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

2.2 What Are the Energy Needs of Women in Developing Countries? 2

Adapted from Gail Karlsson and Susan McDade, “Introduction,” and Salome Misana, “Overview,” in Generating Opportunities: Case Studies on Energy and Women (New York: UNDP, 2001), www.undp.org/energy/publications/2001/2001a.htm, with information added from International Forum for Rural Transport and Development Web site, http://ifrtd.gn.apc.org

Energy policies relating to fuel choices, electricity generating capacity, and energy delivery systems have impacts on development that are not generally analysed in all of their social and economic dimensions. Although decision makers may view their energy-related choices as gender neutral, men and women are affected differently by energy policies wherever their home, work, and community roles differ. While small amounts of electricity at home in the evening hours may improve the quality of life for some members of the family, including through illumination for reading, and entertainment and communication through radios and televisions, for other members of the family it may simply extend the working day. In the former case it is men, and to some extent children, who benefit most, while in the latter case it is women who usually bear the burden. In many cases, the provision of electricity without attention to the provision of modern cooking fuels or appliances has resulted in rural electrification that in fact increases the hardships of women because the working day is prolonged while traditional fuel use patterns remain in place; solar home systems cannot supply the energy for cooking. Attention to these sorts of differing interests is needed in order to achieve effective and equitable distribution of energy services.

As a starting point for gender-sensitive energy planning, it is important to identify the energy services of primary importance to women and to consider options for providing those services. Energy planning is often focused on increasing supplies of fuel or electricity, especially for industrial and urban uses, with little attention to the energy demand characteristics of women, especially those in underserved rural areas. Rural energy needs for domestic, agricultural, and small-scale informal production activities, where women predominate, are given low priority.

Approaches that favour demand-side considerations rather than supply-side energy targets are more likely to positively reflect women’s actual needs. Overall, in order to reach the MDGs, energy should be considered within the context of community life, and energy policies and projects should be integrated in a holistic way with other programmes related to health, education, agriculture, and job creation.

Table 2.1
Energy Meets Women’s Practical, Productive, and Strategic Needs: Selected Examples

Energy Form	Women’s Needs and Issues
Energy Form	Practical Needs	Productive Needs	Strategic Issues
Electricity	Pumping water supplies - reducing need to haul and carry mills for grinding lighting improves working conditions at home	increase possibility of activities during evening hours provide refrigeration for food production and sale power for specialised enterprises such as hairdressing and Internet cafes	make streets safer allowing participation in other activities (e.g., evening classes and women’s group meetings) opening horizons through radio, TV, and Internet
Improved biomass (supply and conversion technology)	improved health through better stoves less time and effort in gathering and carrying firewood	more time for productive activities lower cost for process heat for income-generating activities	control of natural forests in community forestry management frameworks.
Mechanical	milling and grinding transport and portering of water and crops	increases variety of enterprises	transport allowing access to commercial and social/political opportunities
Source: Clancy, Skutsch, and Batchelor (2003).

Fuels for Household Use in Traditional Activities

Affordable access to modern fuels is needed to address cooking, heating, and food processing needs, and to reduce reliance on fuelwood and traditional uses of biomass materials. Inadequate access to cleaner fuels, and the high costs of related appliances technologies, have proven to be barriers preventing women from moving up the energy ladder away from traditional fuels towards cleaner, more efficient fuels

Lack of access to cleaner and more convenient fuels (such as LPG) dramatically increases the burdens on women as they carry out traditional household tasks, as well as income-generating activities. In many areas fuels other than wood and other forms of biomass are not available and actions are needed to promote better distribution systems and smaller gas-canister sizes that are more convenient for women to carry. Refill costs can also act as a significant barrier to continued usage.

Women’s income-generating activities also often involve fuel-intensive activities requiring thermal energy. Examples include beer brewing, food processing, and kiln-based activities (see Table 2.3). Moreover, many of women’s income-generating activities are actually carried out in the household and so a more holistic approach to household energy, which addresses both practical and productive energy needs, is required.

