, and the major goernment actor is the Ministry o Lnergy, Power and Industry ,or
similar,. Lnergy serices are proided by a range o dierent priate and public actors in both
energy goernance domains, which oerlap ,both in terms o duty bearers and rights-holders,,
and the space or energy users to inluence the sector and claim rights is dierent rom one
domain to another.

\hile much deelopment eort - including the SL4ALL - ocuses on improing the access to
modern energy serices, there is no doubt that the biomass domain will continue to play an
important role, not at least or women in rural areas and or the urban poor. lrom a gender and
rights perspectie this implies approaching access to energy serices as a right whether it is
deried rom modern or rom biomass energy sources.
3.1 Four decades of gender and energy in development
1he approaches to gender and energy in deelopment policy and practice hae eoled
substantially oer the last orty years. 1his section proides an oeriew o some o the main
shits in thinking about gender and energy and consequent rights ailures and is a useul basis or
identiying urgent policy gaps in the energy goernance system.
10
1he end o the section oers
some evidence about the contribution of modern energy services to gender equality, womens
rights and the achieement o the Millennium Deelopment Goals ,MDGs,.

Seeral studies gie an oeriew o gender and energy in policy research and practice ,Cecelski
2004, Cecelski and CRGGE 2006). They point to attention being given to womens roles in the
energy system starting in the 190s in the context o a perceied enironmental crisis.
Reorestation and household energy projects, in particular improed cooking stoes, were
promoted in the biomass domain to consere the increasingly scarce biomass resources. \omen
were regarded as passie ictims o the crisis and were oerall excluded rom participation in
decision-making, planning and management of interventions. Womens informal knowledge
,using multiple kinds o biomass and tending to ires in eicient ways, was neither recognized
nor considered releant in the design o energy equipment and interentions. More
undamentally, most early household energy interentions did not recognize the inequitable
access to and control oer resources and beneits based on unequal gender relations. lrom a
gender and rights perspective, the interventions failed to realize womens energy rights.

9
1he distinction between a modern and a traditional biomass energy goernance domain is an analytical construct, and is not
likely to relect the ways in which people experience access to energy serices in its totality.
10
1he oeriew presented in section 3.1.1 is a summary o a more detailed account o the history o gender and energy
thinking in the context o deelopment, which is aailable as Annex 2 to this paper.


By the end o the 1980s, studies reealed a complex picture o labour allocation in the rural
economy, and showed that women worked longer hours than men and were largely unpaid,
which made womens (and girls) labour contribution invisible (Clancy et al 2003). At the
household level, it restricted womens bargaining power and decision-making. None o the
energy governance domains, however, were able to incorporate womens inisible and unpaid
labour into its policy and practice ,Cecelski 2004,. Programme responses continued to ocus on
improved stoves and fuels, did not sufficiently support womens need for energy for productive
actiities ,Cecelski and CRGGL 2006, and oerall did not challenge the main barriers to
realizing womens energy rights.

In the modern energy domain, the 190s oil-crisis was the centre of attention and womens
energy needs were entirely inisible. Macro-policies ocused on the commercial energy carriers
such as electricity and petroleum primarily catering to urban or semi-urban populations to the
neglect o rural deelopment in general and rural women in particular ,1ully 2006,. During the
1980s and 1990s, the modern energy domain underwent reorms that paed the way or the
private sector to provide more energy services, and the governments role was to change to that
o a regulator ,Clancy 1999, \amukonya 2002,. Studies or the irst time showed that national
policy decisions regarding energy inestment priorities and energy pricing aected men and
women dierently ,SIDA 1999,. lor example, women would oten require process heat or ood
preparation and income-generation actiities, and they would thereore be better sered through
inestment in eectie distribution networks or LPG rather than in ,or in addition to,
electricity ,LNLRGIA,UNDP 2006,. Lspecially in the 1990s, it became apparent that many
goernments had ailed to deelop suiciently strong legal and regulatory rameworks to
promote access to modern energy through the market, and thereore ailed to ensure energy
rights or disadantaged groups in general and women in particular. Recent literature
demonstrates the negatie consequences o these unregulated reorms: reduced electriication
coerage in rural areas, increased tari leels and the exclusion o the poor rom modern energy
serices ,\amukonya 2002, Batliwalla and Reddy 2003, 1ully 2006,.

As deelopment priorities moed to poerty alleiation in the 1990s, \orld Bank and DID
sponsored research, rom a sustainable lielihoods perspectie, contributed important insights
about the linkages between poerty, energy and gender ,Ramani and leijndermans 2003, Clancy
et al 2003,. 1he research identiied how dierent energy types addressed practical, productie
and strategic needs o women. It was also demonstrated that improed energy access could
increase womens income and standards of living. A main policy message from the research was
that energy programmes should ocus on lielihood opportunities or disadantaged groups to
enhance sel-reliance and improe social conditions. Gender experts, howeer, pointed out the
drawbacks o this approach because gender was treated as a subset o poerty, while dependence
on bio-mass energy is not a unction o poerty alone, but also a unction o unequal gender
relations ,Cecelski and CRGGL 2006,. \ithout complementary actiities addressing the
structural barriers ,such as gender disparity in ownership o productie assets including land and
trees), energy projects would fail to support womens energy rights.

In the 1990s, a trend o orest reorms in many deeloping countries deoled or decentralized
authority oer orest management to lower leels o goernance including districts and
communities. Lidence rom South Asia and Arica showed the negatie outcomes or women
lebruary 2012 10

when their inormal user rights were displaced because o conseratie protection or
priatization o communal lands and the adantageous results or men who largely controlled
the beneits ,Mai et al 2011, Kohlin et al 2011,.

The continued need to extend energy services to people off the grid and a growing attention
to climate change in the 2000s contributed to an increased ocus on renewable energy solutions
,Marston 2011,. Dierent deelopment organisations, such as the lAO, showed that small scale
renewable energy systems could beneit disadantaged groups, especially women ,Lambrou and
Piana 2006,. 1hese systems could proide power or water pumps and grain mills in areas not
coered by the electricity grid and promote productiity and income generating actiities
,Panchauri and Spreng 2003, LNLRGIA 200, Aguilar 2009,. Recent studies rom India,
however, conclude that womens lack of access to and control over land and property act as
barriers or women to realize energy rights through renewable energy projects. Gender disparity
in property rights make women unable to access credit and other inancial serices necessary to
beneit rom the projects and result in women disproportionately bearing the burden o many
renewable energy projects ,IRADe,LNLRGIA 2009, Marston 2011,.

UN lABI1A1 has recently expressed its concern that policies and plans or energy access or
urban slum-dwellers are not being addressed ,UN lABI1A1 2009b,. Additionally, there is a
lack o knowledge on gender, urban poerty and energy access, which is relected in insuicient
attention to the needs o poor urban households in energy policy. Lidence suggests that
women-headed households, in particular, are excluded rom access to modern energy serices
because o insecure tenure, oten as a consequence o gender inequitable legal rights. It remains
a question to what extent poor women in urban areas ,including slums, can realize their energy
rights ,UN-lABI1A1 2009a,.

In 2011, SL4ALL was launched by the UN Secretary General with one o the main goals o
ensuring uniersal access to modern energy serices by 2030. Lort has recently been to
understand what energy access actually means and how it could be measured to inorm energy
policy-makers ,Bazilian et al 2010,. Lidence shows that households use multiple uels and the
choice o uels is inluenced not only by income, but also by aailability, end-use equipment,
security o supply, cultural preerences, conenience and saety concerns ,Pachauri and Spreng
2003, \B 2011,. In other words, as discussed earlier, the choice o uel is a gendered one that is
determined by intra-household decision-making, the status o women as well as the alue
attached to womens labour. Despite a growing knowledge base on linkages between gender,
energy and poerty, much o SL4ALL-related discussion is gender-unaware.
3.2 Persistency of multiple rights failures in the energy system
1able 1 illustrates major energy and deelopment priorities and consequent rights ailures rom
the 190s to date. As these rights ailures hae not been suiciently addressed in energy system
goernance, they continue to persist until today.

Rights failures persist because of i) the lack of recognition of womens energy needs, knowledge
and contribution, and ii, the ailed redistribution o control oer resources and beneits rom
energy serices. 1hey happen as a result o the underlying cultural and social norms that shape
the roles and relationships between men and women. 1hese norms permeate energy system
structures and institutions, including its legal and regulatory rameworks, policies and

programmes. In other words, energy system institutions are gendered. lrom a gender and rights
perspectie, the persistency o rights ailures in the energy system represents goernance
malunctions in general and accountability malunctions in particular at national as well as
international leels.

Institutional change cannot be achieed by targeting indiiduals. In order to address the
gendered nature o energy poerty, these goernance malunctions need to be redressed at the
leel o energy system goernance to contest structural gender inequalities at all leels.

I SL4ALL does not take into account lessons learned about the gendered barriers to energy
access, it is likely that SL4ALL will replicate earlier gender and rights ailures. Section 4 attempts
a gender and rights analysis o energy system goernance.

lebruary 2012 12

Table 1: Persistent rights failures in the energy system

3.3 The contribution of modern energy to gender equality and womens rights
\hat changes in the lies o women when their rights to access modern energy serices are
realized

Seeral recent studies hae explored the contribution o modern energy serices to gender
equality, womens rights and the achievement of the MDGs. These studies show that women
undoubtedly can beneit rom access to adequate and reliable modern energy serices. Some o
the major indings rom recent literature on gender and energy are presented below ,based on
Panjwani 2005, Cecelski and CRGGL 2006, 1ully 2006, Modi et al 200, Practical Action 2010,
Clancy et al 2011, Kohlin et al 2011, UN 2011,.

Rigths
failures
continue
Rights failures emerging over time

1970 1980 1990 2000

*Lack of recognition of unequal gender relations in the energy system.
*Gender inequitable access to and control over resources and benefits from
energy related development interventions.
*Lack of recognition of womens knowledge in energy management.
*Gender inequitable decision-making at all levels in the energy system and the
exclusion of women from energy related decisions that affect their lives.

Poverty
Alleviation

The crisis of
biomass
degradation

The crisis of
womens time

*Lack of recognition of the economic value of womens work
making their labour contribution invisible in the energy system
at all levels.
*Lack of addressing womens total energy needs for
reproductive and productive purposes.

*Gender disparity in ownership of land, trees
and other productive assets required to access
and control energy services.
*Displacement of womens informal user rights
to natural resources.
*Insufficient provision of legal and regulatory
frameworks to promote gender equitable access
to energy through the market.

