Concept Paper For Energy and Women: Lessons Learned: Wendy Annecke

Concept paper for energy and women: lessons learned
WENDY ANNECKE
April 1999 ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE University of Cape Town
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. 2.
Introduction Historical development and definition of concepts for Energy and Women project 2.1 2.2 a) Development: the position of women b) Women or gender
3.
The conceptual framework 3.1 The national level 3.1.1 Policy 3.1.2 Fiscal and other resources 3.1.3 Implementing agents Regional level 3.2.1 Policy 3.2.2 Fiscal and other resources 3.2.3 Implementing agents At community level 3.3.1 Policy awareness 3.3.2 Trickle-down resources 3.3.3 Implementing agents 3.3.4 Energy services and women Discussion: Energy, economic empowerment and participation Barriers to change Appropriate support measures and incentives
3.2
3.3
3.4 3.5 3.6 4.
Suggested criteria for the selection of cases for a lessons learned study 4.1.1 Successful 4.1.2 Sustainable energy project 4.1.3 Benefits to women
Select bibliography
ENERGY & DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE
1.
Introduction
The project builds on the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing 1995, that addresses women and energy linkages specifically in the Strategic Objective K: Women and the Environment, recommending integration of gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development, including those involving new and renewable sources of energy and access to sustainable and affordable energy technologies. (UNDP 1999: 9).
The paper provides an analytical framework for conceptualising energy and women linkages and begins to outline the main elements of successful sustainable energy projects that benefit women and impact on womens income-generating opportunities in a developing country context. The women referred to are likely to constitute at least half of the poor population and be primary contributors to the production and reproduction of the society they live in. At the same time, as individuals, they are likely to be relatively small consumers of energy, and relatively powerless in terms of decisionmaking structures in the society. While the inclusion of women in energy project planning and implementation at the local level has been identified as necessary for the success and sustainability of development projects, the lack of womens participation is far more common and has been blamed for the failure of many energy projects. The structural context for the inclusion or exclusion of women and womens energy needs as manifest in national energy policy will affect the manner in which womens energy issues are perceived, permitted and implemented at all levels. Where there is recognition of womens issues and particular womens energy needs at national level, development initiatives aimed at women may be easier to implement and more successful. The analytic framework is designed to reveal the formal and institutional position and visibility of womens energy needs (which will include those for income generation) at three levels: national, regional and community. This provides the context for energy interventions at the community level, where the analysis is continued and the components further disaggregated. As a contribution to ongoing debate in the field of energy and development, the paper begins with an unpacking of key terms: the links between development, energy and women. The paper then suggests a framework for conceptualising energy services and activities as the impact on women and womens income-generating ability, and discusses the notions of participation and empowerment as they have been used and practised in energy supply projects. Projects are the primary instruments for channelling resources, and whether or not gender is explicitly considered in the design and implementation of energy projects [has been shown to have] an impact on most projects (HooperBox et al 1998: 37). Thereafter, the concepts of successful and sustainable are elucidated with regard to income-generating energy projects, and the paper ends with suggestions for selection criteria for case studies. Most of the examples used are from South Africa. While South Africa may not be typical of a developing country in many ways, it provides useful illustrations because of the specific political conditions which provided spaces and the potential for rapid change and the accompanying difficulties of operationalising these.
2.
Historical development and definition of concepts for Energy and Women project
The paper begins with a brief review of the history of the conditions and thinking that led to the establishment of the Gender in Development Programme within UNDPs Bureau for Development Policy in 1994, and the subsequent development of the Gender and .... series of programmes, including a Gender and energy programme. An understanding of the historical development of the key concepts in this paper is important. Fifty years ago, when the term development became current, the concept of gender and energy would have meant little to most development policy makers, planners, workers or women themselves. Over
the years there have been significant changes in the approaches adopted to the development of the Third World which are reflected in, among other things, the language used. There are, for instance, considerable conceptual differences between talking about women and energy and gender and energy. These differences have come about through experience, debate, discussion and the changing nature of the way that development and womens role in it have been understood. The paper puts forwarded a particular conceptualisation of the differences between women and gender, which is current in gender and development debates in the South, but not necessarily part of institutional thinking or programmes. It is important that the different meanings that have come to be associated with words like women and gender are opened up for debate so that the differences in understanding are made explicit. Misunderstandings between participants and donors of the intention of gendered projects could lead to frustration and failure from both points of view.
