Energy and Gender for Sustainable Development: A Toolkit and Resource Guide

3.4 Sample Project Outlines: Gender and Energy Issues in Various
Development Sectors 9

Excerpted from Gail Karlsson, Integrating Gender and Energy Perspectives Into Sustainable Development Projects (New York: UNDP, 2003.)

The following annotated outlines of sample development objectives and activities illustrate the ways in which energy and gender issues are linked to projects in other sectors, and to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The examples are intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive, exploring ways in which gender and energy considerations could affect a variety of development activities, including those related to food security, health, education, and environmental conditions. The outlines are based on a standard format for UNDP project descriptions.

Reducing Hunger in Rural Areas through Improved Agricultural Productivity
(in support of Millennium Development Goal 1)

Close to 70 percent of poor people in developing countries live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. Extreme poverty and hunger push people onto marginal lands and more fragile ecosystems characterised by drought stress and low soil fertility. Increases in agricultural productivity can bring rapid reductions in hunger and poverty.

Gender perspective: Where women are the ones primarily responsible for agricultural growth in developing countries, promoting gender equality and empowering women is important for achieving sustainable agricultural development.

Immediate Objective: Increased food production in areas suffering from drought and erosion
Extreme poverty and hunger push people onto marginal lands and more fragile ecosystems characterised by drought stress and low soil fertility

Gender perspective: About 70 percent of the people in the world living in poverty are women. The most fundamental questions regarding the project design are: Will both men and women benefit from any increase in food production? What additional activities could be added that would be of particular benefit to women? Will some activities actually increase the hardships experienced by women?

Outputs
(1) (2) (3)	Improved irrigation systems that deliver water more effectively, increase crop production, and diversify crop choices. Soil enrichment, resulting in increased crop yields and food supplies. Increased productivity of value-added activities based on agricultural products.

Gender perspective: Are the benefits equitably shared by men and women in the community, or are there cultural or socio-economic barriers that prevent women from participating in the activities?

Activities
(1)	Improve availability and efficiency of irrigation distribution systems. Increased food production will have to come mainly from intensified and efficient use of limited resources, particularly water. Productivity on non-irrigated land is generally very low. Improved irrigation services, such as more timely and more adequate water supplies, would particularly benefit the poor.

Gender and energy issues: Would the irrigation systems be used only for fields where cash crops are grown and there is thus income generated to pay for the systems, or would they also be available for household food production plots? If people have to borrow money for the irrigation systems, do women have the same access to credit facilities as men? Would there be water pumps for the irrigation systems? Could they also be used to pump water for household uses, potentially relieving the burden on women and girls carrying water? What sort of energy system would be used for pumping? Could the equipment also be used to provide other sorts of energy services?

(2)	Increase levels of soil nutrients by leaving crop residues on the fields. soil nutrition improvements can be achieved by building up organic matter on land with low fertility.

Gender and energy considerations: Do crop residues currently constitute an important source of biomass for use as fuel? Are substitute fuel sources available? If women are responsible for providing fuel for household uses, would a decrease in availability of crop residues cause additional burdens on women having to search for firewood or other alternative fuels? Would activities to expand access to fuel alternatives be appropriate in connection with this project?

Inputs
(1)	Investments of capital and labour in improving irrigation systems and water management plans.

Gender perspective: Would men and women both be able to provide the labour and capital needed to achieve the improvements in irrigation services? Are there time, income, asset, and borrowing constraints that affect women more than men?

(2)	Identification of appropriate areas for fertilisation using crop residues. Community education and training programmes and extension services. Implementation of soil nutrient enrichment practices.

Gender perspective: Would women and men have the same access to information, training programmes, and extension services?

Outcomes
(1) (2)	More food produced on land where irrigation systems are added or improved. More food produced on land where crop residues are used for soil nutrition

Gender perspective: Do women obtain an equitable share of the additional food produced? Are there additional physical burdens and time requirements that offset the value of the increased amounts of available food? Are the increases in crop production for cash crops (men’s domain) or subsistence crops (women’s domain) or both?

Promoting Primary Schooling for Children
(in support of Millennium Development Goal 2)

Immediate Objective: Higher education levels for increased numbers of children in rural areas
In developing countries, millions of children receive little or no education, or drop out of school at an early age. Illiteracy denies people the means of escaping conditions of poverty. Basic education is one of the most powerful forces for economic development.

