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ENERGIA News Issue 2.1, February 1998

International Programmes: Focus on...

Winrock International

Ellen B. Kennedy and Rosana Rodriguez dos Santos

Winrock International is a private, non-profit organisation that works with people to build a better world - increasing agricultural productivity and rural employment while protecting the environment.

We believe that economically attractive, environmentally sound renewable energy can bring income opportunities and electricity to millions of rural people. A reliable energy supply is essential to economic stability and growth, jobs, and improved living standards.

From previous experience, especially with rural, village-level electrification, we have concluded that the success of such programmes in developing countries hinges on a community's active involvement in systems operation and maintenance, on ability to pay, on stability of payment and credit mechanisms, and finally on the effective involvement of women. Winrock is just starting to develop renewable energy programmes that incorporate gender awareness, and is increasingly working with other programmes that focus on gender, such as the AWLAE and OnFarm programs in Africa (see BOX 1). As an institution, Winrock stresses the importance of gender in its activities to uphold the goal of managing equitable and effective projects.

Women are typically considered to be the greatest consumers of energy and electricity, spending more hours at home per day than men. At the same time, women have been shown to be as good or better at maintaining and operating systems as men, and are often a safer credit risk.

In Latin America, Winrock has found that gender roles are not only important to successful development projects, but can be an important factor when developing a customer/credit base in commercial energy projects.

There are significant differences in the way men and women in various cultures obtain and use energy in rural areas; understanding these patterns can help maximise the pay-off from commercialisation efforts. These patterns are also an important consideration in the sustainability of off-grid energy projects and for operations and maintenance, which can effect product reputation. Women in many rural cultures are generally more likely to be at home during the day, and less likely to be doing work outside of the home. Women are simply more often taking care of small children, particularly in rural areas. In Brazil for example, about 61% of women between 25 and 29 have at least one child under the age of five, and they spend an average of 39.3 hours per week on child care. Child care ties women to the home and the immediate community for many hours out of a day. As a result women are more invested in the acquisition and successful operation of products that enhance quality of life in the home, such as illumination and potable water. While the decision-making ability regarding the purchase of large household items, like solar home systems, varies from region, women are increasingly playing an important role in purchasing decisions. Since women tend to be more physically present in the household and immediate community, projects that involve community-level effort should include both men and women. But unless the participation of women is actively encouraged, particularly for an energy project that is seen as technical and therefore more “male “, community level projects overlook a tremendous opportunity, or may even fail. Most important, study after study has shown that women tend to be more credit-worthy than men, especially in projects that are related to family welfare, and to spend more of their income on family and children.

Involving women then, in the early stages of energy project planning can help the project succeed. At the same time, this approach will help ensure that the needs and concerns of the energy users - primarily women - are being met.

Yet most renewable energy projects do not target women and rarely work with institutions that focus on gender or women in development. Therefore Winrock's Renewable Energy Project Support Offices (REPSOs) in Brazil and Guatemala have made gender an important component of their renewable energy work. REPSOs are located in five different countries around the world (India, Indonesia, the Philippines, as well as Guatemala and Brazil), and other REPSOs may adopt gender programmes in the future.

The REPSOs’ main goal is to demonstrate how non-governmental organisations, private business and government can collaborate on renewable energy projects, promoting the commercialisation of technologies and eventually enhancing people's quality of life. Local partners and staff ensure the success of projects.

Guatemala REPSO/Fundación Solar

In Guatemala, Winrock has a strong partnership with a local NGO, the Fundación Solar, which houses Winrock's REPSO for Central America. In August of 1996, Fundación designed and hosted a seminar entitled “Renewable Energy: A Development Option for Women” with support from Winrock and USAID. This one-day seminar in Guatemala had two purposes: to increase awareness about the role of gender in energy use and decision-making, and to encourage NGOs, government agencies, and donors already working on gender programmes in Guatemala to incorporate renewable energy into existing or future programmes.

The seminar provided a venue for women in high positions in Guatemala, along with community leaders at the grassroots level, to interact and discuss barriers to women in energy, credit, and planning decisions. In addition, Fundación technical experts led round tables on how to apply renewable energy in development and community projects. Fundación fostered relationships that acted as seeds to future work. As a result of this workshop, the Fundación Solar signed three agreements to engage in projects on renewable energy that incorporate gender.

Moreover, experience in Guatemala by Fundación Solar (see article by Laura Wides below) shows that training women in operation and maintenance may produce a higher rate of success and sustainability in community-based photovoltaic illumination projects.

Brazil REPSO

Given the success of the Guatemala seminar linking gender and energy, the Brazil REPSO decided to conduct a four-day seminar on the link between gender and renewable energy.