Climate
change

*Gender inequitable access to
financial services resulting in
unequal access to and benefits
from renewable energy.
ENERGY AND
DEVELOPMENT
FOCUS

Urbanization
*Gender inequitable access to
modern energy in poor urban
areas.

Modern energy services can positively impact womens health (e.g., by reducing smoke
related health hazards rom biomass,, though more research is needed to understand when
such gains are made. 1hey can support the unctioning o health clinics in rural areas which
is crucial to improving womens health rights, in particular sexual and reproductive rights.

1here is eidence that electric lighting in schools, streets and homes can hae a positie
impact on girls schooling. However, no definitive conclusions can be drawn on the impact
of this form of energy interventions on womens literacy skills and reading time. Street
lighting also increases the eeling o personal and community security.

Lxperience shows that women and girls can sae time and eort rom improed cooking
technology or through the proision o mechanical power or water collection, agriculture
and home-industries. However, how this saved time and workload are re-allocated to
beneit women, or income generation or example, depends on the intra-household
decision-making and gender norms and alues, as well as market and income-earning
opportunities.

1he same is true or extension o the working day through lighting rom electriication ,and
other improed energy serices,. It adds lexibility and sometimes income but does not
automatically lead to increased leisure time or women.

It seems that ew women deelop businesses as a direct result o improed lighting or other
modern energy serice. Lntrepreneurial actiities undertaken by women tend to use process
heat whereas attention has mainly been on electricity. \hen income generation actiities are
enhanced, oten rom extending the working day, its oten inormal sector production o
ital but low-remuneratie goods and serices. An exception is energy enterprises operated
by women and womens groups. They often choose energy businesses that provide services
that women in the community need. Still, womens opportunity or ormal employment in
the energy sector is limited, men greatly outnumber women at all leels including
management and decision-making.

Modern energy serices acilitate access to inormation and communication technologies e.g.,
1V and radio, thereby potentially positively impacting womens empowerment and political
engagement, depending on the programming and content.

1raining and other opportunities proided by energy programmes can be linked to an
increase in womens voice. Still, the causality between better lighting and improements in
girls education and women literacy is diicult to ascertain due to other mitigating actors.

Lnergy policies and programming that address intra-household resource allocations and
power relations are more likely to promote gender equality and womens rights (such as
remoing barriers or women to obtain loans or credit,.

1he priate sector can potentially accrue a range o beneits rom gender aware business
practices such as expanded markets, a more dierse and sector-releant workorce and uller
lebruary 2012 14

access to knowledge o the market to deelop more appropriate products and serices. Also,
women comprise a critical market or proiders o modern energy serices or cooking and
lighting e.g., women headed households comprise a larger percentage o those o the grid.
Priate sector proiders will need, howeer, to understand and address the speciic gender
needs o women e.g., low or little literacy or lack o collateral or borrowing. Lessons can be
learned rom experiences with social marketing.

Gender aware energy access programmes in post-conlict contexts can help rebuild
communities and support women, who oten comprise the majority o the population, to
play a key role. Post-conlict situations oer opportunities to redress gender inequitable
social institutions such as laws and policies goerning issues such as land tenure and
distribution.

All household members potentially beneit rom increased assess to energy serices but the
degree to which they do so depends on gender, age and ability. Apart rom the beneits to
women noted aboe, men seem to beneit rom increased leisure time whereas children may
beneit rom increased access to media, improed lighting or reading and saer streets. lor
women to beneit not only in terms o improed condition, but also enhanced social position to
and rom realising their rights, the mere proision o energy is insuicient. \omen, through
their empowerment and actie support rom household and community members, need to be
able to control this access as well as the beneits accrued rom increased access.

In the deelopment o interentions designed to improe the access to energy serices or
women, the importance o complementary interentions can thereore not be underestimated.
lor instance, this could include support to reorm the legal and regulatory rameworks that
preent women rom owning land, controlling productie assets, and,or accessing credit and
other inancial serices as well as work with mass media to portray women with jobs and
decision-making power ,Kohlin et al 2011,.


4. Gender, rights and energy system governance

So ar this study has shown that gender-unaware policy and programming results in persistent
rights failures for womens access to energy. A gender and rights analysis of access to energy
serices proides a new outlook on gender aware programming. It proides a tool or national
goernments, international deelopment organisations and other actors in the energy system to
address the multiple rights ailures that exist in the energy system.

Gender-aware energy programming based on a gender and rights perspectie is transormatie,
i.e. it aims to empower women and transorm gender relations to be more equal. It is based on a
particular theory o change: strengthening the rights content o energy policy creates stronger
and more equitable public, priate and ciil energy goernance structures and institutions. 1his,
in turn, strengthens the degree to which indiiduals relate to energy system goernance
structures as citizens with rights and responsibilities and weakens the extent to which people
expect to extract beneits based on unequal power relations ,such as exploitation o
disadantaged people, and corruption,. 1his, in theory, proides a more sustainable basis or
human deelopment.
4.1 Energy system governance
Lnergy system goernance is deined as institutions and processes o decision-making about
access to energy serices by a large range o stakeholders including those in ormal positions as
well as ordinary citizens. Lnergy system goernance happens at ie leels: the household,
community, local and national goernment and global institutions ,Brody 2009,.
11

Besides women and men who access energy serices at the household leel, there are many
other users ,such as priate and public companies, as well as schools and health acilities, and
proiders ,such as public utilities, large-scale priate power-stations, traders and local leel
energy entrepreneurs,.
12
1here are also a whole range o social and political actors who
inluence the use and proision o energy serices based on dierent objecties such as proit,
public good, and social justice , llorini and Soacool 2009,.

1he indiidual energy users are the rights-holders. 1hese men and women hae a legitimate
claim on the State and other duty-bearers. Goernments are the primary duty-bearers and hae
the obligation to promote and protect the right to access energy serices or its citizens. 1he
international community, ciil society and the market also hae obligations to contribute to the
realization o energy rights through their recognition, respect and assistance to the primary duty-
bearer in making energy rights real. 1hey also hae obligations to assist rights-holders in claiming
their energy rights.

Why should energy governance promote gender equality and womens rights?

11
1he paper ocuses on household, national and global leels. 1he analysis can be made at the community and local
goernment leels too but that is beyond the scope o the paper.
12
An extensie stakeholder analysis is beyond the scope o the paper, but would be useul in elaborating the gender and rights
perspectie to energy system goernance urther.

lebruary 2012 16

\omen hae a right to participate in decisions that aect their lies: gender equality in
energy goernance is an end in itsel because all citizens hae a right to play an equal part in
decision-making and power-structures that aect their lies.

Lnergy goernance institutions can reinorce or challenge the way in which women and men
are alued and recognized in society: actie decisions need to be made as to which outcomes
are achieed. Legislation and regulation can proide the basis or shits in social expectations
about the roles and responsibilities o men and women and the rights they should enjoy.
More women in ormal energy institutions can act as role models and result in a positie
change o attitudes to women in other social institutions such as households and
communities.

Energy governance institutions can address other rights of women explicitly: womens energy
access is oten constrained because women are depried rom rights to own land and
property.
4.2 How does household level decision-making influence womens energy rights?
1he right to access energy serices or women is realized at the household leel. 1hus intra-
household decision-making is key to understanding the barriers and possibilities or women to
access the energy they need. louseholds are sites o cooperation, conlict and bargaining.
Womens primary responsibilities for reproductive work (including collecting biomass), along
with the longer hours o work, aects their well-being relatie to men. Moreoer, the
responsibilities or reproductie work are at the expense o productie work or income-
generating actiity, this continues to restrict their bargaining power and decision-making in the
household.

Access to improed energy serices requires inestments oten in the orm o cash, labour or
time. \hether a household will inest in the up-ront costs o a new stoe ,or example, or not,
is not only dependent on the economic situation o a household. Gien the most common
diision o labour, improed cooking-stoes will irst and oremost beneit women. lor male
decision-makers cooking technology is not necessarily their irst priority. But also women might
not choose to invest in new cooking technology because it only benefits themselves.
Bargaining power within the household is determined by the resources indiiduals can control
independently from their membership of the household and also by womens and mens
perceptions o their respectie worth and contributions. Social norms that place a low alue on
women are oten internalized by women and aect their energy choices ,\B 2011,.

Lnergy policies and programming that address intra-household resource allocations and power
relations are more likely to promote gender equality and womens rights (such as removing
barriers or women to obtain loans or credit,. At the ery least, such policies and programmes
need to be based on an understanding o access and control o resources and beneits within the
household and ensure women and men equitably beneit. Lnergy system policy-makers possess a
broad range o policy leers to aect the relatie access to resources and bargaining power o
women and men in the household which will be taken up in the ollowing sub-section on
national leel energy system goernance.

4.3 National level energy system governance
1he actors inoled in national energy policy-making hae dierent and oten competing
interests ,i.e. energy security, energy access, climate change ,Cherp et al 2011,. 1hey also hae
dierent ideas about national energy goals and priorities ,pro-market or pro-poor, and how
these should be addressed ,llorini and Soacool 2009,. lor example, should society inest in
large-scale hydro dams or in small-scale renewable energy solutions Also, policy processes o
the modern and biomass goernance domains do not happen in isolation. Lastly, energy-related
policy decisions are made by other goernment ministries too since energy decisions aect
almost all social and economic sectors ,Lambrou and Piana 2006,.

Lery policy goal, or strategy has gender and rights implications, experience, howeer, shows
that gender disparities are rarely addressed as an integral part o national energy policy and
programme design ,Cecelski 2004, Panjwani 2005, Mai et al 2011, Kohlin et al 2011,.

