Transcript Working Group 1

Working Group 1
MAINSTREAMING GENDER
IN ENERGY POLICY
Guiding Questions
2
 Identify gender constraints and opportunities
 Select at least two priority policy areas within the
sector for mainstreaming gender
 Define the mechanisms required to achieve the
expected outcomes
 Make a convincing argument to the Cabinet on our
proposal
Gender Constraints
3
• Women unable to get into professions that help them to
pursue careers in the energy field
–
–
Male dominated (closed male shop) & therefore more openness
from males is necessary
Women afraid to get into relevant fields
• Energy policies are gender blind
• Energy sector is very centralised and therefore access to
resources is limited
Gender Opportunities
4
 Job creation for women
 Involvement in the macro economy
 Involvement in decision making at higher levels
 Improving livelihoods
 Energy is cross cutting across other sectors
Priority policy areas for mainstreaming gender
5
 Access to clean and sustainable energy
services
 Efficient and affordable energy services
Mechanisms to achieve the expected outcomes
6
 Setting clear targets that are measurable and appointing
a responsible body to ensure they are met
 Establishing gender criteria in the financing of large
energy projects – (How funding affects male/female)
 Conducting gender audits to identify weak areas in GMS
& developing strategies and action plans to address them
Mechanisms to achieve the expected outcomes
(Contd..)
7
• Providing financing mechanisms that enable women to
move from lower to higher awareness levels (technical
training & capacity building)
▫
Governments should develop modalities of readily financing such
processes
• Designing projects in accordance with needs assessment
(Not all women are at the same level)
• Gender Ministries should take the lead in bringing the
problems of women to the fore
Convincing argument to the Cabinet
8
• GMS likely to lead to better targets, results and
utilisation of budgetary resources
• Greater contribution to economic development
(increase in GDP in the medium term up to 1-3%)
• Technical women’s contribution to the energy sector is
immense
–
Need to support this with data that clearly defines the gap to be
filled through GMS
Convincing argument to the Cabinet (Contd..)
9
• It is a right for women to have access to clean and
affordable energy services
• Women are the majority in rural areas and therefore
GMS will enable them to deliver on the rural
development mandate
•
It will lead to the achievement of a better functioning
society in terms of productivity (Labour input/output) &
social balance