Mechanised Equipment

Electricity and mechanical power are needed for preparing foods, grinding grain, pumping water, and running equipment for household and community use as well as commercial activities. Decentralised rural electricity systems are essential for relieving the burdens of drudgery and expanding economic opportunities in rural areas, where women’s opportunities are most limited. Decentralised power can be obtained from conventional energy sources such as diesel generators; village or household systems using renewable energy sources such as wind, micro-hydro, and photovoltaics; or modernised biomass technologies. When electricity is used to support activities that generate revenue streams, women and their families can earn more income and can therefore afford to pay for the equipment, and for the electricity to run it.

Lighting

In areas without electrical power, adequate lighting is a critical need. Since illumination does not require a great deal of electrical power, better lighting can be provided through low-cost lighting options using battery power, small stand-alone home systems, or decentralised village power systems. Kerosene pricing policies also affect illumination opportunities for women.

Lighting is of particular significance for women. Global evidence has shown that the availability of lighting in the home increases women’s literacy and educational levels, and extends the working day of women for income-generating activities. Lighting in public places also increases the safety of communities, particularly for women, and allows women greater access to public gatherings. Street lighting also opens up opportunities for extended trading hours by street vendors, an income-generating activity favoured by women.

Box 2.1
Women in Bangladesh Make Battery-Powered Lamps

A project funded by the World Bank Energy Sector Management Programme (ESMAP) has been running on the remote island of Char Montaz in the south of Bangladesh since 1999 and aims to improve the lighting and indoor air quality of rural households by replacing the traditional kerosene lamps with modern fluorescent battery-powered lamps. The fluorescent lamps are produced and marketed by a women’s micro-enterprise and, so far, about one thousand households are using these lamps. The long-term potential is good with a market of 20,000 households in an area where grid extension within the next 20 years is highly unlikely.

The lamp business represents an important opportunity for the women to earn a relatively good wage. If a woman constructs and sells two lamps a day she earns the wages equivalent to a skilled labourer, a significant opportunity which both benefits her family and improves her social status.

The remote community also benefits from the lamps, which are highly efficient and have low energy consumption. The advantage over kerosene lamps is the reduced risk of fire, as well as the elimination of smoke and other emissions with their negative health impacts.

From the start, the project recognised the importance of rural women’s knowledge about local conditions and used major inputs by these women in the design of the energy service mechanisms. Recognising that women had gaps in their knowledge of electronic components, and a lack of skills with the tools needed to work with the components, the project gave appropriate training to ensure that reliable lamps were produced. Training was also given in accounting and bookkeeping. Male family members have also been encouraged to act as advisers to the women, especially on marketing, sales, and operating battery-charging services, a new activity that has developed out of the original project.

The indicators of project success include taking gender issues into account; using women’s existing knowledge in the project design; providing compensatory training for gaps in technical and business knowledge; gaining male family members’ support; providing income-generating opportunities; and providing a service the community wants.

Source: Khan (2001).

Water Pumping

In rural areas, women are often responsible for managing water for domestic consumption.

Where there are no water pumps, it is generally women who are tasked with hauling water for household needs. Besides creating additional burdens on women’s time and strength, water scarcity limits agricultural productivity, decreases family sanitation, and reduces women’s ability to prepare cooked food. Mechanical or electrified water pumping relieves women’s burdens and makes basic household sanitation and subsistence activities much healthier and less time-consuming. In remote areas, solar, micro-hydro, and wind-powered equipment can be used to pump water and also provide electricity. These technologies can be combined with diesel generators to form hybrid systems.

Box 2.2
PV Pump Project in Brazil Relieves Women’s Drudgery

A photo voltaic (PV) pump project was implemented in the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil by the Institute for Sustainable Development and Winrock International Brazil. The population of the area are small-scale farmers who are severely affected by variations in water level. A total of five PV-powered water pumps were installed, taking into consideration the local conditions. During three months of the year, the so-called dry season, primarily women and children have to walk for hours to fetch water and carry it in buckets or on their heads. The PV systems pump the water to a high reservoir from where it is distributed by gravity to the households. Not only have the pumps reduced the drudgery of the women, they have also contributed to increased economic activity, better health, and improved living conditions.