Oerall, the role o the state as the primary duty-bearer is to level the playing field for men
and women in the energy system ,\B 2002,. 1hat includes mitigating and remoing
discriminatory elements embodied in laws, goernment unctions and market structures and
enorcing gender-aware laws and regulations. It is not only at the leel o policy ormulation that
rights ailures hae to be preented, but also in the processes through which energy policy are
translated into concrete strategies, guidelines and resource allocations and at the leel o
implementation o actual energy serices. At each leel - policy ormulation, administration and
implementation there exists gender inequitable resource distribution and gender stereotypes,
and at each leel these must be challenged ,Norton and Moser 2001,.

lrom a gender and rights-based perspectie, international deelopment organisations hae duty-
bearer responsibilities in supporting gender aware national energy policy. International
agreements and commitments ,such as MDGs and SL4ALL, proide a legitimate basis or
donors and international organisations to bring up principles o gender and rights in policy
dialogue in the energy sector.
4.3.1 Gender-aware policy options

National energy policymakers hae a number o options they can use to address barriers to the
realization of womens energy rights in the energy system. Donors and international
deelopment organisations can support the implementation o these options. Key policy options
include: budget allocation, inestment in select energy inrastructure, legal and regulatory reorm
and institutional strengthening:
13

E86-,% /::)</%")#: lirst and oremost, where does the goernment inest 1he percentage o
the budget allocated to the improement o household energy technologies or to decentralised
renewable energy solutions can be indicators o gender-aware energy policy ,Clancy 2009 and
Section 4.3.2. on the use o gender budgets as an accountability mechanism,. Decisions in
budget allocation relate to other options.

13
A lAO report on energy and gender in rural deelopment presents in more general terms the goernment actions needed
to remoe barriers that impede options or gender-aware energy initiaties, e.g. to remoe inappropriate subsidies, reorm
iscal rules in the energy ield and support capacity building ,Lambrou and Piana 2006,.

lebruary 2012 18

F#;,$%"#- "# -,#6,&7/>/&, ,#,&-' "#*&/$%&8<%8&,: 1here is eidence that women in rural areas
and the urban poor can beneit rom decentralized energy solutions - proided that persistent
rights ailures are addressed. Inestment in better distribution o alternatie uels that reliee
women of their existing burden can also contribute to make womens energy rights real
,Panchauri and Spreng 2003, 1ully 2006, Kohlin et al 2011,. \hich technology or source o
energy that is most gender-aware depends on the local context.
14

G,-/: /#6 &,-8:/%)&' &,*)&1: One example is promoting o grid technologies ,such as wind
turbines and watermills, solar equipment, and processing o biomass to create liquid uels,
through the introduction o targeted subsidies, economic incenties and new credit acilities that
women can access. Another example is to create market incenties to promote the distribution
o modern uels ,such as LPG, or cooking, heating and lighting and remoing existing market
barriers aecting priate uel suppliers ,LNLRGIA,UNDP 2006,. In the biomass domain, an
existing example is quotas to increase women in decision-making positions in orest
management, but evidence shows that many other legal barriers continue to restrict womens
access and control oer assets ,property rights to land, trees, and they still need to be addressed
,Mai et al 2011,.

F#$%"%8%")#/: $%&,#-%@,#"#- /#6 </B/<"%' 6,;,:)B1,#%: 1he literature reports a seere lack
o gender disaggregation o inormation in the energy system. 1he deelopment o more gender-
aware energy sector inormation management systems and capacity deelopment o national
institutions in this area is much needed ,leenstra 2002, Clancy 2009, LNLRGIA 2009,. As
mentioned earlier in the study, womens underrepresentation and marginalization in national
energy institutions has extensiely been documented, and there is scope or support to gender-
aware human resources management policy and practice in the energy sector. 1here is also a
need to deelop more targeted training programmes or women in the energy sector, including
business management courses or women energy entrepreneurs.

At a more general leel, leenstra suggests ie characteristics o gender-aware energy policy-
making: Gender mainstreaming, womens participation, the recognition of womens role in
energy proision and use, applying an integrated energy planning approach and the use o
gender-disaggregated data ,leenstra 2002, Clancy 2009,. 1hese are process-oriented
characteristics. lrom a gender and rights perspectie ,and rom a good goernance angle,,
additional areas include accountability o duty-bearers to rights-holders, transparency, and non-
discrimination and attention to disadantaged and marginalised groups.
4.3.2. Who is likely to support gender-aware energy policy?

H/%")#/: /#6 :)</: <";": $)<",%' can be an important orce or change in the energy system.
Numerous ciil society organisations ,CSOs, work to promote clean and renewable energy, and
increased access to energy for disadvantaged and marginalised groups. Womens organisations
and moements in particular adocate or the inclusion o gender concerns in macro-leel and

14
In Nepal or example, there is potential or mini-grid hydro-power actiities carried out in the ramework o a programme
that ocuses on gender and inclusion ,based on inormation receied rom the Royal Danish Lmbassy in Nepal,.


sector leel policies. 1he ability o CSOs to inluence the national energy agenda depends on
many actors such as the state o democracy and state-society relationships ,\B 2000,.

There are many examples of womens organisations that hae succeeded in participating in
energy policy ormulation processes such as the South Arican \omen and Lnergy Group
,Cecelski 2000,. Sometimes, support orm international CSOs or networks is instrumental.
Between 2006 and 2009, the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Lnergy
,LNLRGIA, supported our gender audits o the national energy sectors in Botswana, Kenya,
Senegal and India
15
. 1hey brought energy system actors rom the energy system together
including CSOs and goernment representaties - to analyze critical gender gaps in existing
national energy policy ormulation and implementation. 1here are many spin-os o the gender
audits, such as integration o gender issues into speciic energy plans ,the Kenya Rural
Llectriication Plan, and more eort to collect sex-disaggregated data ,in Botswana,. 1he gender
audits made gender and energy issues isible to a wider audience ,including many duty-bearers,
and also supported national and international networking.

CSOs can also deelop initiaties that raise awareness about energy rights amongst rights-
holders, and build capacity on how to claim rights and how to engage in energy goernance
processes at dierent leels. In the biomass domain, peoples audits/social audits hae been
promoted by CSOs as mechanisms o accountability and transparency ,or example in
community orestry,. 1here are also examples o CSOs that hae used Corporate Social
Responsibility ,CSR, as an entry-point to engage with priate sector actors to promote womens
energy rights ,LNLRGIA 2010,. International deelopment organizations can support such
eorts and link them to goernment leel technical assistance in setting up or expanding existing
accountability measures.

More and more B&";/%, $,<%)& actors are part o the energy goernance landscape. In some
deeloping countries, goernments hae established institutional and regulatory incenties or
priate proiders to proide energy serices to unsered rural areas and disadantaged groups
,1ully 2006,. Local priate sectors actors ,including armers and traders, in poor and isolated
areas are oten better placed to assist rights-holders in realizing their energy rights than
conentional priate inestors or goernment. Goernments and deelopment agencies can
support small local energy businesses or example through establishing incentie structures
,subsidies, and prioritizing local capacity deelopment ,Practical Action 2009,.

Policies and programmes to support small and medium size energy business deelopment need
to be gender aware to ensure that women energy entrepreneurs beneit ,Batliwala and Reddy
2003,. \omen are oten known as eectie entrepreneurs in deeloping countries but need
support to oercome gendered barriers to energy access. \omen-owned businesses oten hae
greater diiculty in obtaining a electricity connection than businesses owned by men. Moreoer,
modern energy technology businesses are often viewed as mens work, while women operate
more traditional, and less proitable, biomass-based micro-enterprises. Opportunities or women
to establish modern energy businesses can proide important means to correct gender
disparities. New energy programme approaches that include training and microcredit to women
entrepreneurs and partnering with formal and informal womens organizations can help

15
http:,,www.energia.org,knowledge-centre,gender-audit-reports,

lebruary 2012 20

overcome constraints to womens leadership and participation in the energy sector (Thorsen et
al 2011,. In addition, the emerging trend o corporate social responsibility might proide an
opening or more gender-aware energy sector policies.
16

4.4. Global level energy system governance
Key igures o the \orld Lnergy Outlook 2010 that are cited in almost eery recent energy
publication are gender-unaware ,OLCD,IAC 2011,. A study published in a peer-reiewed
journal ,Ruiz-Mercado et al 2011, that assesses the lessons learned oer the last 40 years with
promoting improed cooking stoes, does not mention any gender concerns. In October 2011,
the Goernment o Norway and the International Lnergy Agency ,ILA, organized the high-
leel conerence 9"$)*+ ,2) 600: ,!"-"/!"* -//$%% ,2) &5$ ;22).
1
Despite a NORAD commissioned
study on gender-responsie energy inancing, which was launched during the conerence
,1horsen et al 2011,, gender or reerences to gender dimensions are not mentioned in the
conerence summary
18
. And while global energy outlooks and statements refer to womens
energy poverty, womens drudgery in the biomass collection cycle and the importance of gender
mainstreaming in the energy sector, at the global leel womens voices and political space are
insuicient to address inadequate international attention and eort to promote the realization o
womens rights to access energy services.

While active, global womens organizations and efforts need strengthening. Energy specific
womens networks and organisations (such as ENERGIA) hae or many years documented,
disseminated and adocated or gender equality in the energy sector, but the LNLRGIA
network can become oerstretched i it is to respond to all major energy initiaties at national
and international policy leel ,Clancy 1999). The international womens movement overall has
not been taking gender and energy up in a central way. 1he tendency has been to promote
concerns that have been framed as womens issues by the international community and
donors such as iolence against women and access to legal justice, and womens economic
agency and issues o economic justice hae lost out ,personal communication with Srilatha
Batliwala,.

In the climate change arena, CSO alliances hae successully been established. An example is the
Global Gender and Climate Alliance and their work with delegates and ciil society actors at
international enironment conerences ,LNLRGIA 2010,. Another example is the \omen and
Gender Constituency o the UNlCCC that includes ciil society organizations working on
women and gender issues, which has been acknowledged as a special obserer group
(ENERGIA 2010). These alliances have taken up womens energy needs as part of the
discussion on climate change mitigation.

New inancing mechanisms ,also related to climate unds and inancing, to support access to
energy services are high on the agenda. Not surprisingly, Financing Energy for All focuses on

16
The Global Reporting Initiatives Sustainability Reporting has since March 2011 included indicators on gender and human
rights that priate sector organizations ,and other organizations, can use to assess their social perormance ,GRI 2011,. 1his
might proide an entry-point in the energy system or some engagement between the priate sector and rights-holders and
their deenders.
1
Energy for All: financing access for the poor examined ways of mobilising sufficient inancial resources to achiee access
to energy or all by 2030 and called or new innoatie partnerships and enabling conditions or priate sector inestments.

18
http:,,www.osloenergyorall2011.no,aboutud2012.cm.


enabling private and commercial investments in energy access. Womens organizations in the
Climate Change arena are making redistributie claims and argue that climate unds need to take
dierent gender needs into account ,Arend and Lowman 2011,. A study commissioned by
NORAD makes the same claim with regard to Financing Energy for all (Thorsen et al 2011.).

