Outcomes ENERGIA Phase 2

Under Phase 2, the Secretariat strengthened its functioning in quantitative and qualitative terms to create an institutional base at the international level, for galvanising action aimed at putting gender and energy on the agenda of mainstream organisations concerned with energy policy and planning. ENERGIA is now a widely respected and credible International Network - in both South and North - with a wide range of committed and capable partners.

From the beginning, one of the aims of ENERGIA had been to "southernise" not only the membership but also the influence over the Network. This was encouraged through close collaboration with the Consultative Group, as well as by undertaking activities in partnership with organisations in the South and by developing regional and national networks, a process referred to as regionalisation. All networks determine their own way of working to suit their countries’ environment, identify their particular needs, define their activities and set their own priorities.

Click the links below to view the summarised outputs for the seven main activities undertaken in Phase 2:

1. Formalisation
2. ENERGIA News
3. Advocacy
4. Resource Centre
5. Regionalisation
6. Capacity Building
7. Research and Case Studies

For a detailed overview of the Phase 2 outcomes, read the Final ENERGIA Phase 2 Narrative Report.

Formalisation

• ENERGIA Phase 2 project was implemented by the Secretariat. The Secretariat was hosted by ETC International (ETC Energy Business Unit) in Leusden, the Netherlands.
• A Consultative Group of 30+ members of women and men advised and represented ENERGIA in different fora, and participated in ENERGIA activities. The majority of the Consultative Group members, globally active in gender and energy initiatives, were from the South.
• A mid-term external evaluation of Phase 2 was conducted in August 2001 by independent evaluators. The evaluation reported “there is also broad consensus on the important role that ENERGIA has and can play in advocating for the inclusion of gender issues in energy policy and programs,” and recommended an expanded but more focused ENERGIA Phase 3 programme with greater Southern participation in decision-making and implementation of activities.
• In February 2002, ENERGIA Secretariat organised a 5-day stakeholders meeting to plan for the third phase of the Network. The output for the meeting was used to develop the ENERGIA Phase 3 proposal.

ENERGIA News

• Twelve issues of ENERGIA News have been produced in Phase 2. All twelve issue have been posted on the ENERGIA website. Of the twelve issues, 6 have been 16 pages and 6 have been 24 pages.
• The number of ENERGIA News subscribers in the database has increased from 1007 in March 2000 to a present number of 1812 subscribers. ENERGIA News is currently distributed to 120 countries, with 69% of the subscribers being in the South (about a third of whom are men).
• ENERGIA News is the only newsletter on gender and sustainable energy, with a southern focus in the articles, case studies and features of the newsletter.
• Eleven of the total of twelve issues in Phase 2 have been theme issues, resulting in more focused issues.
• Eleven guest editors from the South have been involved in the preparation of the newsletter, from issue 3.3 onwards.
• A new rubric was introduced in issue 4.1, entitled “News from the Secretariat”, which kept the readers better informed of the activities specifically undertaken by the Secretariat in Phase 2.

Advocacy

• ENERGIA has facilitated the development and synthesis of twenty-seven working (discussion) papers, twelve of which have been posted on the ENERGIA website.
• ENERGIA has supported the presentation of gender issues at twelve mainstream energy meetings, including the World Summit on Sustainable Development, World Renewable Energy Conference, ISES World Solar Congress 2001, Global Women Petroleum & Energy Forum 2001, Ninth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, Village Power Meeting, etc.
• Contribution to the endorsement of the “Durban Declaration” on women in energy.
• Input into launching of a number of gender and energy programmes, such as Global Village Energy Partnership, ESMAP, UNDP, FAO RWEDP, Winrock International.
• ENERGIA members have served on five technical expert advisory groups, and have provided advice to over fifteen energy programmes.
• Gender and energy issue have been presented at eight other international energy meetings.
• ENERGIA increasingly undertook joint activities with its partners in the South, supported organisation of events by ENERGIA members in the regions, and/or supported ENERGIA members representing gender and energy issues at events.
• Advocacy at international/regional consultations have resulted in the production of five highly credible and well-researched paper presentations:

Resource Centre

• Initiating a small library, located at the ENERGIA Secretariat aimed at supporting the work of the Secretariat.
• Approximately 1000 information packs on gender and energy, and 250 CD-Roms, have been compiled and distributed as background material for workshops and conferences.
• Over 300 requests for information about ENERGIA and its activities, gender and energy issues, energy technologies, and funding options have been handled, or passed on to a third party. Support has also been given to other activity areas of ENERGIA in the form of background research.
• The new and expanded ENERGIA website was launched on 1 October, 2001, reflecting the progress of ENERGIA and making use of ENERGIA's own house style.
• A digital members’ survey of the accessibility and usefulness/user friendliness of the site was conducted in December 2002, which showed that the website was considered useful and user friendly by the majority of the respondents.
• Online contacts database through which subscribers to ENERGIA News can search for the names and contact details of individuals working in, or with an interest in, gender and energy.
• Seven issues of ENERGIANet were produced, which was the first electronic newsletter focusing solely on gender and sustainable energy.
• A photo database containing the best 75 images in ENERGIA's possession is contained in the ENERGIA archives. Of these, 25 images have been posted on the Internet in an online photo library.
• Three annotated bibliography have been posted on the ENERGIA web site.