Gender perspective: In most developing countries, literacy rates for women and girls are far lower than those for men and boys. In rural areas, girls are often held back from school to assist their mothers with domestic chores, missing out on education. Women’s education can lead to improvements in family health, economic and social status.

Output
(1)	More children in rural areas attending primary school.

Activities
(1)	Build new schools and classrooms in rural villages. Children are less likely to receive primary education if they have to travel long distances to attend school. More school facilities are needed to ensure that all children have access to primary schools.

Gender perspective: If children have to travel long distances to get to school, boys are more likely than girls to be allowed to go.

(2)	Establish distribution systems for cooking fuels to replace traditional fuels.

Inputs
(1) (2)	Capital and labour required for construction, outfitting, and staffing of new schools. Investments and expertise to establish marketing and distribution systems to supply cooking fuels to rural villages

Outcomes
(1)	More girls and boys completing primary school education.

Gender and energy considerations: Even when schools are within easy access for children living in rural villages, there may be other factors, including traditional divisions of labour, that keep girls from attending school or make it likely that they will drop out early. In situations where women have no motorised equipment for pumping water, grinding grain, and performing other time-consuming and physically demanding chores, and where they have to spend a great deal of time and effort gathering fuel and water for household uses, they are likely to keep the girls out of school to help with domestic activities. Better access to alternative cooking fuels would relieve some of the burdens on women responsible for finding and carrying traditional fuels, such as firewood, dung, and agricultural residues, and would make it less likely that young girls would be required to stay home to assist with survival activities.

(2)	Women relieved of burdens and adverse health effects of cooking with traditional fuels.

Reducing Child Mortality in Rural Areas
(in support of Millennium Development Goal 4)

Immediate Objective: Improving household health conditions for children in rural areas
Millions of young children die every year from diseases that could be prevented by changes in household energy practices. Acute respiratory infections related to indoor air pollution are the primary cause of disease and mortality in children under five, causing more deaths and ill health than either malnutrition, diarrhoea, or childhood diseases like measles and mumps.

Output
(1)	More children in rural areas living past five years of age.

Activities
(1)	Provide information and advice to parents about ways to reduce indoor air pollution from unventilated cooking fires. Women and young children are the ones most affected by indoor air pollution because they spend the most time in homes with unventilated fires. Adverse health impacts from indoor air pollution can be reduced by installing chimneys, vents and partitions for smoky areas, locating kitchens properly to reduce smoke exposure, minimising time spent near indoor fires, and using smooth surfacing for walls, roofs and kitchens so that soot and dust can be cleaned.
(2)	Train local entrepreneurs to build, market, and distribute improved stoves and cleaner fuels. Increased access to cleaner fuels for cooking and heating, and to more efficient and less polluting stoves, will reduce children’s exposure to smoke, particulates and pollutants such as carbon monoxide, benzene and formaldehyde that are associated with acute respiratory infections.

Inputs
(1)	Preparation of educational materials. Trained advisors to conduct community and household information programmes.
(2)	Investments in training programmes, market development, and distribution systems.

Outcomes
(1)	Fewer children dying from acute respiratory infections.
(2)	Fewer women exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution.

Protecting the Environment by Reversing the Loss of Natural Forest Resources
(in support of Millennium Development Goal 7)

Immediate Objective: Preserving and restoring forest cover in vulnerable areas
Forests provide a variety of valuable environmental services related to conservation of soil and water in fragile ecosystems, control of desertification and protection of land from wind and water erosion. Forests are damaged when they are over-harvested, over-exploited by forest industries, and when the rural poor, lacking income opportunities, clear forest land for subsistence agriculture.

Gender and energy perspective: In developing countries, women and girls are generally responsible for gathering fuel for household uses. Although fuelwood gathering is rarely the primary cause of forest degradation, scarcity of wood resources forces women and girls to travel farther and spend more time and physical labour searching for and hauling fuel, with serious negative consequences for their health and opportunities for education and productive employment.

Outputs
(1) (2) (3)	Environmentally sustainable management of forest areas. Replacement of trees in degraded forests. Improvements in efficiency of use of wood fuel for household and productive purposes.

Activities
(1)	Establishing community management programmes for vulnerable forest areas. Preservation of forests can be enhanced by management programmes that give local residents rights to use natural resources in the forest for fuel, food and fodder, timber, and other saleable products, and provide incentives to use these resources in sustainable ways.