2.1
a) Development: the position of women
The notion of development is not unproblematic, and then there is the position of women within it. The shifts in development thinking from viewing women as recipients of welfare (the Women in Development (WID) approach) through to the realisation of the need to include and empower women in development projects (the Gender and Development (GAD) approach) have been well documented and critiqued (Jackson and Pearson 1998; Sittirak 1998; Vissvanathan et al 1997; Jahan 1995; Kabeer 1994). In 1989 Moser suggested the WID approach had been characterised by five phases, the first three of which were: the early welfare phase during which programmes were introduced to assist women to fulfil their tasks; the equity phase of the seventies which acknowledged the need to recognise women as equally valid recipients of development aid; and the basic needs phase which saw women being targeted but without the benefit of any deeper social analysis of power relations. The efficiency phase emerged during the eighties when it was recognised that women should be running their own projects too. Skutsch (1998: 948) says of the efficiency approach: Awareness that men and women have different perspectives, needs and constraints can lead to a better fit of project intervention with the clients and thus greater management efficiency in terms of delivery. Gender here is being used in an instrumental sense, essentially to raise the internal rate of return of the project. The fifth or empowerment phase has undergone several mutations since Mosers seminal text drew distinctions between womens practical and strategic gender needs and the non-threatening (to the staus quo) ways in which the former could be met in development projects. In a recent article Wieringa1 (1998: 350) criticises the positions of Young, Kabeer and Moser, and argues for reinvesting gender with the critical edge and broad range of issues it actually can and should cover. She goes on to argue that gender planning can empower women only if the full range of issues women are confronted with, from physical to symbolic, political and economic are tackled and is failing its duty unless it does so. In addition to the women/gender and development debates that are currently being developed, the eco-feminists have introduced women/gender, environment and development (WED or GED) perspectives which argue womens (and mens) position in relation to natural resource management. These debates are not addressed here, but are pertinent to sustainable energy projects involving biomass, mini-hydro or other natural resource management issues. Understanding the shifts in the debate from women to gender is crucial for the remainder of the paper and affects in manner in which the analytical framework is approached.
2.2
b) Women or gender
From the WID/GAD/WED debates it becomes apparent that not only is the understanding of women and their position in development debates contested, but that this understanding influences
1
I thank Margaret Skutsch and Joy Clancy for bringing this text to my attention.
development approaches and their success. Since the success of energy interventions and projects in developing countries has been limited, it is worth spending time thinking through how conceptualising women as biological beings to be targeted, or as beings in socially structured relationships who may affect the planning, design, implementation and outcome of an energy project. The key shifts in development thinking have been precipitated by the acknowledgement that men and women are defined not only by their biology (sex), but also by their relation to other men, children, other women, and the society in which they live. Over the development decades women has acquired a relatively static meaning of beings biologically constructed opposite to men, whereas gender has taken on the relational dimension of the difference between the men and women, including the power relations that are systemically embedded in all social practices and institutions. It is the relational dimension of the concept gender which we want to hold throughout the paper; that women are not isolated beings, operating according to their own set of rules and desires, but function (as do men and children) in relation to norms and values, opportunities and constraints, around them. Women are not a homogenous category but are differentiated by the above and other factors such as race, class, religious beliefs, age, status and culture, and all of these should be taken account of in the design and implementation of energy projects. Including gender issues in the design of energy projects is a relatively new initiative. As with including gender in development planning, it has been driven partly by political pressure to address equity and the subordination of women, and partly by strategic or efficiency pressures. In terms of the latter, many projects have failed because women were not involved in, for example, the design of the technology they were required to use (such as cooking stoves), or failed because the projects addressed womens energy concerns without understanding their relation to men for example, the ownership of seedlings by women and trees by men defeated a woodlot project. The implications for taking gender into account in the design and implementation of energy projects could be far-reaching. If development interventions are conceptualised as women and energy projects we run the risk of isolating women as a target group and designing energy projects which do not take their social relations and context into account, and thus may not succeed. Strictly speaking, the design of a gender and energy project should take the needs of men and women equally into account. If this is not what is intended, and the focus is to be on supporting women (in order to address their subordinate social and power relations), then perhaps we should talk about a gender, women and energy project.2 The point is to make the intentions and the relations in the project explicit in the objectives and in the implementation. Too easily the focus on women is lost, and ironically this has sometimes been through obscuring the meaning of gender. Nigha Khan asserted at Beijing that the focus on gender, rather than women, had been counter-productive in that it had allowed the discussion to shift from a focus on women to women and men and finally back to men (Baden & Goetz in Jackson & Pearson 1995: 21). This is exactly the reversal that should be avoided, and the misunderstanding does not happen only in developing countries. Buvinic, Gwin and Bates (in Wieringa 1998: 365) reported a similar phenomenon in The Bank: [G]ender has been interpreted as being inclusive rather than exclusive of men. Because of this perception, gender tends to be more palatable to Bank clients and staff than the term WID. Indeed, several bank staff interviewed, uncomfortable with a specific emphasis on women, willingly embraced gender. The reason for including men appears to have escaped the Bankers it is because they are part of the problem, and therefore have to be part of the solution in enabling women to be agents in their own destiny, and not in order for men to feel comfortable. The importance of the conceptual framework, the approach and methodology of energy projects, so that womens subordination is not further entrenched through development interventions, becomes apparent.