Regionalisation

Africa

• The main focus of the first part of Phase 2 was on Africa, stimulated by the organisation of a regional workshop “Women and Sustainable Energy in Africa” in Nairobi, Kenya in March 2000. By the end of Phase 2, there are nine national; three sub-regional networks; and a regional and Francophone focal point associated with the ENERGIA Network in Africa.
• Seed funding was provided to twelve initiatives of the Africa networks to help stimulate and strengthen the network.
• In June 2002, a meeting of the four sub regional focal points in Africa with the ENERGIA Director of Regionalisation and Capacity building was held in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Contact has been made with other African networks and organisations, interested in undertaking gender and energy activities.
• On three occasions, network members have undertaken their own initiatives to further ENERGIA objectives.
• Technical assistance was provided by the ENERGIA Secretariat and Board of Directors to focal points.
• On over ten occasions, ENERGIA has worked in partnership with a number of regional organisations in its activities.

Asia

• Interest in a gender and energy networking activities has been stimulated by the ENERGIA Secretariat initially, through contacts made at the RWEDP-FAO workshop on gender issues in November 2000, and later through visits by the ENERGIA Board of Directors to regional organisations.
• In the final quarter of 2002, one-day national consultations workshop were held in six countries in Asia, supported by seed funding from ENERGIA. A major outcome of the workshops was the establishment of six gender and energy national networks in Asia with associated focal points.
• A national consultation workshop to establish a gender and energy network in Bangladesh is planned for 2003.
• Regional Asian institutions (including APDC, AIWC, IGIDR, ICIMOD, and ARECOP) have undertaken their own gender and energy activities in partnership with the ENERGIA Secretariat.

Oceania

• A proposal for a Pacific Regional Conference on Gender and Sustainable Energy has been developed. The workshop is planned for the second half of the 2003. One of the main expected outcomes is the establishment of a regional gender and sustainable energy network in the Pacific.
• ENERGIA supported the participation of Makereta Sauturaga from Department of Energy in Fiji in the Forum on Gender and Development at ISES 2001 in Adelaide, Australia, November 2001.

Central and South America

• In Phase 2 ENERGIA maintained links with other networks such as GENES and OLADE.
• ENERGIA Secretariat developed contacts with a new network of women professionals in the electricity sector in Central America (Asociación Centroamericana de Equidad de Género del Sub-sector Eléctrico), established through a CIDA project, and published an article about this network on the ENERGIA web page.
• The Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Brazil participated as part of the ENERGIA Group at WSSD and prepared background papers on gender and energy issues, with case studies, in Latin America.

Capacity Building

• ENERGIA has supported six southern network members’ participation in workshops on gender and energy organised by other parties.
• ENERGIA has supported two cross visits arranged between different gender and energy networks, and two cross visits between network members.
• An initial needs assessment for training in gender and energy was carried out in Africa (August/September 2000), the findings of which have been used to direct ENERGIA capability building activities in the region.
• Collaboration in the Internet Connectivity for Clean Energy Network Formation part of the Winrock project “Clean energy for rural transformation in Africa”. An assessment was made of the specific electronic communications needs and requirements of the gender and energy network members in Africa, resulting in two IT training workshops to ENERGIA network members in Africa.
• ENERGIA has distributed the training manual produced by the Technology and Development Group, University of Twente “Gender and Energy Training Pack” both in hard copy and through the website in digital form, and also used it as the main reference material for gender and energy training workshops.
• Advice on curricula development (July/September 2001) for a gender and energy course for energy decision makers (Department of Minerals and Energy in Pretoria, South Africa) and financiers (the Department of Rural Electrification, Dakar, Senegal) has been given as part of the Winrock project “Clean energy for rural transformation in Africa”.
• Advocacy inputs at CSD9 and WSSD process were conducted using a capability building approach.
• ENERGIA provided technical inputs into the facilitation and training of a pioneering workshop focusing on the Role of Women Leaders on the Uptake of Renewable Energy Technology (RET) at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.
• Joint editorship of ENERGIA News/papers by Southern and Northern practioners.
• ENERGIA has also contributed to knowledge generation through the Newsletter and website and support to the UNDP Case Study Book.

Research and Case Studies

• Four conceptual studies have been developed during Phase 2 and posted on the ENERGIA website.
• Through ENERGIA News, 12 short case studies were published.
• ENERGIA has supported the development of three research papers on Gender, Energy, Development and Environmental Change in Southern Africa, commissioned by SAGEN as part of the seed funding proposals for the African Network.
• An annotated bibliography (partly funded by DFID) was developed in collaboration with the TDG, University of Twente. The bibliography is available on the ENERGIA website.
• An African annotated bibliography was developed that summarises the most important materials on gender and/or women and energy which refer to Africa. Also, a listing of 40 brief summaries of relevant programme and project activities in Anglophone African countries has been developed. The bibliographies are available on the ENERGIA website.
• ENERGIA has supported the expert review of six research/case study related activities, undertaken by international/regional institutions.
• ENERGIA has extensively contributed to the UNDP publication “Generating Opportunities: Case Studies on Energy and Women”.
• Designing a poverty-focused, gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation plan for a World Bank Renewable Rural Electrification Project together with Winrock International, Mallika Consultants, and in consultation with the World Bank. A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation methodology for measuring the poverty- and gender-related impacts of World Bank rural electrification projects was developed, which has been adapted to the World Bank/GEF Cambodia Renewable Energy Project.
• ENERGIA contributed to the production of a book on gender and energy concepts, featuring articles, case studies and future trends, implemented by ENDA Tiers Monde - Senegal. ENDA has been unable to produce the book and instead launched a policy paper at WSSD. In Phase 3, ENERGIA will consider the possibility of partnering with ENDA to complete the publication of the book. A write-up of the book is featured in EN 5.3.
• On five occasions, the ENERGIA Secretariat has also been active in catalysing the development of research studies, case studies, concepts, tools and methodologies by programmes of other organisations, and acting in a backstopping and advisory capacity for those.