UN organizations, especially the multilateral organizations that hae been set-up to promote
gender equality such as UN \omen, hae adocated or gender, enironment and energy
concerns since the 1992 Larth Summit. 1hey hae so ar, howeer, not been ery isible in the
international debate on access to energy. 1he Conention on the Llimination o All lorms o
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) refers to womens electricity rights. It obligates State
Parties to the convention to &-<$ -00 -;;)2;)!-&$ '$-%.)$% &2 $0!'!"-&$ 1!%/)!'!"-&!2" -*-!"%& =2'$" !"
rural areas . . . and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right.to enjoy adequate living conditions,
;-)&!/.0-)0+ !" )$0-&!2" &2 52.%!"*> %-"!&-&!2"> $0$/&)!/!&+ -"1 =-&$) %.;;0+> &)-"%;2)& -"d communications.
,quoted in 1ully 2006 p. 536,. 1he CLDA\ Committee and partners, howeer, hae seldom
taken adantage o this legal entry-point to gender and energy claims at the global leel ,1ully
2006,.
4.5 Channels for rights-claiming in energy system governance
1here are many linkages between the dierent leels o energy goernance. Global policy is
interpreted through the policies o duty-bearers at national and local level and implemented
through institutional measures that aect citizens directly. lor example, the energy sector
reorms o the 1980-90s were drien by a global push or liberalization led by the \orld Bank
and other international inancial institutions. Another example is when international attention to
energy eiciency increased, the ocus o goernment energy policies in South Arica changed
rom realizing the right to access energy serices or low-income households to addressing
climate change issues ,Balmer 200,.

At the same time, indiidual rights-holders, communities and ciil society organizations demand
to be heard and try to inluence policies and practices o energy goernance institutions at all
leels. Lxamples include the success o a group o indigenous women in India who used the
CSR policy o an international wind power cooperation as a basis to claim energy rights by
demanding electricity and drinking water or households close to wind-arms. Another example
is the Global Gender and Climate Alliance that seeks to inluence international climate change
negotiations ,both examples rom LNLRGIA 2010,. 1hese examples o rights-claiming and
advocacy demonstrate that womens energy needs will not be met until they have a voice in
determining their options and priorities.

A gender and rights perspectie suggests an increased ocus on legal systems as eectie
governance channels through which claims can be raised that strengthen poor peoples access to
energy serices. 1his, howeer, requires increased local and national capacity to make use o
legal systems or energy rights claiming ,Moser and Norton 2002,. 1able 2 shows a possible
translation of rights failures, identified in Section 3, into rights claims.
19

19
1able 2 summarizes Annex 3, which proides two matrices o channels or claiming rights to access energy in the energy
goernance system, one or the national and one or the global leel. 1hree dierent channels or rights claiming are
considered in the matrices, i.e. policy, legal and priate sector channels, which gie examples o dierent types o claims
based on rights ailures. 1hey also proide examples o some o the methods that can be used by rights-holders to make
energy rights claims. 1hese include: engagement in ormal stakeholder processes about national energy policy processes, legal
lebruary 2012 22

Table 2: From rights failures to rights claims

Persistent rights failures
- identified in section 3

Rights claims
- elaborated in annex 4
Lack o recognition o unequal gender relations in
the energy system.

Process o demanding the recognition o access
to energy serices as a human right.

Lack o recognition o the economic alue o
womens work making their labour contribution
inisible in the energy system at all leels.

Lack of addressing womens total energy needs
,i.e. lack o recognition o the energy needs
associated with womens productive roles).
Negotiation oer the explicit inclusion o gender
equality in international goals, targets and related
monitoring systems or uniersal access to energy
serices.

Gender inequitable decision-making at all leels in
the energy sector and exclusion o women rom
decisions aecting their own lies.
Process o demanding measures to increase
womens decision-making positions in the energy
sector.
Gender inequitable access to and control oer
resources and beneits rom energy related
deelopment interentions.

equality in national energy policies, goals, and
targets and the establishment o energy sector
accountability mechanisms.

Insuicient proision o the legal and regulatory
rameworks to promote gender equitable access to
energy through the market.

Negotiation oer the establishment o
institutional and regulatory incenties or the
priate sector to extend reach to rural, poor
women.
Gender disparity on ownership o land, trees and
other productie assets required to access energy
serices.
Process o demanding new legislation or women
land rights.

Gender inequitable access to credit and other
inancial serices resulting in unequal access to and
beneits rom renewable energy technologies,
programmes and serices.

Negotiation oer the proision o credit acilities
or decentralized renewable energy solutions
accessible to women as well as men.

Negotiation oer international energy inancing:
e.g. and un-blocking climate inancing to include
targeted actions that will beneit women.

action e.g. claim land rights, lobbying priate sector actors demanding Corporate Social Responsibility, and adocacy ,media
reporting, campaigning, inormation proision etc.,.


4.6. Entry-points and key areas for gender-aware energy programming
International deelopment organisations can proide support to national goernment partners in
strengthening gender and rights aspects o regulatory institutions and decision-making processes
in the energy sector. 1here are seeral key entry-points such as sector-programme negotiations
or the negotiation o public-priate partnerships. Deelopment organisation can support the
design and implementation o regulatory processes that enhance access to energy to unreached
areas and groups whose needs are insuiciently met. 1hey can also proide technical assistance
in setting up accountability systems ,such as gender budgets,, oersight processes ,such as
gender audits) and channels for rights claiming. Increasing womens meaningful participation
and representation in the energy sector could be promoted by international organisations too.

Moreoer, there is a role or deelopment organizations in supporting ciil society, or example
through capacity deelopment or making it possible or CSO representaties to participate in
energy policy dialogue at national and international levels (in particular womens rights
constituency,. CSOs can also be inoled in eorts to set up or expand national accountability
mechanisms and,or goernance channels or energy rights claiming. Lmbedding energy rights as
integral parts o larger accountability mechanisms is likely to be more eectie, as opposed to
ocussing solely on energy rights, and preents compartmentalization o rights ,and rights
claiming, that are intrinsically linked. An example is taking adantage o legislation that secures
peoples right to information such as giving citizens access to information on the decisions made
by public energy structures and allowing questions to be raised about decision-making and
priority setting, which also acts as a measure to counter corruption.

1he Global Conerence on Sustainable Deelopment ,Rio-20, is scheduled to take place in
Brazil in 2012. International deelopment organisations can use the opportunity to increase the
international ocus on gender equality and access to energy serices substantially. 1here are
many strategic entry-points. Bazilian 2010 and Practical Action 2010 both recommend an
international monitoring system to assess the progress towards eliminating energy poerty.
Deelopment organisations could propose ,and und, that gender concerns are explicitly
included at the design stage o such a system. At an een more undamental leel, deelopment
actors could propose that access to energy is recognised as a human right in the ramework o
economic, social and cultural rights.

Based on the indings o section 4, 1able 3 oers some key areas or the introduction and
support o a gender and rights approach in energy programming. 1he key areas are structured
according to strategic entry points at dierent leels o interention rom bilateral,national to
multilateral,global leels.

lebruary 2012 24

Table 3: Key areas for gender-aware energy programming

Entry-
points
Key areas

National Governance Level
I);,&#1,#%
$,<%)&

Make gender and rights concerns an integral part o energy sector policy dialogue.
Support capacity building on gender and rights concern.
Support the design and implementation o regulatory processes that enhance access
to energy to unreached areas and groups whose needs are to suiciently met ,ocus
on gender concerns related to accessibility and aordability,.
Support the establishment o energy sector inormation management systems and
make sex-disaggregated data a major ocus.
Support openness, transparency and the participation o stakeholders in policy
processes, particularly womens rights constituency.
Support the setting up o accountability systems ,such as gender budgets,, oersight
processes ,such as gender audits,, and channels or rights claiming.
Promote womens meaningful participation and representation in the energy sector.
3&";/%,
$,<%)&

Make gender and rights concerns an integral part o public-priate partnership
arrangements.
Support the establishment o an enabling policy enironment or women energy
entrepreneurs ,ocus on access to credit and inancial serices,.
J";": $)<",%'
Support CSOs initiaties that raise awareness about gender and energy rights.
Deelop CS capacity to engage in energy policy dialogue at national leel to adocate
for the realization of womens energy rights.
Inole CSOs in eorts to set up or expand national accountability mechanisms to
hold the state as the primary duty bearer accountable to womens energy rights.
Support energy rights claims to promote gender equality and womens rights (annex 3
national leel goernance,.

Global Governance Level
9H
B&)<,$$,$
Support the recognition that access to energy is a human right.
Promote ,and und, the establishment o an international monitoring system to
assess the progress towards eliminating energy poerty that explicitly includes gender
and rights concerns.
F#%,&#/%")#/:
JKL$ /#6
#,%>)&2$
Deelop capacity o CSOs and international network,alliances that work on gender,
rights and energy to engage in energy policy dialogue at international leels.
Support energy rights claims to promote gender equality and womens rights (annex 3
global leel goernance,.


5. Future areas of consideration

1his study has approached access to energy serices as a right and has presented a gender and
rights analysis o energy system goernance. Based on the main indings, three critical areas are
recommended or urther consideration:

1, A gender and rights-based approach to energy access
2) Barriers and opportunities to realize womens right to access energy services
3, Gender and global energy goernance.

1hese three themes are summarized in this section and proide a basis or more in-depth
discussion with a broad group o stakeholders in the run-up to Rio-20.
5.1. A gender and rights-based approach to energy access
?5-& /-" - *$"1$) -"1 )!*5&%43-%$1 -;;)2-/5 /2"&)!3.&$ &2 "-&!2"-0 -"1 !"&$)"-&!2"-0 1$#$02;'$"& $,,2)&% -!'$1
-& -00$#!-&!"* $"$)*+ ;2#$)&+> !" ;-)&!/.0-) 2, &5$ '2%& 1!%$",)-"/5!%$1 -"1 '-)*!"-0!%$1 *)2.;%@

A gender and rights based approach oers an analytical ramework to better understand the
gender equality dimensions o energy access. lence, it proides strategic direction or creating
an energy system that realizes energy serices or all, as enisioned in SL4ALL and related
international and national deelopment eorts. A gender and rights analysis o energy system
governance is a tool to uncover institutional barriers to the realization o rights also reerred
to as rights failures. The analysis requires the focus on the following elements:

7!*5&% ,-!0.)$% in social institutions and goernance structures at dierent leels that are
preenting women rom accessing energy, including:
! A-!0.)$% 2, )$/2*"!&!2", for example the lack of recognition of the value of womens
labour contribution in the energy system.
! A-!0.)$% 2, )$1!%&)!3.&!2", or example the gender inequitable access to and control oer
resources and beneits rom energy related deelopment interentions.
\ays to strengthen the #2!/$ -"1 -*$"/+ 2, =2'$" rights-holders in energy goernance to ensure
accountability to gender equality,
B2#$)"-"/$ /5-""$0% ,2) '-<!"* 1!,,$)$"& &+;$% 2, $"$)*+ )!*5&% /0-!'%, and how they can be utilized to
realize womens energy rights, and
C$+ -)$-% ,2) *$"1$)4-=-)$ $"$)*+ ;)2*)-''!"* , such as analysis o who uses what and why as well
as monitoring and ealuation, that can be used as entry points to support the realization o
womens right to access energy serices.