I owe this term to Jamuna Ramakrishna, Programme Officer, Hivos, Bangalore.
3.
The conceptual framework
The conceptual framework is used to analyse the conditions regarding energy activities and services as they relate to womens needs and income generation. Its second purpose is to identify the strategic leverage points at which intervention is necessary, or most likely to succeed, or where previous neglect of womens needs has led to the lack of success of energy projects for women. The framework has six primary components which operate at four levels: national, regional/local, community and household, with a further analysis required at the community and household levels.3 These are usually the focus for decentralised energy systems and projects, and this is the level at which energy for income generating purposes is generally not well understood. Thus greater attention is paid to this section. These components of the framework are:

the inclusion (or exclusion) of womens energy activities and services (including those for income generation) in national policy; the fiscal and other resources dedicated to womens energy needs; the policy implementing agencies and their efficacy; the identification of barriers to change; the identification of appropriate support measures and incentives. womens access to energy services; the availability of energy services; the security of energy services; the sustainability of energy services.
At the community and household level further components of the analysis are:

3.1
The national level
3.1.1 Policy The locus and status of womens energy service needs and activities, including those for income generation, will be most clearly revealed in the national policy framework.. Policy is usually written by men for men, and the energy sector in particular has long been gender-blind and neglectful of the energy needs of women. It would be to the benefit of interested project initiators to trace whether or how this has changed over the past decade since development agencies began, ostensibly, to include women in their development thinking, and developing nations committed themselves to womens platforms such as Beijing. National policy should be examined for the significance it grants to domestic energy use, whether it is considered a priority, whether household energy use or women are specifically mentioned in policy documents, and if so, the context and conditions of the policy statements concerning women. In those countries where womens energy needs are explicitly recognised, energy projects targeted at women are more likely to be institutionally supported and sustainable, although this has not been the immediate experience in South Africa. Whereas the 1986 White Paper makes no mention of womens energy needs, the new policy document of 1998 gives due attention to women, household energy, and energy for development. Translating these into practice, however, will take much longer than writing the policy document. The advantage lies in there being official recognition of the issues
3
At the Energy and Women National Consultative Forum in South Africa, Michelle Friedman used Naila Kabeers framework. The key problem was identified as poor people not having access to affordable energy services in a safe environment, and a matrix of institutions and organisations concerned with energy at state, private sector and community level was drawn up with the intention of assessing the impact of each on the key problem. This method leads to a much longer and more complex analysis than is offered here. For example, over twenty-five institutions, from other state departments (such as water and forestry and health and education) to universities concerned with research, were listed under the category State alone. To work out the effect of each on the key problem is a time consuming but rewarding task. Acting on the assumption that the state and the community are the major players affecting womens energy activities in the energy sector I have advocated a shorter route with greater attention to linkages and relationships at community level.
to refer to, even if they are under-rated. Where womens energy needs are not written into national policy, donors may consider working through the available channels to achieve this over time. Attention should also be paid to the importance granted in national policy documents to energy for development and the interpretation of this, whether, for example energy for SMMEs is prioritised, how demand- and supply-side management for income-generating projects is understood, and what potential this offers for implementing decentralised energy systems. National policy may emphasise centralised national programmes such as electrification or biomass renewal or transport systems without having the resources to implement these. At the same time national policy may also recognise the importance of decentralised energy services, without resourcing these. Strategic discussions with people in key positions may provide space and opportunity for decentralised smaller-scale systems targeted at women to be implemented. Official commitment by countries of the North and South to statements made at the Conference on Women at Beijing 1995 has, in most cases, not been carried through, partly because of a lack of capacity. Capacity building at national level about womens energy needs is most important and strategic. It is at this level that the tone and message of the significance of womens participation in energy and development projects are established and translated for implementation by officials lower down the ladder. 3.1.2 Fiscal and other resources Fiscal commitment to national policy concerning womens energy needs and services is a telling indication of the priority and importance granted these issues. Too often developing countries commit what resources they have to providing energy for industry or strategic concerns, but if policy to support womens energy needs is in place this provides leverage for innovation and implementation of projects bearing government approval. If there is commitment to energy for development rather than women, then this may be the channel to work through, bearing in mind the focus on women to be implemented at community level. Resources such as human resource training facilities, gender desks, educational facilities, development agencies and inter-departmental liaison offices may provide support or facilitation for decentralised but co-ordinated energy development initiatives. 3.1.3 Implementing agents The capacity of implementing agencies at all levels will make an important contribution to the success of energy services. At national level this is likely to be the utilities, and their approach to energy for womens activities should be determined for its likely influence on project implementation. Decentralised sustainable energy systems are more likely to be implemented by private companies and donor funding than by government departments. Whereas integration of development initiatives at departmental level is often hampered by bureaucracy, competition between private companies and/or international funders engaged in renewables technology development has led to a lack of free exchange of information and duplication of efforts.
