Short Abstract:

ENERGIA and LCEDN NETWORKS researchers, practitioners, private sector and policy specialists ask which forms of action, at what levels and by whom best combat gender inequalities in energy access (focus: productive uses and its impacts). Inputs by gender and other sector specialists welcome.

Long Abstract:

Globally inequality exists in access to clean energy (1.2 billion people without access to electricity; nearly 3 billion people without clean cooking facilities). This inequality is gendered with women and girls bearing the main responsibility for meeting household energy needs using poor quality fuels and suffering more from the consequences of their use - negative health effects, significant levels of drudgery and demanding on time - than men and boys. One inequality generates other inequalities - girls are denied education and women the opportunity to participate in remunerated productive activities - which SDGs 5 and 7 aim to address. This panel explores using the productive uses of energy as an example how we can reduce the gender inequalities of energy and contribute to reaching the SDGs. A focus on productive uses allows substantive interaction from different disciplinary perspectives.

The panel will draw on the experiences and viewpoints from local to international scales of action of researchers, practioners, private sector and policy specialists from the ENERGIA and LCEDN networks of the session organisers. We will evaluate which forms of action, at what levels and by whom can best combat gender inequalities in energy access for productive uses and its impacts. We aim for an interdisciplinary approach to learn from experiences in other sectors which have been quicker to incorporate gender into their analysis, policy and practice objectives and approaches.

The session will be relevant to all interested in gender inequality. No specific prior knowledge in the field of energy is required.