More discussion is needed about the international and national experiences o using a gender
and rights-based approach to promote access to energy serices.
5.2. Barriers and opportunities to realize womens energy rights
D2= /-" "-&!2"-0 -"1 !"&$)"-&!2"-0 1$#$02;'$"& $,,2)&%> !"/0.1!"* &5)2.*5 /)$-&!"* $"-30!"* $"#!)2"'$"&% ,2)
womens voices and through public4private partnerships arrangements, ensure that womens energy rights are
)$-0!E$1@

lebruary 2012 26

Gender and rights unaware policy and practice concerns a lack o recognition o women as
rights holders, and an inequitable distribution o control oer resources and beneits rom
energy serices. Discussion is needed on how to ensure the experiences o those on the ground,
particularly women, hae an impact on energy policies and programmes through their own
oices and actions.

Lnergy system policy-makers hae a number o gender-aware options to address the gendered
nature o energy poerty. An enabling policy enironment or the priate sector to inest and
or public-priate energy partnerships to succeed has not only strong potential to delier
equitable energy access, it is outright needed to achiee sustainable energy or all. More
understanding is needed about the optimal roles o the priate sector as well as public-priate
arrangements in promoting gender-aware energy access.
5.3. Gender and global energy governance
D2= /-" !"&$)"-&!2"-0 /2''!&'$"& &2 *$"1$) $F.-0!&+ -"1 $"$)*+ -//$%% 3$ !';)2#$1G =5-& -)$ &5$ %&)-&$*!/ $"&)+4
;2!"&% !" &5$ )."4.; &2 7!2HIJ@
International efforts to promote womens energy rights are inadequate. Rio+20 presents a
unique opportunity or the international community to reairm and strengthen political
commitment to gender equality and womens rights in sustainable deelopment in general and in
access to energy in particular. It is also an occasion to draw rom many lessons learned about the
gendered nature o energy poerty.

Major strategic entry-points or gender and rights aware energy goernance exist in the run-up to
Rio-20 including the need or gender and rights aware international goals, targets and indicators
on energy access ,or SL4ALL but also or other international initiaties,, inancing or gender-
equitable energy access, and gender and rights aware monitoring. Lach o these entry-points
needs further discussion as they require their own strategies for increasing womens
participation, oice and leadership in global energy goernance.
5.4 Suggestions for further analysis
linally, a number o areas needing more inormation and analysis are suggested that would
contribute urther to the understanding o energy system goernance rom a gender and rights
perspectie:

i, Lmpirical eidence is needed to demonstrate how a gender and rights analysis - when applied
in practice - can inorm energy system decision-making at all leels in energy system goernance.
Such eidence could be generated through country studies and,or through action research
ocusing in on one or seeral key elements o the gender and rights ramework.

ii, 1o understand better the barriers and opportunities or women to realize their energy rights,
best practices could be documented o accountability processes and rights claiming in energy
goernance systems at dierent leels. \hat ormal and inormal accountability mechanisms
exist, what methods are used to make energy claims, what actions work to achiee energy rights
outcomes

iii, Gendered energy poerty within the urban context is not ery well understood. More
research into issues o gender and rights in urban goernance structures is needed. \hat

mechanisms do urban citizens in particular women - use to engage with or hold urban
decision-makers and planners to account or their eorts to address access to modern energy in
poor urban areas \hat are the barriers \hat are the enabling actors \hat are the outcomes

i, 1he study applied the gender and rights analysis at the household, national goernment and
global leel o energy system goernance. Analysis at community, local goernment and regional
leels could proide a more comprehensie understanding o gender and rights issues in energy
system goernance.

lebruary 2012 28

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7. Acknowledgements

1he author wishes to thank the many people who hae contributed to the inalization o the
paper: 1he Danish Lmbassies in Danida partner countries were inited to gie input to the irst
drat o the paper. Comments were receied rom the embassies in Bangladesh, Burkina laso,
Nepal, Pakistan, 1anzania, Uganda and the Mission o Denmark to the United Nations in New
\ork. Guidance, support and comments were receied rom Dorte Broen, Susanne \endt and
Silke Mason \estphal rom Danida in Copenhagen. Srilatha Batliwala ,Association or
Womens Rights in Development - AWID) provided valuable insights into womens rights and
energy rights claiming. Larlier drats o this paper receied input rom seeral other members o
the Social Deelopment and Gender Lquity Area o the Royal 1ropical Institute ,KI1, in
Amsterdam. A special thanks to lranz \ong and Lelien Kamminga or their many substantial
contributions to the study and endless support.

lebruary 2012 34

Annex 1 Glossary

.<<)8#%/?":"%'4 Accountability reers to the way in which goernment accounts or itsel to its
citizens, i.e. how it lets citizens know its decisions and how these decisions were made, as well as
the actions that it takes as a result o the decisions.

08%' ?,/&,&$4 A social or economic institution, a state or an international organization that is
under the obligation or duty to ensure or assist a rights-holder in ensuring a right ,Moser and
Norton 2001,.

51B)>,&1,#%4 Lmpowerment reers both to a process and a goal. As a process,
empowerment is about people, who hae been denied power, gaining power, in particular being
able to make strategic choices about their lies. In order or women, or other marginalized
groups, to gain the power to make choices about their lies, they need to access and control
resources, and be able to use those resources to achiee the lie they alue. laing that ability
requires internal resources, such as sel conidence and a belie that change is possible. 1o create
sustainable change an empowerment process must therefore change peoples self-perception,
their control oer their lies and their material enironments. As a goal, empowerment is the
creation o more equal power relations between women and men.

5#678$, ,#,&-'4 1he energy sold to priate users, e.g. uel-wood, kerosene, electricity.

5#,&-' /<<,$$4 Access to clean, reliable and aordable energy serices or cooking and heating,
lighting, communications and productie uses, i.e. to support basic human needs and productie
uses ,AGLCC p. 13,.

5#,&-' ,**"<",#<'4 ligher energy eiciency can reduce the end-use energy consumed to
produce the same leel o energy serices.

5#,&-' B);,&%'4 1he lack o choice in accessing adequate, aordable, reliable, high quality, sae
and enironmentally-benign energy serices to support economic and human deelopment
,1ully 2006,.

5#,&-' $,&;"<,$4 1he beneits that result rom using energy, or instance a cooked meal,
illumination, a warm room, a hot bath, inormation and communication, earning a liing.

I,#6,&4 1he concept o gender is used to describe all the dierent socially constituted roles,
relations, and relatie alue and power that a particular society assigns to men or women.

I,#6,& /#/:'$"$: A gender analysis explores the condition and position o women Arelatie to
men in a gien context and highlights inequalities in gender relations within the household and
how they interrelate with power relations at international, state, market and community leel. It
is based on sex-disaggregated information and applies gender analytical concepts such as the
gender division of labour, access to and control over resources, and gender needs and
interests.


I,#6,& />/&, B&)-&/11"#-: Gender-aware is a term to describe programming that identiies
and addresses the dierent gender needs o women and men. Gender unaware programming, in
contrast, is blind to dierent gender needs and can harm women because they reinforce mens
priilege to the disadantage o women. 1hree types o gender-aware programming are oten
considered. lor more details, please reer to Annex 2 Glossary. Gender neutral programming
works within the existing gender division of labour, and improve womens and mens condition,
but do not aim to improe the position o women in society. Gender speciic programming
targets women speciically. Gender transormatie programming aims to empower women and
transorm gender relations to be more equal.

I,#6,& ,M8/:"%': Gender equality is the concept that both men and women are ree to deelop
their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender
roles, or prejudices. Gender equality means that the dierent behaiours, aspirations and needs
o women and men are considered, alued and aoured equally. It does not mean that women
and men hae to become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will
not depend on whether they are born male or emale.

I,#6,& 1/"#$%&,/1"#-: ,a, the integration o gender equality concerns into analysis and
ormulation o all policies, programmes and projects and ,b, initiaties to enable women as well
as men to ormulate and express their iews and participate in decision-making across all issues.

I,#6,& &,:/%")#$4 Social relations o gender are relations o power. 1hey deine the way in
which roles, responsibilities and claims are assigned and the way in which each person and group
is gien a relatie alue. Gender relations create and reproduce systemic differences in womens
and mens position in society.

I);,&#/#<,: Goernance reers to institutions and processes o decision-making by a range o
stakeholders including those in ormal positions as well as ordinary citizens ,Brody 2009,.

I);,&#/#<, <@/##,:$4 People may pursue dierent types o rights claims through dierent
goernance channels such as the political and legal systems, or through policy, administratie,
social or priate sector channels.

I);,&#/#<, $%&8<%8&,$: Institutions where decisions about rights and entitlements are made in
terms o allocation o resources and administration o serices such as the household,
goernment organisations, and deelopment organisations.

G";"#- :/>4 Inormal processes and mechanisms o making claims within the household and
community ,Moser and Norton 2001,.

H)#76"$<&"1"#/%")# /#6 /%%,#%")# %) ;8:#,&/?:, -&)8B$: Deelopment decisions, policies
and initiaties hae to guard against reinorcing existing power imbalances between, or example,
women and men.

3);,&%'4 Lconomic depriation is only one o the many orms o ulnerabilities that poor
people experience. Poerty is multidimensional. Part o being poor is being unable to enjoy
rights. And rights ailures at the same time contribute to poerty. lor example, women may be
lebruary 2012 36

preented rom owning land and property which is a barrier to sustainable lielihoods leading to
poerty.

3&"1/&' ,#,&-'4 Lnergy contained in energy carriers such as oil, coal, wood and other biomass.