3.2
Regional level
3.2.1 Policy A similar interrogation of the locus and status of womens energy services and activities should be conducted at the regional level in order to ascertain the manner in which national policy is devolved, interpreted, resourced and implemented at the next tier of government. In South Africa, this level of provincial government has been identified as one of the weaker links in the devolution of responsibility for energy services. There is as yet little provision made or capability to deliver centralised or decentralised energy services particularly for poor women or income-generating initiatives. Identifying interest in and responsibility for energy services in individuals as well as job descriptions may provide strategic advantage at this level if projects require support or are to be replicated to any degree.
3.2.2 Fiscal and other resources As is the case with most regional authorities, budgetary constraints are frequently cited as the reason for lack of implementation of development initiatives at provincial level. The right to levy taxes or ability to collect revenue at this level is frequently very limited. This has at least two consequences. The first is that, over time, capacity building and training of provincial authorities is essential to ensure support and sustainability of energy services and understanding of why womens needs are important. The second is that in the short and medium terms approval at this level may be relatively easy to achieve as long as no resources are required. Extension officers, educational programmes and other resources may be organised at this level and may be helpful in facilitating introductions or training for programmes with replicability clauses. 3.2.3 Implementing agents Energy services such as electricity delivery will soon be organised in South Africa at regional level, as is the case with restructured electricity industries in several developing countries. Since capacity for extending energy services (such as increasing electrification connections) may be limited, spaces for innovative decentralised energy systems open up. In South Africa there are financing companies, such as the KwaZulu Financing Corporation (KFC), which operate at regional level and can be helpful in providing loans for household and SMME energy systems. This has been the case at Maphephetheni, an area some 80kms from Durban, where household solar and PV systems have been financed by the KFC. These systems have been used by a few women to assist income generation activities: lighting so that grass mats can be woven at night, and books kept for the gardening project (Annecke 1998).
3.3
At community level
3.3.1 Policy awareness The status and locus of women in national and regional energy policy will be translated at community level through the attitudes, approaches planning priorities and resources allocated to womens energy needs. The establishment of the Commission on Gender Equity in South Africa has raised public awareness of womens issues, and in a relatively short period of time (three years) made it easier to talk about women as a differentially disadvantaged category of people. This does not mean everyone agrees, nor that action follows conversation, but having women on the national agenda has filtered down in small ways to make discussions easier, and demands from women from the grassroots have been fed back into the Commission. Awareness of the energy sector and of energy sector policy remains minimal at community level, although there are NGOs, such as Khulelekhani in South Africa, whose functions include the mobilisation and education of constituencies (usually urban) in order to ask questions of members of Parliament, and, through making their demands known, contribute to the development of better policy for poor people, including women. 3.3.2 Trickle-down resources It is evident at community level, especially rural villages and settlements on the periphery of cities, why the trickle down theory is defunct. There are very few financial resources at this level. Maximum use should be made of the skills, labour and potential of people at this level, and many energy projects have ostensibly tried to so. 3.3.3 Implementing agents It is at community level that decentralised energy projects are usually targeted and implemented. Implementing agents may include local government structures (in South Africa this could mean locally elected councillors or tribal authorities), development forums, NGOs working in the area, CBOs including womens organisations, church organisations, or groups affiliated to the local school or clinic, and water committees; there may also be a network of SMMEs or extension workers. For the most part men dominate these structures, sitting on the committees and holding decision-making positions or powers. In South Africa these men are the gatekeepers of access to women in the communities (Annecke 1997) and it is important to identify which of these groups
have influence in energy projects for women, and to find, if possible, natural allies with lobbying power among them. 3.3.4 Energy services and women The UNDP has more than adequately analysed and advocated for womens energy needs for domestic use and small-scale income generation, and these are not repeated here. What may be worth remembering is that energy is an unproblematic concept until it becomes a resource used by people. As soon as this happens access to energy is differentiated by a number of factors including gender. Conceptually the links between men and energy are seldom made; if they were, for middle class man they may be in terms of power stations and fast cars, for poorer men, buses and radios. The links between women and energy are similarly drawn in terms of the socially constructed roles that women play. Womens energy needs are associated with womens work, according not only to the gendered division of labour, but also to the conditions of power and status that perpetuate these, especially for