Source: Adelia de Melo Branco (2002).

Box 2.3
Women in Kenya Use Donkeys to Lighten their Load, Increase Income

In western Kenya, a collaborative project between IT Kenya and a local NGO, Future Forest, used an existing revolving savings and loan scheme to enable a women’s group to acquire donkeys. Women grouped together in threes to save half the cost of a donkey, with the balance provided on credit. The donkeys were mainly used for collecting water (twice as much as before) and for transporting soda ash, sand, and grains. The women are able to generate income for loan repayment by hiring out the donkeys to others and by trading transported goods (such as soda ash). Although women still spend a similar amount of time on transport, their personal energy expenditure and drudgery has been reduced and their income and economic security has increased.

Source: Fernando and Keter (1996).

Transportation

In regions where women and girls are the ones gathering fuel and water, lack of access to transportation services raises significant gender-related concerns, especially as nearby fuel and water resources become depleted or degraded. In many rural areas, there is no alternative to walking, and women rarely have access to vehicles to carry their loads. The work of transporting heavy loads injures and wears out women’s bodies. Moreover, the time consumed in transportation activities restricts their ability to engage in commercial agriculture or other economic enterprises, as well as the time available for taking care of their families and themselves. In urban areas, more women use public transport, and loss of fuel subsidies to this sector mean that women can suffer more than men in the costs of travel to work.

Box 2.4
Time and Energy to Perform Basic Household Chores: Eastern Zimbabwe

A study by Mehretu and Mutambira (1992) measured the time and energy used by different family members in transport connected with regular household activities. Chiduku Communal Area in eastern Zimbabwe is a resource-deficient area with a high population density. There is no electricity, and kerosene, which is used only for lighting, is very expensive. Seven routine trip-generating household activities were considered:

Fetching water for domestic consumption (represented as Water in the table)
Doing the family laundry (Laundry in the table)
Collecting firewood (Firewood in the table)
Grazing livestock (Livestock G in the table)
Providing water for livestock (Livestock W in the table)
Visits to local markets (Markets L in the table)
Visits to regional markets (Markets R in the table)

Activity	Total week’s household time (hours)	Female share of time (hours)	Female Contribution (%)	Energy cost (calories)
Water	10.3	9.3	91	2,495
Laundry	1.3	1.1	89	304
Firewood	4.5	4.1	91	1,068
Livestock G	7.7	3.0	39	1,672
Livestock W	6.9	2.3	39	1,484
Markets L	15.0	9.5	63	3,585
Markets R	0.3	0.2	61	76

Information and Communications

Electricity is essential for radios, televisions, and other electronic equipment used for information and communications. Women who are restricted in their ability to leave the home or participate in public affairs may rely more heavily than men on radios (or televisions, if available) for news, information, and entertainment. Radios can be operated with very little electricity and can be effective tools for information sharing, training, marketing, and public awareness programmes. Rural telephones can be effective in enabling women to maintain contact with family members working away from home. Telephones also facilitate business opportunities. Indeed, running telephone services can provide rural women with a business opportunity.

Further Reading

“Enabling Equitable Access to Rural Electrification: Current Thinking and Major Activities in Energy, Poverty and Gender,” by Elizabeth Cecelski (2002). Update of a briefing paper prepared for a brainstorming meeting on Asia Alternative Energy Policy and Project Development Support with emphasis on poverty alleviation and women. Available online at http://www.energia.org/pubs/papers/2002update_cecelskiastae.pdf. Gender and poverty challenges in widening access to electricity in rural areas are arising in the context of renewed interest in rural electrification, especially using renewable energy, as a tool both for sustainable energy development and for greater equity in rural areas. Poverty reduction and gender equity are now integral goals for all major development institutions. Energy assistance programmes are seeking models and approaches to respond to these mandates. This paper reviews current thinking on energy, poverty, and gender, with a focus on rural electrification and renewable energy, as an initial attempt to conceptualise linkages and needs in this area.

