Brokering Gender Empowerment in Energy Access in the Global South

Anne Schiffer; Mary Greene; Rihab Khalid; Chris Foulds; Cecilia Alda Vidal; Monolita Chatterjee; Sunrita Dhar-Bhattacharjee; Norbert Edomah; Obehi Sule; Debajit Palit; Amos Nkpeebo Yesutanbul

doi:10.5334/bc.236

Figures & Tables

Conceptualising energy brokerage for improved gender equity and empowerment: understandings, agency and brokering practices in relation to emerging energy technologies and energy transitions.

Table 1

Summary of interview participants.

CASE STUDY COUNTRIES		GHANA (GH)	NIGERIA (NG)	INDIA (IN)	PAKISTAN (PK)	OVERALL
Participant count (% across all countries)		25 (29.1%)	20 (23.3%)	20 (23.3%)	21 (24.4%)	86 (100%)
Participants per gender (% across country)	Men (m)	14 (56.0%)	10 (50.0%)	7 (35.0%)	8 (38.1%)	39 (45.3%)
Participants per gender (% across country)	Women (w)	11 (44.0%)	10 (50.0%)	13 (65.0%)	13 (61.9%)	47 (54.7%)
Participants per stakeholder type (% across country)	Policy (all stakeholders connected to policy development and implementation, including elected politicians, policy officers, policymakers, etc.)	2 (8.0 %)	2 (10.0%)	4 (20.0%)	4 (19.1%)	12 (14.0%)
	Electric (stakeholders from institutions/companies concerned with the generation, distribution and supply of electricity, e.g. energy utilities, distribution network operators, energy coops)	5 (20.0%)	2 (10.0%)	2 (10.0%)	3 (14.3%)	12 (14.0%)
	NGO (including all civil society and NGOs working on energy provision)	9 (36.0%)	5 (25.0%)	4 (20.0%)	6 (28.6%)	24 (27.9%)
	Planners (development authorities/planners/architects (i.e. those responsible for putting the visions into plans)	2 (8.0%)	4 (20.0%)	4 (20.0%)	3 (14.3%)	13 (15.1%)
	Delivery (engineers and others responsible for putting those vision-led plans into action, i.e. delivering services and solutions)	3 (12.0%)	6 (30.0%)	3 (15.0%)	5 (23.8%)	17 (19.8%)
	Other	4 (16.0%)	1 (5.0%)	3 (15.0%)	0 (0.0%)	8 (9.3%)

[i] Note: NGO = non-governmental organization.

Brokerage of gender equity and women’s empowerment in energy access through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and/or delivery-based energy brokers.

Table 2

Energy professional considerations for improving equity in energy access for women.

ENERGY ACCESS BROKERAGE	CONSIDERATIONS FOR NGO/DELIVERY ACTORS	QUESTION FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES, POLICYMAKERS, PLANNERS
Understandings Meanings and understanding of ‘conditional factors’ including socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-technical and socio-political dimensions	What are the specific underlying socio-cultural structures that exacerbate energy-access inequalities for women in the context where we operate? Who makes decisions about emerging technologies and infrastructure at household and community levels (including energy finance)? How do geographies of inequity play out at the grassroots level, e.g. in relation to the gendered use of buildings and application of emerging energy technologies?	What are the socio-cultural norms that shape different women’s energy access and consumption at home, in the community or the city? What is the role of women in energy systems change including policy, supply chains and decision-making at different scales? What geographies of gender inequity exist? How are these experienced by different women in society (e.g. rural, urban periphery)?
Agency Political, financial, material as well as social constraints	How does the positionality of energy professionals in my organisation affect engagement at grassroots level and in their interactions with national energy forums? What organisational support can be offered to ‘lone’ women professionals operating in these contexts? What political, financial and material resources are available to support gender equity in energy access at the grassroots level? What opportunities are there to translate grassroots experiences into national policy frameworks?	How do we foster greater understanding and representation of gender in national energy forums? How do we ensure decisions are made by and with, instead of about, women? Do policy frameworks explicitly and sufficiently support gender equity in energy access? What finance and other resources are available to support this? Are we collecting and making gender-disaggregated data available to help improve gender equity in energy access?
Professional practices Energy-access brokers’ interventions	Are we promoting women in decision-making processes that affect the energy technologies they use? Are we promoting women in wider energy systems roles or just viewing them as consumers? Are our emerging technology interventions helping to shift entrenched gender norms and roles and/or address women’s needs beyond economic participation?	Are we ensuring women’s participation in energy systems change is meaningful or simply offer tokenistic inclusion? Do we have effective mechanisms in place to ensure gender-sensitive policy translates into improved gender equity in energy access at grassroots level?

Brokering Gender Empowerment in Energy Access in the Global South

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Table 1

Figure 2

Table 2

Paradigm

My account