=,-"1,: 1he established mainstream techno-institutional policy, industrial and user system
deliering a speciic unction in society. 1he carbon based energy system is an example o a
regime ,the linnish paper, .

=,#,>/?:, ,#,&-'4 Lnergy coming rom naturally replenished resources, i.e. wind power, solar
power, hydro-power and energy rom biogas, biomass or biouels.

="-@%$: 1o hae a right means to hae a legitimate claim on other people or institutions.

="-@%$7@):6,&$4 Lery human being is a rights-holder. A rights-holder is entitled to rights,
entitled to claim rights, entitled to hold duty-bearers accountable, and has the responsibility to
respect the rights o others.

="-@%$ &,-"1,$4 Include international human rights law, constitutional and statuary law,
religious law, customary law and liing law ,Moser and Norton 2001,.

K)<"/: "#$%"%8%")#$4 lormal and inormal structures through which duty bearers and rights
holders learn explicit and implicit norms and rules o what an indiidual should do or not
depending on her,his social identiy. Lxamples o social institutions are the state, the market,
and the amily. Social institutions produce and reproduce unequal gender relations ,and other
relations o unequal power,.

K)<"/: #)&1$4 Explicit or implicit societal rules that govern peoples behaviour (Moser and
Norton 2001,.

K8?$%/#%";, ,M8/:"%': Implies that the dierences in circumstances and characteristics o, or
example, women and men be taken into account in order to ensure that the end goal o equality
not only in a ormal sense ,e.g. the right to be elected to public oice, but also in a substantie
sense ,e.g. the right to airmatie action measures that make it possible or women to be elected
to public oice,.

N&/#$B/&,#<'4 Reers to the aailability o inormation to the citizens on all decision and
actions that re made by the government. It also refers to the governments efforts to make the
inormation easily understood by all citizens.

9$,*8: ,#,&-'4 Lnd-use energy and appropriate equipment proides useul energy, e.g. heat,
light, mechanical drie.


Annex 2: Lessons learned on gender and energy in development

1he approaches to gender and energy in deelopment policy and practice hae eoled
immensely oer the last orty years. An oeriew o the main shits in thinking about gender and
rights in the context o deelopment is a useul basis or drawing lessons learned about barriers
to the realization of womens rights to access energy services.

1970s: Dependency on biomass and the other energy crisis

The depiction of the state of the worlds energy poverty in the World Energy Outlook 2010 is
not new. It has been well-known or decades that poor people liing in rural areas derie most
o their energy rom biomass, particularly uel-wood, and that much o this is used or cooking
and heating by women. Shortly ater the oil-crisis o the 190s, the concept o the other energy
crisis emerged in the international energy and development debate. It referred to the increasing
demand or uel-wood and the perception that demand outstripped supply and was responsible
or deorestation, which urther added to the burden o the rural women whose responsibility it
was to collect it. In the literature, womens roles were described as users and collectors of fuel-
wood and as victims of environmental degradation and the other energy crisis (Wamukonya
2002, Clancy 2003 et al, and Cecelski 2004,.

Reactions to the impact of the other energy crisis came from the biomass energy governance
domain. 1ree planting and improed stoe projects were promoted as the answers to the crisis.
\omen were initially treated as passie beneiciaries o improed stoes designed by male
technicians. Womens informal knowledge was largely overlooked such as the use of multiple
kinds o biomass and tending to ires in eicient ways ,Cecelski 2000,. In some contexts, or
example South Arica, the socio-cultural alue o cooking rom which women derie sel-worth
and dignity was ignored ,Balmer 200,, as was the alue attached by women to the cooking ire
as a social hub where they were able to socialize while cooking (Clancy et al 2004). Later as
stoes ailed to be adopted, women were considered as useul sources o inormation about
stoe design and contributors to meeting project targets. At the leel o energy project planning
and management, womens participation was minimal. Calculation of beneits assumed that
women had control oer the cashsaings or improed income, or indeed command oer their
own labour use ,time reed up,. lousehold leel bargaining and trade-os based on unequal
power relations were ignored ,Cecelski 2004, Cecelski and CRGGL 2006,.

In terms o aorestation, large-scale plantation projects were implemented with the expectation
that they would proide easily accessible uel and reduce deorestation. loweer, management
models rarely took into account the needs o local communities in general or women speciically,
the tree species promoted were not necessarily appropriate as uel-wood, land and tree
ownership aspects were neglected and womens exclusion from decision making bodies was the
norm ,CIlOR 2011, \B 2011,.

In the modern energy domain, the oil-crisis was the centre o attention. Improed energy
serices in rural areas or to disadantaged groups ,including the urban poor who continued to
depend on biomass energy, was not a priority. Macro-policies ocused on the commercial energy
carriers such as electricity, coal, gas and petroleum primarily catering to urban or semi-urban
lebruary 2012 38

populations to the neglect o rural deelopment in general and rural women in particular ,1ully
2006,.

?5-& 0$%%2"% /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' ;20!/+ -"1 ;)-/&!/$ 2, &5$ ^_`J%@

In the modern energy domain, women were entirely inisible. 1he biomass energy domain on
the other hand treated women as ictims o the perceied biomass crisis and as instruments to
encounter its consequences. lour major rights ailures can be discerned. lirstly, a ailure o
acknowledging that womans status within the household determines her access to and control
oer resources and beneits rom deelopment interentions and responses. Secondly, a ailure
to recognize womens informal knowledge related to the management of natural resources and
stove efficiency. Thirdly, a failure to recognize the energy needs associated with womens
productie roles. And ourthly, a complete ailure o recognizing women as agents o their own
deelopment, including their right to be inoled in decisions aecting their lies.

1980s: Womens time is the real energy crisis

By the beginning o the 1980s, it had dawned on most actors in the biomass energy domain, that
womens energy needs were different from the energy needs of men, but also that womens
needs were broader and more complex than improed stoes alone.

Gender experts began to argue that the real energy crisis was womens time. Studies revealed a
complex and rich picture o labour allocation in the rural economy, and showed that women
worked longer hours than men, largely unpaid. Research highlighted that biomass in rural areas
was collected at zero monetary cost mainly by women and children, and so it ell outside
national energy accounts and stayed inisible. ,Clancy et all 2003, Malhotra et. al 2004, Lambrou
and Piana 2006, Practical Action 2010,. At the household leel it locked women and girls in an
unaourable gender diision o labour with little bargaining power to demand change. Studies
also - or the irst time - stressed womens important role in agriculture and home industries
,Batliwala and Reddy 2003, Cecelski 2004,.

1he time women had to spend in water and uel-wood collection, rural transport, agriculture,
child rearing, ood processing and traditional home-industries were seen as a constraint in light
of womens responsibilities with regard to their amilies and their right to meaningully
participate in deelopment actiities themseles. Gender experts pointed out that these tasks
were also inisible in labour and energy balances.

Lnergy eiciency emerged as a concern too. 1he low eiciency o biomass uels was seen as one
reason why women had to spend long hours cooking, which was urthermore connected to the
health hazards induced by smoke and emissions rom the traditional stoes. 1his in turn was
seen to diminish womens capacity to undertake productie actiities ,Ramani and leijndermans
2003, Cecelski and CRGGL 2006,. Most energy programmes continued to concentrate on
womens time-saing needs and kept its ocus on improed stoes and uels to improe
womens welfare and as a means to making the programmes more eicient.

1here were many eorts in the 1980s to improe orest management through deorestation
programmes but they resulted in ew gains in terms o redistribution o orest resources in
aour o poor women. At the same time, regulation introduced to improe the eiciency o

uel-wood and charcoal chains ailed to recognize that charcoal burning proided a surial
strategy or the poor with damaging eects or poor rural and urban women ,personal
communication with Lelien Kamminga,.

During the 1980s ,and 1990s, the modern energy domain changed undamentally with the push
o liberalization. Reorms paed the way or priatization o state energy companies to the
priate sector, as well as opening up or the priate sector to proide other energy serices.
Reorms also included commercialization which meant reduced public expenditure in the orm
o direct subsidies. Increasing priate sector participation was expected to improe consumer
choice in energy serice proision particularly or the poor ,still no mention o women,. 1he
governments role was to change to that of a regulator. The liberalization model failed
particularly where priate companies demonstrated little interest in expanding electricity supplies
to rural areas. Also, national regulatory and legislatie measures in general ell short o targeting
issues o accessibility and aordability. 1he consequences in distribution were seere: reduced
electriication coerage in rural areas, increased tari leels, and the exclusion o the poor rom
modern energy serices ,Clancy et al 2003, Batliwalla and Reddy 2003, 1ully 2006,.

?5-& 0$%%2"% /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' ;20!/+ -"1 ;)-/&!/$ 2, &5$ ^_aJ%@

A undamental ailure o recognition became ery isible in the 1980s, i.e. that there is no
economic value attached to womens work resulting in inadequate policy and programme
attention to womens energy concerns. For the same reasons, investing in womens energy needs
is not necessarily gien high priority at the household and community leel.

1990s: Poverty alleviation

As deelopment priorities moed on to a poerty alleiation mandate in the 1990s, linkages
between energy eiciency goals and poerty alleiation began to be made.

In the biomass energy domain a more comprehensie iew o household energy interentions
emerged recognizing the household as a centre o production including cooking practices, ood
preparation, uel substitution, and pricing as potential household energy interentions ,Cecelski
2004,.

Lnergy research carried out rom a sustainable lielihoods perspectie contributed important
insights about the linkages between poerty, energy and gender ,Ramani and leijndermans
2003, Clancy et al 2003,. A strong point o the research was the attempt to identiy how
dierent energy types addressed practical, productie and strategic needs o women, and how
energy in lielihood strategies could improe the position o women by creating opportunities or
relieving energy constraints. It furthermore contributed with highlighting womens productive
roles and the need to strengthen womens voice in determining energy options and priorities
,Cecelski 2004,

A main policy message rom the research was that energy programmes should ocus on
lielihood opportunities or disadantaged groups to enhance sel-reliance and improe social
conditions. Despite these important contributions, gender experts pointed out the drawbacks o
the sustainable lielihoods research. lor instance, gender was treated as a subset o poerty while
lebruary 2012 40

dependence on bio-mass energy is not a unction o poerty alone but also to a large extent a
unction o unequal gender relations ,Cecelski and CRGGL 2006,.