the poor. Morgenstern (1998) has it right when she says: Men, if you want to help a woman in a developing country address the problems she faces, rather than giving her a machine, do something to empower her to find a solution to those problems herself. And the one thing that would help women get out of the kitchen more than anything else would be mens willingness to spend some time in the kitchen. But since the kitchen is the womens realm of authority, the women concerned would have to sanction this. What is suggested is a framework for analysing the links between women and control over energy services with regard to the categories of access, availability, affordability, security and sustainability. Firstly it is important to analyse and establish the status of womens involvement in the provision and use of energy services and income-generating activities at community level. This will differ to a significant degree depending on, among other variables, geographical area, rainfall and natural resources, womens status in the community, the number of employed men, and roads. This analysis will provide indications of entrance points to communities, avoid the duplication of activities, and identify key points of support which may enhance the value of energy projects and womens participation in them. Secondly, and more than the above, this framework could be used in training facilitators or in participative discussions with women to establish how they could gain better control over energy services. At a minimum womens access to energy services at the should be analysed at the community and household level in terms of access; availability; affordability; security; and sustainability. 3.3.4.1 Access Intra-community and inter-household relationships may determine access to energy services. These may not be the same for all women in the community, and are one of the areas where the differences between women, as well as households, may be visible. Status, income, age and stage of life-cycle as well as individual relationships may affect access. Those physically able can collect wood more easily; those with status privileges may get electricity first; those without men and children may have more freedom to choose an energy carrier because they do not have to consider the preference of others. Decentralised energy systems have to be sufficiently adaptable to serve and be accessible to quite different needs of a variety of women. 3.3.4.2 Availability The availability of a variety of energy services, so that women can select according to their own criteria which to use, is the ideal. Instead, scarce biomass is the norm, or packaged renewable
systems, or grid electricity which allow little flexibility in daily choice. The experience in South Africa has been that the improvement of distribution systems for gas and kerosene has enhanced selection for some women and enabled women engaged in small enterprises to take advantage of cooling systems for making ice-lollies and renting space in refrigerators, and heating for cooking food for sale to teachers and nurses. 3.3.4.3 Affordability By definition, poor women have small, often irregular, cash incomes and multiple demands on them and womens choices are constrained by what they can afford. Energy services have to be affordable, or innovative ways of paying for them must be found. These may include the exchange of crops or labour. The accelerated national electrification programme in South Africa has brought some hope and relief to millions of people in South Africa, but a large percentage are unable to use electricity for heating because they cannot afford the appliances or the service. This limits the use of electricity for direct income generation and means that small scale entrepreneurs turn to other energy carriers. Qase (1999) found that several women in urban areas who were engaged in micro-enterprises used woodfuel for their income-generating activities and kerosene or electricity for their domestic or household use. The scarcity of woodfuel in urban areas puts their enterprises in jeopardy. Fuel switching demonstrates the poors willingness to change and experiment with most the suitable fuels for the enterprise at hand. 3.3.4.4 Security There are two aspects to security. The first is the more obvious one of a dependable supply. This is necessary for income-generating activities and for peace of mind in the household and community. Where supply is uncertain, duplicate systems are introduced at great expense and stress, particularly for women who are responsible for maintaining the household.4 The second aspect is a secure environment for women to collect wood and/or conduct their business. In South Africa violence against women is so prevalent as to make this condition a priority (a women is raped every thirty seconds according to the Minister of Health and Welfare (6.04.99)). 3.3.4.5 Sustainability The energy services available to women should be not only secure but sustainable over time. Although the term has gained currency, the implications of maintaining sustainable energy services are seldom thought through at either national or community level. Information sharing, education and planning in this regard are vital, but unlikely to succeed until the reasons for womens powerlessness in maintaining their own energy supplies and comfort levels are determined. The condition of energy poverty means being unable to fulfil basic needs. Energy poverty is generally not addressed by macro-economic development strategies and vast investment in infrastructure, but secure supplies of accessible and affordable energy may well contribute to poverty alleviation, and this is a goal to aim for. There would appear to be further links between energy and socio-economic development in the household and health, education, agricultural and small and micro-enterprises. While there is little empirical evidence of a direct correlation between these, energy services are one of the inputs required for development.
