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ENERGIA News Issue 2.1, February 1998

News from the Editors

Building up the ENERGIA Network: what you can do

ENERGIA has existed for over a year now. At present it is, however, only a ‘virtual’ organisation: a collection of interested people with no formal structure.

In the last newsletter the network was defined as follows: ‘the network is no more and no less than the combined decentralised activities of all members under its umbrella’ (issue 4, October 1997, p.5). As a subscriber on the mailing list for ENERGIA News, you are automatically a member of the network. However it is not clear who or what determines what ‘the network’ thinks, or how major decisions should be made. What has been achieved is the publication of this newsletter, ENERGIA News, and we hope to find out from the questionnaire enclosed whether network members think this is successful. Please do fill in the questionnaire and return it to provide feedback and to enable us to prepare a full directory of members with up to date details of current position and address.

The network could certainly do more: there is room for many activities in addition to the newsletter. At least, this was the opinion of 16 ENERGIA members who gathered in a ‘Support Group’ meeting in September, and formulated a wish list (issue 4, October 1997, p.5). But the question remains: does this list reflect the desires of ‘the network’?

Communication is needed with all members

There is only one practical way we can find out. Write to let the editors of the ENERGIA News know what you think the network should be doing, and also how you think it should be formalised. Are there items on the wish list which you strongly agree or disagree with? Are there other things which you suggest that ENERGIA could do that would support your work? Do you have any suggestions about how, you yourself, could contribute to the ENERGIA network? Or what institutional form it should take? Write a letter to the editors, headed ‘wish list’, and we will publish it.

Wish lists are one thing; however, wishes granted is another. At present funding is provided by Netherlands Development Assistance (NEDA) to run the newsletter in order to keep people in touch with one another and with issues of importance, and to keep readers up to date with events, publications and materials available. ENERGIA is not itself a source of funds for other activities. We deeply regret that, for example, the editors do not have funds for scholarships to allow members to follow courses of study, although a number of readers have asked for this.

What the editors of ENERGIA News can do, as long as the newsletter is published, is to bring groups of people into contact with each other and to try to help get funding from other sources for proposed activities such as workshops, research projects, even study tours. For example, we are working towards helping ELCI in Nairobi find funding for a workshop this year, so that interested members from the region can meet and discuss what action needs to be taken. ENERGIA is also approaching existing training institutions which are giving energy training to suggest that a gender element be added in standard courses, and to provide appropriate teaching materials for this. But in order to start such activities, information is needed on who and where: which institution should be approached? Please do write in with your suggestions and recommendations. Write your concrete proposals, and write about what you personally could contribute to the ‘engendering of energy’.

Write a short piece for the newsletter!

One very simple way of communicating and contributing to the general cause of women and energy is to provide material for the newsletter. There is always room in the newsletter for short articles and case studies about the work in which you are involved, or about projects which you have observed. If we are to convince the world that women have particular energy problems and that particular approaches work very well in this regard while others are failures, we need concrete evidence and this can only come from those in the field who are directly involved. If a project has been a great success, share it with the rest of us, tell us what made it work so well for women, because maybe someone else can replicate it, or at least learn from it. We are particularly looking for case studies which demonstrate the impact of energy technology on women's lives or highlight successful ways of bringing energy solutions within their reach. If you are working on such a project, or if you have visited one and can describe it, please consider a very short article for the newsletter. To help you, guidelines for case studies are included in this issue. If you have an idea but are in doubt about how to write it up, please get in touch with the editors directly.

In the last issue we introduce for the first time an interview with someone in the field: Peggy Liswane Chiwele, from Zambia. In his issue there is an interview with Rose Mensah-Kutin from Ghana. We have decided to include personal interviews as a regular feature in the newsletter, and each time to present a man or woman from a different part of the world, who works in energy and deals with problems of women and energy. The nice thing about these interviews is that they bring out so strongly how people working in the field see the gender and energy problem and what priorities they see regarding it.

Start regional initatives

A very encouraging development is the beginning of the regionalisation of ENERGIA activities. We are happy to announce a proposal from Philippines to start a local branch of ENERGIA, about which more details are given on page 3. Local networks can provide a focal point for local members and organise local activities much more easily than can a centralised network based in Amsterdam. We hope that such local networks will also stimulate the development of materials and case studies which can also be disseminated in ENERGIA News. The editors wish the Philippino ENERGIA all success and encourage members in other regions to consider similar initatives.

This issue of the newsletter as you will soon notice is mainly devoted to activities in Latin America. This regional focus has been chosen because there are many energy organisations there which are active and getting involved in gender issues. OLADE held a workshop on the topic in 1996, and we would be interested in hearing about any follow- ups on this. Hopefully the articles in this issue will stimulate members in the region to respond and perhaps even to consider concerted regional initiatives.

Saskia Everts & Margaret M. Skutsch, Editorial Board