Gender and energy perspective: Special structures should be put in place to ensure that women have an equal say in the establishment of community forest management programmes and in decisions about resource conservation and use. Due to women’s traditional roles in providing for household fuel and food requirements, and their valuable knowledge about local conditions, their input is essential for equitable, effective, and environmentally sustainable resource management.

(2)

Planting trees in degraded forest areas.

(3)

Stimulating local production and marketing of more efficient cook stoves, ovens, and kilns. Locally available clay, biomass waste products, or other materials may be adaptable for production of more energy-efficient stoves, heating equipment or fuels for household uses, and income-generating activities. Besides the economic and social benefits of lower fuelwood consumption, less fuel burned would mean less local and indoor air pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Gender and energy perspective: Women, in particular, would benefit from the availability of more energy-efficient equipment or products that would reduce the amount of time they spend gathering fuel, reduce their exposure to air pollution, and increase their opportunities for engaging in income-generating enterprises. Women’s knowledge regarding use and management of trees and forest products can make an important contribution to environmental planning processes.

Inputs

(1)

(2)
(3)

Government support for granting resource management rights to forest communities. Training and organisation of community men and women in resource management planning and project implementation.
Investments in nurseries, seedlings, fertiliser. Time, labour, and transportation for planting and managing trees.
Consultations with local women and men about available natural resources that could be used for production of more energy-efficient stoves or alternative fuel sources. Training in production methods. Investments in market development and product distribution.

Outcomes
(1) (2) (3) (4)	Forests protected by means of community-based sustainable management programmes. Trees replanted in damaged or degraded forest areas. Demand for fuelwood decreased. Greater economic opportunities for local men and women through sustainable livelihoods based on use and protection of forest resources.

Further Reading

Integrating Household Energy into Rural Development Programmes, by A. Klingshirn (2000). Available online at http://www.energia.org/pubs/papers/klingshirnhep.pdf. Despite urbanisation, most people in developing countries still live in rural areas and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Agricultural production is the basis of rural economies, but other rural industries such as fish smoking, beer brewing, production of simple agricultural tools, and tea and coffee drying also provide essential livelihoods in most rural areas. Women carry out many of these activities in close proximity to the household. The author argues that since household energy plays a large role in women’s work, one of the most effective ways of supporting rural development is by integrating household energy activities into all types of rural development programmes. This article sets out the benefits and limitations of this approach, drawing on practical experiences in development projects in East and West Africa.

Integrating Sustainable Human Development into Project Design: A Good Practice Handbook (New York: UNDP, 2001). Available online at http://eltree.undp.org/LEservlets/IRS?to=Workspace.0-62285. This handbook was developed in response to demand from UNDP country offices for a simple tool to aid in the task of integrating sustainable human development dimensions into the design of projects. While the original assessment was based on projects in the agricultural sector, participating country offices recommended that the Handbook have a wider application to other sectors. The primary targeted users are UNDP staff charged with responsibility for designing projects and programmes. Secondary users would be the local partners with whom they work and those interested in learning more about how to effectively integrate the sustainable human development dimensions of poverty, gender, participation, and environment. The guide is meant to be used at the conceptualisation stage of a project to aid in successfully incorporating these substantive aspects into project design.

“Household Energy Isn’t All About Stoves” by Joy S. Clancy, 1998, Boiling Point, No. 41, IT Publications. Available online at http://www.itdg.org/?id=boiling_point. This article is an important reminder that the demands for household energy go beyond stoves and include energy services for agriculture and so-called cottage industries. The author points out that a good understanding of the way in which agriculture and related activities are influenced by local conditions is necessary to make appropriate energy interventions and gives examples of the multiple use of crops. Attention is drawn to the need to listen to women and to employ a gender analysis of activities, ownership, access, and control over resources.

Village Power in Solomon Islands,” by Nixon Silas Pio and Joina Tutua, in ENERGIA News 6, Issue 2 (January 2004). Available online at http://www.energia.org/resources/newsletter/enarchive.html. This article is a celebration of development by local people for local people. The authors describe how a small hydro project based on the resources of the village has grown into what is now called the Village First Electrification Programme – Solomon Islands, the only active energy programme in the region with a stated gender policy. Paying attention to holistic development in an energy programme, greater local ownership in the processes, and a stronger connection to the social and gender contexts are lesson to be drawn from this experience.

9. Excerpted from Gail Karlsson, Integrating Gender and Energy Perspectives Into Sustainable Development Projects (New York: UNDP, 2003.)