3.4
Discussion: Energy, economic empowerment and participation

Economic empowerment means more than helping women find jobs. It means improving the power relationships in a womans home, in her community and in the market place so that she can take advantage of growing international markets. It means ensuring that women have equal access with men to the increasing range of technological options for production and are not excluded from the latest technological advances. It means changing policies and
Anton Eberhard has drawn my attention to conditions in cities such as Luanda in Angola where, because of extensive power failures, men have been seen carrying heavy batteries and diesel for generators through the streets. This may indicate a shift in responsibility for energy services to be monitored in the future.
legislation so that women can benefit from economic development. It means making sure that women are prepared to compete in the new global economy. (UNIFEM 1999) The problem has been identified as whether and how the inclusion of women in the provision of energy services promotes income-generating activities and opportunities, and, if so, what energy services are needed to promote these income-generating activities. As has been noted earlier, income generation is but one strategy to alleviate poverty and the contribution of energy to that strategy may be a necessary input, but it will not be a sufficient one. It has been acknowledged that, because of their centrality to productive and reproductive activities at the household level, and their vested interest in energy services and supply, the participation of women is a requirement for successful energy projects. Yet because of the invisibility of women in decision-making structures, women are frequently omitted from project planning and design. A recent energy intervention in South Africa demonstrates the classic mistake. Local and tribal authorities were approached by an agency who wanted to provide solar cookers for women in a wood-scarce area. The authorities, who were all men, agreed. When the agency arrived and had completed the necessary community formalities, the women were called to a meeting where they were told about the project and brought on board meaning that, for whatever reason, they agreed to be agents in conducting the experiment (pilot). About 60% of the women who received solar cookers used them irregularly and about 30% used them more than twice a week. When the solar agents left the area the women stopped using the stoves. They gave the following (familiar) reasons: that cooking in the middle of the day was too hot, that it was not convenient because the households ate their main meal at night and that the woodfires provided warmth in the evening and a meeting place. They said they would rather have gas if it were cheap enough. The time and labour that been saved as a result of not having to collect wood had been spent on community and church activities which were in some cases maintained even when women reverted to collecting wood. This project is documented as successful and participatory; women were empowered to make their own decisions through the process. For development workers living in the South this is a distorted interpretation. Adding women on at the end of a project design and saying the project is for the benefit of women is not the same as including women in the design. The problem seems to be how to involve women who hold subordinate and invisible positions in society. James (1998) has written about the possibilities of doing so in the national electrification programme and there are several methodology training kits available. In addition, the meaning and practice of participation and empowerment as strategies for poverty alleviation are being constantly critiqued and scrutinised for validity and improvement. Apart from participation and empowerment, terms used in development-speak include having a voice and being a stakeholder. What this might mean in an energy project is not always clear and frequently the jargon obscures the reality. For example consulting all stakeholders hides the fact that all stakeholders are not equal. Each voice, although it maybe allowed to be speak, does not carry equal weight, and decisions are rarely made by the least powerful. Skutsch (1998) suggests that one way to ensure womens participation is to meet with men and women separately so that women may speak freely. Our experience is that this may be a starting point, but that unless the men and women concerned meet together thereafter there will be little agreement about the clauses and conditions of the process. As this example from Zimbabwe shows, even when men and women agree to sharing a project, men garner the more profitable activities: This study indicates that women baked bread and brewed beer whilst men made bricks. However, there were a few women involved in brick making just as there were male bakers. This division of labour among rural industries along gender lines is partly due to tradition. Thus, womens association with bakeries and beer brewing can be viewed as an extension of their roles as cooks in the household. Men, on the other hand, dominate in brick building industries because of their traditional role as builders5.
5
This is not so in all traditional societies; in many women are the builders and the thatchers, but where commercial building is concerned, men predominate.