1he 1990s saw a trend o orest reorms that deoled or decentralized authority oer orest
management to lower leels o goernance including districts and communities. 1his gae rise to
many social and community orestry projects. 1hese projects were concerned with the
redistribution o management and user rights to local people. In general it proed to be diicult
to make sure that men and women beneited equally and to ensure gender equitable participation
and decision-making in local orestry goernance structures. \hen these interentions displaced
womens informal rights to fuel collection through conservative protection or privatization of
communal lands, the results were detrimental or women but adantageous or men who
controlled the proceeds. 1hat women needed empowerment to make choices about energy
began to be acknowledged in the orestry sector and prompted the design o women speciic
actiities and social mobilization ,Cecelski 2004, Mai et al 2011, \B 2011,.

In the modern energy domain, some ocus on gender issues began to be seen. Studies showed
that national policy decisions regarding energy pricing could aect men and women dierently
,SIDA 1999,. Subsidy-schemes or poor people in particular women - were introduced with
some success, or example lower electricity rates were charged or initial usage and as
consumption increased, rates would go up too. Loans or staggered payment structures were also
introduced to increase access where initial start-up/hook-up costs were too high. Many of
these howeer were initially diicult or women to access ,partly due to barriers to accessing
credit,. In some countries, the commercialization trend interered with these initiaties, as
national objecties o improing energy access or marginalized social groups were eectiely
dropped in aour o improing energy sector eiciency ,1ully 2006,.

Some criticism began to be raised against energy subsidies. It was pointed out that energy
subsidies to increase access to energy serices - particularly those in the orm o low taris or
electricity - were lawed in a number o ways. People liing in rural areas without access to the
grid were not beneitting rom the subsidy. In act these kinds o energy subsidies were
appropriated by the less poor. And or women it still did not sole one o their major energy
problems because electricity did not alleiate cooking energy shortages ,Balmer 200,. A major
lesson learned was that to increase access to energy serices, energy subsidies should go into the
expansion o gender-aware energy inrastructure to poor areas rather than the energy in itsel. At
the same time, the sequencing o market-oriented energy reorms was pointed out to be critical
or increasing energy access or disadantaged groups. Large-scale electriication targeting the
poor should accompany i not succeed priatization. In many cases poorer households and
women would be much better sered by inestments in small scale decentralized equipment,
better management o natural resources and distribution o alternatie uels that would reliee
women o their burden ,Panchauri and Spreng 2003, 1ully 2006, LNLRGIA 200, \B 2011,.

1owards the end o the decade, across both goernance domains, some moement in the
thinking about gender and energy started to be seen, such as some work attending to national
gender and energy policy, strategic issues in womens participation in the sector, and womens
potential as energy entrepreneurs ,Batliwala and Reddy 2003, Cecelski and CRGGL 2006,.

?5-& 0$%%2"% /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' ;20!/+ -"1 ;)-/&!/$ 2, &5$ ^__J%@

Some research and practice began to recognize the structural barriers that preent women rom
accessing energy serices. 1he importance o complementary actiities to address these barriers
and the concept o womens agency also slowly wins some ground. Womens productive roles
became more visible and it demonstrated that improved energy access can increase womens
income and standards o liing.

In the context o priatization and commercialization o modern energy serices, it became
eident in this decade that many goernments ,as the main duty bearers, ailed to ensure the
realization of womens rights to access energy. Governments did not manage to develop
suiciently strong legislatie and regulatory rameworks that promote access to modern energy
or disadantaged groups through the market.

2000s: Gender, climate change and renewable energy

1he continued need to extend modern energy serices to those o the grid and a growing
attention to climate change mitigation in the 2000s, has contributed to an increased ocus on
renewable energy solutions ,Marston 2011,. 1he potential or reduced greenhouse gas emissions
through the adaptation o cleaner and more eicient energy solutions at household and
community leels became a key argument or improing energy access or the poor and
disadantaged. loweer, according to Aguilar, the understanding o the gender dimensions o
climate change mitigation is still at an initial stage ,Aguilar 2009,, despite the high probability
that climate change will magniy gender inequality ,UNDP 200,. Neertheless, there are certain
areas in which mitigation actions new opportunities for the realization of womens rights to
energy serices.

In areas not coered by the grid, renewable energy options such as wind, solar and hydro-
technologies can proide alternaties to diesel-engines and generators as low-emission sources
o electricity and motorized power or essential equipment used primarily by women such as
water pumps and grain mills. Biogas digesters and solar cookers can beneit women ,and lower
emissions) if they are compatible with womens daily routines and workloads (Aguilar 2009).
Womens informal knowledge can contribute to the refinement of renewable energy
technologies and when women are inoled in such innoation processes, eidence shows that
they also can deelop new skills and lielihoods as energy entrepreneurs ,Cecelski 2000,
Batliwalla and Reddy 2003,. Non-traditional roles or women in ,renewable, energy and the
generation of role models can also increase womens voice (Clancy et al 2004).

Continuing on the positie note, there are possibilities or climate-related unds to support new
inestments in low-carbon, renewable and energy eicient technologies. 1here is now a
mechanism or inancing improed cooking stoes because they can generate certiied emission
reductions ,Kohlin et al 2011,. 1his and other innoatie inancing mechanisms and credit
schemes can sere as catalysts or new entrepreneurial actiities or women. 1hey can also be
entry-points for recognizing and supporting womens local knowledge and every-day
innovation in energy management (ENERGIA/WEDO 2010, personal communication with
Srilatha Batliwala,.

But there is also good reason to be cautious. Unequal power relations embedded in intra-
household decision-making act as barriers or realizing rights through renewable energy. lor
lebruary 2012 42

example, with limited tenure and property rights, solar systems, wind turbines, bio-uel
plantations etc. that require land are inherently controlled by men who oten reap the beneits
,IRADe,LNLRGIA 2009,. \omen requently experience barriers in accessing new renewable
technology because they lack access to land and thereore hae limited collateral to access credit,
and hae limited access to extension serices and education. Renewable energy initiaties can
increase the work-load o women, or instance biogas where the collection o needed water and
manures adds to womens burden. And other renewable energy sources are not suiciently
catering to womens needs, e.g. the output of solar home systems is too low for cooking (Clancy
et al 2004,.

In the bio-uel area, other kinds o rights concerns are oiced. Unequal rights to land create an
uneen playing ield or men and women who will not hae the same opportunities to produce
biouels and beneit rom it. Moreoer, land-use changes as a result o biouel production can
hae negatie impacts on ood production and security or women. Market-based bio-uel
production is likely to exclude women rom land used or subsistence production ,especially in
Sub Saharan Arica,. 1here is a need to sae-guard womens rights to land, water and fuel-wood
collection, or alternatie means o energy supply in areas where biouel production is introduced.
\hen employment is generated by biouel programmes, decent and equal employment
opportunities and conditions or male and emale workers should be ensured. Policies in the
modern and biomass energy domains as well as agricultural policies hae to take these challenges
into account to circument gender inequality impacts o bioenergy and large-scale climate
change mitigation interentions ,\B 2011, Michuri 2011,.

In the 2000s, more generally, the energy sector begins to grasp that there are strong cross-cutting
links between empowering women in the energy sector and in other sectors, i.e. education o
girls, reorms o local democracy, tenure reorms, and een mass media that portrays women
with jobs and decision-making power ,\B 2011,.
?5-& /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' &5$ )$/$"& -"1 2"*2!"* =2)< 2" *$"1$)> /0!'-&$ /5-"*$ -"1 )$"$=-30$ $"$)*+@

1he ocus on gender equality and energy in the climate change debate in particular in relation
to decentralized renewable energy technology and mitigation strategies - proides opportunities
but these must go hand in hand with a gender and rights perspective to ensure that womens
rights to energy are realized.

Seeral ailures o recognition show up: Renewable energy interentions that ail to understand
the gender diision o labour risk adding additional burden on women and,or excluding women
from new opportunities. In terms of redistribution failures, womens lack of access to and
control oer resources and beneits ,such as land, commercial crops, income and credit,
education etc., act as barriers or women to realize energy rights through renewable energy
technologies and programmes. 1hese not only disadantage women rom equitable beneiting
rom potential opportunities that climate change interentions oer but also position them to be
adersely aected by such initiaties rom increased burden while strengthening the adantages
of men. Overall, they can serve to reproduce lack of realization of womens rights to energy.

2010s: The urban poor

\hile lack o access to electricity and use o biomass or cooking are clearly rural phenomena,
there are also many urban households who cannot obtain reliable electricity and who spend large

ractions o their budgets on cooking uel. In South Asias major urban centers, energy poverty
is prominent in slums and urban dwellings. In Sub Saharan Arica urban energy access
diiculties are widespread and it is estimated that 20 o the urban populations hae no access
to electricity and that 60 still depend on biomass or cooking ,OLCD,IAC 2010,. 1he urban
poor are ery heterogeneous. 1he largest group, with ewest assets, is made up o women and
children. Recent data rom UNDP indicates that 40 per cent o the poorest households in urban
areas are headed by women ,UNDP 2009a,. \omen-headed households are particularly
ulnerable to exclusion rom access to modern serice because o insecure tenure oten as a
consequence o cultural norms and unequal legal rights ,UN lABI1A1 2009a,.

As eidenced rom this study, generic energy access igures hide oer a gender-speciic reality:
the energy access o women in urban areas is played out in the context o gendered roles and
responsibilities and unequal power relations. Lidence suggests that household energy in urban
areas is largely womens responsibly. Urban women process, prepare and cook food and are
responsible or the burden o acquiring the energy needed to perorm these tasks. Besides
biomass ,including charcoal,, liquid petroleum gas ,LPG, and kerosene are requently used in
poor urban settings. Poor urban women appear to hae swapped the drudgery o uel-wood
collection or the stress o juggling tight household budgets to buy uels and this in the ace o
ewer uel choices than rural women ,Clancy et al 2003,.

Interestingly, studies illustrate that it is more diicult to disaggregate energy and equipment use
between reproductie and productie tasks in urban compared to rural households. Many urban
women use household equipment or operating household-based enterprises and ood-
processing businesses. Because o this linkage between gender, household energy and urban
enterprises, many woman in urban areas seem to beneit signiicantly by increasing the range o
serices they can oer with access to equipment running on electricity ,including motie power,
and other clean and eicient modern uels ,Cecelski 2000, Clancy et al 2006,.

It seems that womens domestic type of work is more visible and more recognized than is oten
the case in rural households. Some eidence points to urban women being able to control
production processes and keeping the proits generated ,Clancy 2004,. Lidence is mixed about
the beneits poor urban women can derie rom renewable energy programmes as consumers
and entrepreneurs ,IRADe,LNLRGIA 2009,.