“Gender Equity and Renewable Energies,” by Joy Clancy, Sheila Oparaocha, and Ulrike Roehr (2004). Thematic Background Paper written for the Renewables 2004 Conference in Bonn, Germany. Available online at www.renewables2004.de/pdf/tbp/TBP12-gender.pdf. This paper reviews existing evidence on the role of renewable energies in bringing gender equity. It first explores the evolution of thinking on gender and energy, in particular that practitioners no longer specifically focus on women and stoves (often referred to as "household energy"). Next, it offers reasons why gender analysis can help those people trying to increase the dissemination of renewable energy technologies. It describes briefly the gender aspects of household energy and how various renewable energy technologies can contribute to drudgery reduction and time saving, particularly for women. The available data are primarily in the form of case studies related to stoves programmes and rural electricity grid extension.

Blowing the Smoke Out of the Kitchen: Gender Issues in Household Energy, by Joy Clancy (2003). Briefing paper available online at http://www.sparknet.info/goto.php/view/2/theme.html. This article looks at the issues relating to household energy and indicates that the way to more sustainable energy interventions involves applying a broader definition of household energy. This definition recognises the central role of the stove in the household, while at the same time recognising that household energy is part of an energy chain in which men and women play different roles. This chain allows household energy to be used as an entry point for rural development in general and women’s development in particular. Addressing household energy issues offers opportunities for time and labour saving, income generation, health improvements, and social empowerment. Equipment and household, in particular the kitchen, design are important but neglected issues influencing energy use and women’s work efficiency and health.

“Women, Transport Energy and Donkeys: Some Implications for Development Workers,” by Paul Starkey and Priyanthi Fernando, in ENERGIA News 2, Issue 3, August 1998. Available online at http://www.energia.org/resources/newsletter/enarchive.html. Programmes promoting rural development often fail to recognise the extent to which the transport burden consumes women’s energy. Interventions to mitigate the burden should be based on participatory rural appraisal, and use technologies, credit schemes, and training programmes that suit the needs of women. Women’s burdens can be reduced by the use of animal energy, but women’s access to donkey power and equipment may be limited by lack of knowledge, inappropriate technologies, or women’s lack of assets and purchasing power.

“Making a World of Difference in the Homes of a Few,” by Anita Khuller, ENERGIA News 5, Issue 2. Available online at http://www.energia.org/resources/newsletter/enarchive.html. This article describes the initiative taken by a charitable society to provide lighting to each house in the tribal village of Pavur, Kerala, India. Basket making is a major income-earning activity of the women, who are in many cases the breadwinners of the families. Having to gather the wild creepers for the baskets from the forests all day, the women do not have sufficient daylight hours for weaving. Kerosene lamps do not provide adequate light for this activity. Through the setting up of a revolving fund – a solar basket fund – the society has helped families finance their PV systems, which have lit up the homes and improved the quality of life considerably.

Grameen Telecom’s Village Phone Programme in Rural Bangladesh: A Multi-Media Case Study—Final Report, by Don Richardson, Ricardo Ramirez, and Moinul Haq of Telecommons Development Group, Canada, for Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), 2000. Available online at http://www.telecommons.com/villagephone/finalreport.pdf. This report is based on a study of a pilot programme to enable women members of the Grameen Bank’s revolving credit scheme to retail cellular phone services in rural areas. Apart from providing an income-generating activity for women operators, the programme has given rural women access to telephones, thereby allowing them to maintain social and economic contacts.

2. Adapted from Gail Karlsson and Susan McDade, “Introduction,” and Salome Misana, “Overview,” in Generating Opportunities: Case Studies on Energy and Women (New York: UNDP, 2001), www.undp.org/energy/publications/2001/2001a.htm, with information added from International Forum for Rural Transport and Development Web site, http://ifrtd.gn.apc.org.