10
Bread making and beer brewing are associated with the daily reproduction of households which are traditionally regarded as womens roles and these tasks are often accorded less value by both men and women. In terms of remuneration, bread and beer brewing industries are not as profitable as brick making industries. (Lue-Mbizo 1991: 8) Income-generating activities, even when initiated by women, often impose further burdens on their time and physical energy. Ways to support and grow current activities may be good starting points. Women and men need to identify local skills and knowledge that could be brought to bear in such projects, including identifying a market and ways of transporting goods if there is little local market (such as in rural areas). A certain level of development and infrastructure is necessary for SMMEs to be successful. The production of renewable energy services whether biomass, biogas, wind, minihydro, or solar would appear an obvious intervention which might combine income generation and sustainability. Some success in a variety of such projects has been reported, but it has been limited. Some of the reasons for the lack of success are known and emphasising the participation of women and men in project design and implementation is an important step in addressing these. Often the distribution networks of electricity, gas and kerosene are limited to urban areas, while renewables such as solar and PV systems are supplied by donors in development project in rural areas where technical support is not readily available and technical training and capacity building is inadequate. Improving distribution networks of energy services through local endeavour may be a first step towards improved energy services and may of itself generate jobs and income. Urban poverty presents particular problems in that there is less focus on renewables, and there is less wood available, so that for those without an income, energy poverty in urban areas is severe. The learning from the electrification (grid and non-grid) programmes in South Africa has been that energy provision, even electrification, is a social as well as a technical process. If it is conducted as a technical exercise and is target-driven, it is unlikely to be sustainable or to be integrated into other development initiatives to its fullest benefit. South Africa is a good example of a developing country where the viability of the national electricity utility has meant that two million households will have been electrified in ten years, bringing some energy relief to many millions in urban and rural areas. But until we have solved the problem of a fuel (and associated appliance) for cooking which is as cheap as wood we have not done much for women. Empowerment may also include donors understanding and respect for different values and womens choices in the market place. For example, a bakery established in Gauteng, South Africa, to enable women to earn an income became so profitable that the donors wanted the women to run two shifts a day and double their profits. The women declined and the donors were confounded (personal communication 1999). It is important that donors understand women recipients right to decide not only about what sort of projects should be designed, but how the work should be done and how the profits should be spent. The question remains to what extent womens energy needs and tasks should remain womens (and childrens) work. Should energy projects alleviate womens burden but leave mens powers and lack of domestic responsibilities intact? If the relations between women and men were to be taken in to account what would be the implications for the design of an energy project and how should this be done? The Energy After Rio report is evidence of the substantial information available about the relationship between energy, poverty and women. But we still do not know how, given the choice, women would solve their energy problems.
3.5
Barriers to change
Dr Brenda Boardman from the Environmental Change Unit at Oxford University points out (personal communication, seminar 1999) that barrier implies an obstacle which may be surmounted whereas many so-called barriers for poor people are simply dead ends. This may be especially true for women without the power to change their circumstances. How women may be empowered (this may include internal power self-confidence as well as structural power) should form part of energy project manager training. Barriers to change are more likely to be found in people than in budgets or resources. Identifying these should form part of project planning and evaluation at all levels.
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3.6
Appropriate support measures and incentives
At national, regional, community and household levels appropriate support measures and incentives are important motivating factors in changing behaviour and leapfrogging technology. At national level these may involve tax incentives, but at community and household level such incentives will have to be locally identified.
4.
Suggested criteria for the selection of cases for a lessons learned study
The case studies should be selected so that a variety of approaches, methodologies and desired energy outcomes may be examined and assessed in terms of UNDPs definition of what is wanted at the end: successful, sustainable energy projects which benefit women. 4.1.1 Successful We measure what we value and value what we measure is an old adage that we will keep in mind when defining successful. What we should measure in an energy project depends on its objectives and the underlying assumptions in terms of, for example, poverty alleviation and gender. Both qualitative and quantitative measurements should be used, and measures for success should be established by the participants in the project design as well as the donor. 4.1.2 Sustainable energy project Indicators of long-term sustainability (of livelihoods), such as the ability to withstand shocks and stress, and improve material conditions without jeopardising others, should be held in the background when setting criteria for the sustainability of a gender and energy income generation project. Sustainable may refer to the life span and activities of the project and/or the environment. In terms of the former, criteria for selecting cases should include from the donor and the recipients points of view. These might include:

that it continues without donor money, monitoring, or intervention; that it continues for one to five years; that there is a profit; that the people involved can manage it without detriment to themselves or the people close to them; that both the willingness to engage in the activity and the market to continue last a certain period of time (in SA in average life-span of a business is twelve years but most fail in the first three months); that feedback loops are created and improved people and political , social, and economic situations.