Access to electricity by the urban poor is howeer oten complex, expensie and illegal ,1LRI
2008,. Utility companies are interested in extending their energy serices to increase reenues
but are discouraged to operate in slum settlements where reenue losses are a big problem
because illegal tapping is prevalent. Even if companies make electricity available to slums, the
reliably o the supply is oten daunting. Lack o tenureship and missing identiication documents
,including proo o residence, are major impediments or the urban poor in particular women
- to obtain access to energy serices and many other basic serices ,1ully 2006,. Some studies
seem to indicate that a push to electrify informal/illegal slum dwellers can accelerate a process
o social inclusion and gaining them more equitable access to other social serices ,Smyser
2009,.

Another serious problem related to access to electricity in slums is the lack o aordability. Low
income leels, inlexible tari structures, and unaordable connection ees are barriers to the
lebruary 2012 44

realization o energy rights o women liing in slums. Setting up pre-payment systems and the
proision o loans,credit or connection costs hae been promoted with some success in many
places in Arica, but the gender dimensions o these experiences are not analysed ,UN
lABI1A1 2009b,. Lack o trust between slum inhabitants and serice proiders, corruption
and exploitation within the slum community (slum-lord or slum-ladies controlling the
electricity connection and exploiting the demand, are other issues that add to the complexity o
urban energy access or the poorest ,1LRI 2008,.

?5-& 0$%%2"% /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' ;20!/+ -"1 ;)-/&!/$ 2, &5$ IJ^J%@

Obiously it is a bit too early to draw lessons learned rom the present decade. loweer, the
energy rights o the urban poor, in particular urban women, are becoming increasingly. It is also
clear that many Goernments so ar hae not been able to realize the right to energy access or
this growing disadantaged group.

Universal access to energy services

International concern about energy access is growing. Lort has recently been to understand
what energy access actually means. ILA deines energy access on the basis o three
incremental leels o access to energy serices, i.e. 1, luman Needs, 2, Productie Uses, and 3,
Modern Energy Services (AGECC 2010). Universal energy access is defined as access to clean,
reliable and aordable energy serices or cooking and heating, lighting, communications and
productive uses, which emphasizes levels 1 and 2 (AGECC 2010).

1his looks similar to the idea of the the energy ladder put forward by the IEA in 2002. The
hypothesis was that the ability o poor rural people to make an energy transition rom biomass
and other less eicient uels to modern more eicient orms o uel ,such as LPG and
electricity, was circumscribed by their economic status. A sequential change o uels was
expected as income rose ,Ramani and leijndermans 2003,. 1his idea has howeer been
criticized or not relecting reality. Lidence shows that households use multiple uels and the
choice o uels is inluenced not only by income, but also by aailability, end-use equipment,
security o supply, cultural preerences, conenience and saety concerns ,Pachauri and Spreng
2003, \B 2011,. In other words, as discussed earlier, the choice o uel is a gendered one that is
determined by intra-household decision-making, the status o women, as well as the alue
attached to womens labour.

Attempts to deine energy access dier by the starting point: the demand side or the supply side.
Bazilian et al ,2010, argue that indicators that quantiy energy consumption ,such as the quantity
o energy consumed or the share o households with access to electricity, poorly inorm policy
makers and deelopment planners because they do not relect the demand side. An alternatie is
to measure energy depriation, or example the lack o ability to pay or energy serices. Bazilian
et al ,2010, goes on to suggest the deelopment o an international measurement tool or
uniersal access to energy to inorm national policies and international cooperation.

Practical Action (2010) advocates for the same idea but stresses that its basis should be peoples
experiences o energy. 1hey suggest the international agreement o a number o minimum
service standards across a full range of key energy services that constitute total energy access.
Lxamples include lighting ,300 lumes at household leel, and space heating ,minimum daytime

indoor temperature 12 C,. Such a set o internationally agreed minimum standards would allow
clear and comparable assessments o the realization o energy rights. Practical Action also
proposes an Lnergy Access Index that consists o a set o indicators that assign a numerical
alue to the qualitatie aspects o energy access in three dimensions: household uels, electricity
and mechanical power. 1hey argue that improements thereby can be tracked in the dimensions
that matter to people.

?5-& /-" 3$ 0$-)"$1 ,)2' &5$ )$/$"& -"1 2"*2!"* 1$3-&$ 2" ."!#$)%-0 -//$%% &2 $"$)*+ %$)#!/$%@

lrom a gender and rights perspectie, achieing uniersal access to energy serices requires
addressing the dierent kinds o rights ailures identiied in this study. 1hese ailures are related
to the unair distribution o resources and serices based on unequal social relations, as well as
the structural lack o recognition o the alue o dierent social categories o people.

lebruary 2012 44

Annex 3: Channels and mechanisms for claiming rights in the energy system

National level of energy governance

I);,&#/#<, $%&8<%8&,$ I);,&#/#<,
<@/##,:$
N'B, )* <:/"1
7 $,:,<%,6 ,C/1B:,$ ?/$,6 )# &"-@%$
*/":8&,$ "6,#%"*",6 "# $,<%")# O
N@, 1,%@)6$ &"-@%$7@):6,&$
PQ
</# 8$, %) ,#-/-,
Parliament and political parties.
1he modern sector: Ministry o
Lnergy and Industry ,or similar,
1he biomass biomass sector:
Ministry o lorests, Natural
Resources ,or similar,
Other sector ministries: inance,
agriculture, transport, equality
etc.
National deelopment
organizations and NGOs,
inancing institutions.

Priate sector organizations,
inancing organizations, banks

Public-priate partnerships.

International deelopment
organizations, including donors,
multi-lateral organizations and
NGOs
Policy
channels:
Public macro-
leel and
sector-leel
policy and
planning

Legal system:
Legal bodies

Priate
channels:
e.g. corporate
social
accountability
79NOBRWLWOR:
Negotiation oer the explicit inclusion o
gender equality in national energy policies,
goals, and targets and the establishment o
energy sector accountability mechanisms.

798WKL7WXWLWOR:
Negotiation oer the establishment o
institutional and regulatory incenties or
the priate sector to extend reach to rural,
poor women.

Process o demanding new legislation or
women land rights.

Negotiation oer the proision o credit
acilities or decentralized renewable
energy solutions accessible to women as
well as men.

Process o demanding measures to
increase womens decision-making
positions in the energy sector.

9"*-*$'$"& in ormal stakeholder processes about national energy policy, planning and
budget processes ,examples gender audit processes, gender-budget exercises,

N200$/&!#$ '2"!&2)!"* of energy service provision: Conduct peoples audits,social audits o
energy sector interentions.

V233+!"* goernment representaties in national consultation processes or international
meetings ,such as RIO-20,

V$*-0 -/&!2" e.g claim land rights

K$/.)$ %.;;2)& -"1 ,."1!"* rom donors and international organizations.

9"*-*$'$"& with banks and inancial organization to ensure credit.

V233+!"* priate sector actors demanding Corporate Social Responsibility ,CSR,

R$&=2)<!"* -"1 -00!-"/$43.!01!"* at national leel and link up to the international leel.

W",2)'-0 -"1 !"#!%!30$ -1#2/-/+ through contacts, e.g. interaction with indiiduals ,public
and priate decision-makers,.

A2)'-0 -1#2/-/+ ,media reporting, campaigning, inormation proision etc,

20
Including organizations/groups claiming rights on behalf of constituency (for example womens rights organizations or womens groups,

Global level of energy governance

I);,&#/#<, $%&8<%8&,$ I);,&#/#<, <@/##,:$ N'B, )* <:/"1
7 $,:,<%,6 ,C/1B:,$ ?/$,6 )# -,#6,& /#6
&"-@%$ /#/:'$"$ )* -);,&#/#<, $'$%,1 "#
$,<%")# R
N@, 1,%@)6$ &"-@%$7@):6,&$ </# 8$, %) ,#-/-,
Multilateral organizations ,UN
etc, and inancing institutions
,\B, ADB etc,

International deelopment
organizations including donors
and NGOs

International public-priate
partnerships ,such as the
Renewable Lnergy and Lnergy
Liciency Partnership
RLLLP,

Multinational companies

Policy channels: L.g.
international conerences
,such as RIO-20, and
multilateral initiaties
,SL4ALL,

Legal system:
L.g. ormal and inormal
human rights treaty
monitoring processes.

Priate channels:
L.g. global corporate
social accountability.
79NOBRWLWOR:
Process o demanding the recognition o access to
energy serices as a human right.

equality in international goals, targets and related
monitoring systems
21
or uniersal access to
energy serices.

798WKL7WXWLWOR:
Negotiation oer international energy inancing:
e.g. \B to ocus lending on increasing energy
access or women through clean decentralized
energy sources
22
and un-blocking climate
inancing to include targeted actions that will
beneit
23
women, including maintaining a unding
window for womens groups.
24

V233+!"* goernment delegates and representaties o deelopment
organizations at international conerences or other international
arenas o decision-making
25
.

V233+!"* multinationals demand global Corporate Social
Responsibility ,CSR, ,global standards, codes o conduct, social
inestment or inancing etc,.
26

V$*-0 -/&!2" based on the international legal rights instruments
aailable ,CLDA\ article 14 ,2,,h, on the right to enjoy on
electricity,
2
.

8!)$/& -1#2/-/+ ,campaigning, media, inormation proision, research
etc, and !",2)'-0 -"1 !"#!%!30$ -1#2/-/+ through contacts, e.g.
interaction with indiiduals ,public and priate decision-makers,.

21
Bazilian 2010 and Practical Action 2010 both recommend an international monitoring system to assess the progress towards eliminating energy poerty. \hile gender dimensions are part
o their analysis the reports are not explicitly recommending that gender concerns should be included in the monitoring system.
22
Bast and Krisnaswami 2011
23
1horsen et al 2011.
24
Arend and Lowman 2011, 1horsen et al 2011
25
Lxamples are the Global Gender and Climate Alliance and the \omen and Gender Constituency o the UNlCCC ,LNLRGIA 2010,.
26
For example lobbying for a transparent application and monitoring of the Global Reporting Initiatives Sustainability Reporti ng which since March 2011 includes indicators on gender and
human rights that priate sector organizations ,and other organizations, can use to assess their social perormance ,GRI 2011,.
2
1ully 2006

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