Over fifty representatives from NGOs, financing institutions, and government agencies attended the seminar, which was conducted near Fortaleza, Ceará, in late May 1997. The seminar aimed to educate both the NGO community working on gender and/or rural development, and the finance community, on the potential for renewable energy projects in the north and north-eastern regions of Brazil and on the importance of integrating gender analysis in energy projects from the start. One result was the formation of an Amazonian Network for Renewable Energy, made up of five organisations that were represented at the seminar.

Also in Brazil, women's involvement in solar pumping projects in Ceará, the third largest north-eastern state, proved to be highly successful. The participation of women in the maintenance of wells in addition to their education on health matters related to drinking water quality, child care, etc. were the key factors to the trouble-free operation of the solar pumps for the past six years and the effective enhancement of public health in the village where the pumps were installed. (see Box 2).

The Renewable Energy division of Winrock International has produced some 50 publications on bio-energy, biomass and other energy related themes. They are free to developing countries institutions and individuals. Contact the Renewable Energy Group for a publication list at the address below. Winrock is not a grantmaking institution.

For more information, please contact: Ellen Kennedy, Programme Associate for Latin America, Winrock International, 1611 North Kent Street, suite 600, Arlington, VA 22209, USA; Tel. +1.703.5259430, Fax +1.703.2431175, Email ebk@winrock.org or
Rosana dos Santos, part-time consultant for Winrock and Ph.D. student, CIRED, 19, rue Amelie, 75007 Paris, France; Tel. +33.1.40626374, Fax +33.1.45517692, Email rosana@msh-paris.fr

Gender lessons from community based PV- projects in rural guatemalan villages

Laura Wides

The first energy projects conducted by Fundación Solar demonstrated that without initial training and follow-up there was a good likelihood that equipment would be used incorrectly and thus below optimum capacity. For this reason the Fundación Solar made such training one of its priorities, providing one-day courses in equipment maintenance and accounting (for the replacement of the battery). While the majority of male system owners attended the meetings, few women were present, despite the fact that they are more often in the house and thus use the systems with more than the men. When they did attend the meetings, the women were often too timid to ask questions. Moreover, while the women who attended did so generally because their husbands were unable to, the engineers and facilitators often directed their talks to the men present, ignoring the women. Since its mission explicitly states as one of its goals the participation of men and women in its programmes, the Fundación Solar began to look for ways to ensure that the women in the communities also received training.

At first Fundación came up with the idea of holding training sessions for women only, but this strategy proved difficult to organise due to the women's work schedules and responsibilities in the home, as well as cultural traditions. Therefore, Fundación decided to give mini-training sessions in the homes during the first equipment inspection. This method worked well for two reasons. First, the women were able to practice the instructions on their own systems, rather than view diagrams or watch as their husbands performed the tasks. Second, the inspection visits were generally made during the day when the men were out in the field, allowing the women more freedom to participate and ask questions.

The experience of working in the villages also led to the idea of combining an improved stove project with the PV project. Although the two projects appear quite distinct, they actually go hand in hand. Most communities desire electric lighting because it is a stronger, cleaner light than that which candles or kerosene provide. The local development committees are clearly aware that the lights reduce smoke in the house and improve family health. They also see electric lighting as a way to reduce, to a limited extent, their reliance on firewood.

What the men did not seem aware of was that improved wood stoves resulted in an even greater reduction in smoke than the photovoltaic systems, particularly in the kitchen where young children and women spend most of their days. The reduction in smoke also ensures a longer lifetime for the lights installed in the kitchen. Equally important, the stoves require between 40% and 60% less firewood than open fires. Thus the addition of a stove programme would compliment and enhance the goals of the existing photovoltaic programme.

Implementing the projects together would particularly benefit women. While over 70% of women interviewed in 10 villages complained about smoke in the kitchen, few men noted this issue as a significant problem. The same men did make the connection, however, between the lights and the reduction of household smoke. If the projects were implemented together, men might be more likely to recognise the importance of the stoves, as they would already be aware and concerned about smoke due to the photovoltaic projects.

In addition, the organisational mechanisms both within the community and the assisting organisations would already be in place. While many families said that they would have been willing to pay a bit more for their system, most were not interested in a new loan until they had repaid the first. If the projects were combined, the total payment would be greater, but the burden would seem less than the cost of two credits, and there would be no extra paperwork. Such a programme would enable institutions to meet more of the community's needs, as well as their goals of sustainable use of renewable energy sources.

For more information, please contact:
Laura Wides, Fundación Solar, 15 Avenida 18-78, Zona 13, 01015 Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala; Tel. +502.332.8102, Fax +502.332.8119, Email lwides@sigloxxi.com