Indicators of environmental sustainability may be beyond the scope of each individual project but it would be necessary to ask about the impact on the ecosystem at a minimum: who cares? and who cares enough to ensure sustainability? Ecologically driven scenarios for income-generation and energy-efficient options are generally supportive of sustainable development objectives and may be included in the project design. The efficient use of energy in a system which incorporates environmental values and energy innovation may be one of the criteria for case study selection 4.1.3 Benefits to women The first criterion by which benefits to women may be measured is their own assessment of this. A second could be the consultation process: how the project was initiated, how the consultation process was conducted for example who approached whom, and where they were positioned in the local hierarchy. Participation in design and implementation by participants should be described, as well as the manner in which the donor and the recipients see the problem and the solutions. Implemented projects may not necessarily have been aimed at or inclusive of women. The case
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studies selected should examine the difference between those that did and those that did not include women in their planning. Another process criteria may be whether capacity building and gender training for development workers and recipients was included. The manner in which an individual woman perceives her relations to the men, women and children around her may be mediated by a set of factors quite different to those which mediate, for example, a development workers understanding of the same woman. It is important that development workers understand these relations in terms of the individuals and communitys perspectives if they want to work with men and/or women as groups. Criteria for selection could also include: the energy sources used and the security of these in the future; key or innovative technology used; whether income generation was an objective; whether health and safety aspects were included in the design; the numbers of people involved and the cost; the duration of the project for the funder and the participants; the intention for the future; the degree to which the community changed and an evaluation of this; whether womens knowledge (the ability to use information) increased; whether womens access to resources, power and structures increased. Since one of the goals is to have, at the end of the project, a better understanding of the relationships between women (and men) and energy and income generation, the definition of this could be one of the criteria for the new cases to be implemented. It is unlikely that cases will be found that meet all the criteria, but these should be for the future as well as retrospective evaluation. Case studies which do and do not meet the criteria could be selected in order to enable comparison and/or a control group . For every example and procedure there is a caveat. This one of the consequences of describing the world as complex and of recognising the differences between women as well as between men and women and the daily conditions that they experience. But difference should not be paralysing: it is what makes each gender and energy development project unique and exciting.
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Select bibliography
Annecke, Wendy 1997. Reflections of a fieldworker in KwaZulu-Natal. Unpublished report. Energy and Development Research Centre, University of Cape Town. Annecke, Wendy 1998. Assistance to NREL in determining the non-economic determinants of energy use in rural areas. Energy and Development Research Centre, University of Cape Town. Baden, Sally & Goetz, Ann-Marie 1998. Who needs [sex] when you can have [gender]? In Jackson, C & Pearson, R (eds) 1998 . Feminist visions of development: Gender analysis and policy. London: Routledge. Chant, Sylvia 1995. Gender and development in the 1990s. Third World planning review, 17 (2): 111-116. Galli, Rosemary (ed) 1992. Rethinking the Third World: Contributions toward a new conceptualization. New York: Crane Russak. Hoon, P, Singh and S Wanmali. 1997. Sustainable livelihoods: Concepts, principles and approaches to indicator development. Draft discussion paper for the UNDP Workshop on Sustainable Livelihood Indicators, New York. Hooper-Box, Caroline, Mabuse Khibi and Ruiters, Wrenelle. 1998. A conceptual review and assessment of South African energy policy research methodology: Towards an expanded framework for gender and energy research. Report to the Department of Minerals and Energy, Pretoria. Jackson, Cecile and Pearson, Ruth (eds) 1998 . Feminist visions of development: Gender analysis and policy. London: Routledge. Jahan, Rounaq. 1995. The elusive agenda: Mainstreaming women in development. London: Zed. James, Bronwyn. 1998. Kabeer, Naila. 1994. Reversed realities: Gender hierarchies in development thought. London: Verso. Lue-Mbizo, Carmel. 1991 The role of women in small-scale bread, brick and beer industries in rural Zimbabwe. Report for ZERO Regional Network of Environmental Experts. Morgenstern, Joy. 1998. RSVP List (email) Village Power Conference Comments, 12 November 1998. Moser, Caroline. 1993. Gender planning and development:Ttheory, practice and training. London: Routledge. Pietila, Hilkka & Vickers, Jeanne. 1994. Making women matter: The Role of the United Nations. London: Zed. Qase, Noma with Annecke, Wendy. 1999. Rathgeber, Eva. 1990. WID, WAD, GAD: Trends in research and practice. The journal of developing areas. No 24: 489-502. Reddy, Amulya, Williams, Robert and Johansson, Thomas. 1997. Energy after Rio: Prospects and challenges. New York: United Nations. Sittirak, Sinith. 1998. The daughters of development: Women in a changing environment. London: Zed. Skutsch, Margaret. 1998. The gender issue in energy project planning: welfare, empowerment or efficiency? Energy policy, 26 (12): 945-955. UNDP. 1999. Energy and Women Project document . UNIFEM Strengthening womens economic capacity. www.undp.org.80/unifem/ec-pov.htm. 7 January 1999. Wieringa, Saskia. 1998. Rethinking gender planning: a critical discussion of the use of the concept of gender. Gender, technology and development, 2 (3): 349-371.

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