As household energy managers, women have a great deal to contribute towards sustainable energy development. Going by the role the society has ascribed for them, women are the main stewards of their families.
While they make up a large part of energy consumers, women lack access to sustainable and affordable clean energy services as far as Sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, making them the biggest victim of energy poverty. This somewhat paradoxical situation is deserving of more attention as it cuts across every aspect of socio-economic growth, not to mention the global warming crisis.
In Africa, women are the major drivers of entrepreneurship running medium and small-scale enterprises. Yet, somewhere in the continent, there are still women and young girls who spend hours every day collecting firewood some of which would be used for cooking and heating. In the absence of electricity, they resort to candles, kerosene, or alternative and dirty fuels to light their homes which is detrimental to their health, the environment, and family’s finances.
Energy poverty can cause malnutrition and other health-related issues such as respiratory diseases (due to smoke inhalation while cooking on open fires) and skeletal deformity. Energy poverty also limits income-generation activities, such as those in the informal food sector where people earn a living by selling cooked food on the side of the road
While it is imperative for any energy transition policy to explicitly considers how everyone can access equitable opportunities, it should be more so for women. This, to a large extent, could mitigate the impacts of energy poverty.
This is one of the themes explored in a recently published TIPS policy brief titled, ‘A just energy transition to facilitate household energy access and alleviate energy poverty’. The brief explains that a just transition is about taking care of the environment by rehabilitating and repurposing the whole economy so that it operates in an environmentally sustainable manner for present and future generations.
“Reducing energy poverty and increasing access to energy is a core component of a just transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy and society. Yet it is often overlooked. A just energy transition should also focus on how gender concerns relate to policy in the energy sector.
Gender mainstreaming of energy policies and strategies should be at the core of planning a just energy transition. This should ensure that advancing the energy system considers the way it will affect men and women and its impacts on gender relations,” it states.
Thus, women’s specific energy demands and requirements should be met in view of their role as primary energy users. To achieve this, there’s a need for more women participation across different segments of the energy supply chain and active involvement in energy production.
From an economic point of view, women’s awareness of the households’ energy needs puts them in a unique position to tackle them more effectively, designing more adequate solutions, technologies, services, and policies.
“Such awareness also increases women’s capability and authority in influencing their peers when promoting cleaner cookstoves or decentralized solutions to produce electricity. This speeds up the process to obtain universal access to clean and modern energy,” says the reports.
