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ENERGIA News Issue 2, April 1997

Women and Energy: A Zimbabwean Perspective

Sithembile L. Nyoni

The last decade has seen considerable attention being focused on rural energy systems and interventions being undertaken to contain the woodfuel crisis. However, development efforts have had limited impact.

The root causes of energy problems have historic, environmental and political undertones. The rural energy problem reflects gender and class differences, the allocation of resources between rich and poor, urban and rural. The energy problem is also an indication of a larger environmental problem and a facet of a larger crisis of poverty and under-development. The energy problem in Zimbabwe has an additional component entrenched in the historic deprivation of the communal areas. Close to nearly two decades of independence, Zimbabwe has seen the natural resource base in the communal areas deteriorate, as population pressures increase. However, despite the fact that the need to secure the national energy supplies has been high on the agenda, rural planning has been inadequately resourced.

Despite the fact that women are the major contributors to the rural and national economy and the intended beneficiaries of many energy and environmental intervention programmes, there is little understanding of women's energy requirements. Women's energy inputs in the rural and national economies are not recognised.

Perception of energy as a problem is low amongst development workers, and is synonymous with fuel wood shortages. This completely misses the link between energy and productive systems in rural areas and in particular the gender component of access to, and control over resources. Energy is an intrinsic part of other activities and therefore does not readily manifest itself as a problem. Indeed in Zimbabwe it is difficult to translate the concept of energy into the vernacular, with the closest definition being either fire (umlilo) and draft power (amandla okudonsa). Energy cannot be singled out of the whole fabric of rural existence. For rural women, energy is compounded with their own labour demands.

The multifaceted aspects of woman's rural energy problems eludes planners. There is little understanding of the rural energy problem beyond open fire. This has lead to a concentration on the stoves programmes as the prescription for curing energy problems. Little effort has been made in addressing a wider range of rural women's energy needs for agriculture, transport, income generating activities and their own human energy input.

A better definition of the rural energy problem, including women's needs, is not helped by the way that women themselves perceive energy. Energy supply is only one of the many survival issues that women have to grapple with on a daily basis. A survey in Gutu Masuingo province, asked women to prioritise their needs; energy was ranked fourth, after food, water and school fees. It is only in areas of severe shortages, such as Seke Mashanaland Central, that fuel shortage is cited as the most pressing. In fact, where coping strategies have been devised, some women no longer see energy as a problem, even though this solution might have generated a new range of side problems. Therefore women's own low perception of energy as a problem can result in energy projects failing.

Rural Women in Zimbabwe: energy producers

In Zimbabwe women constitute 56% of the rural population. The result is that women besides their traditional roles are forced to assume other responsibilities. Women are child bearers, care providers, household managers, farmers, income earners, labourers, educators, collectors of wood and water, cattle herders etc. Women therefore expend their own energy to meet their demands. Studies have shown that they can be actively engaged in work for more than 14 hours a day. For example, women contribute 73% of farm labour, 62% of livestock care, 81% of fuel gathering and chopping, and 96% of routine domestic tasks within a household.

In terms of the national biomass stock, Zimbabwe has no wood crisis. However, the availability and access to wood is entrenched in the land question. The communal lands suffer more from fuelwood deficits than the commercial farms and the re-settlement areas. It is the equitable distribution of land and the increased access to resources which will have a positive impact on fuel wood security. In Zimbabwe, access to wood is not only a gender issue but it is a broader issue of land deprivation and prolonged pressure on the communal lands. Therefore the fuel wood availability is a function of competing demands on the natural resource base, both internally and externally induced. Since women are collectors and users of fuel wood they are the ones most affected by the crisis.

The gender aspect of biomass manifests itself in the way that men's and women's roles lead to a different use of the natural resource base. In Zimbabwe, men and women have free access to wood lands since they are communal resources. Women use wood for fuel, whilst men use it for constructing enclosures and pastures. As population pressures bring increased agricultural demands, the woodlands are encroached upon, threatening both women's and men's uses of the resource. For women there is an additional social dimension to fuel wood shortages. In the Western part of Zimbabwe, a status symbol is attached to the bride who makes a large wood pile (ibonda) during the first few months after her marriage. An ever present tall pile of wood also has a status symbol; women without any bonda are regarded as lazy. Therefore wood shortages can lead to social tensions. The stock-piling of dry wood was the most rational way to ensure sufficient fuel during the active agricultural season.

Studies in the communal areas show that fuel wood shortages are increasing, which is measured in terms of the increase in time women take in collecting firewood. One study found that 37.8% of the respondents spent 1 to 2 hours; 26.8% spent 4 to 6 hours, whilst 5.9% spent 4 to 6 hours. In some cases the distance walked exceeded 10 km. Women are walking further with heavier loads, in an attempt to reduce the frequency of wood gathering expeditions. Head-loads of over 20 kg have been shown to be potentially hazardous to health, but there is no guarantee that the women do not exceed these limits. At the same time, wood-gathering infringes on time allocation for the other household chores and has a negative impact on basic nutrition and family health.

However, women have not been passive to the increasing fuelwood problem; instead they have adopted survival strategies which include:

• adopting fuel conserving management methods;
• spending less time cooking;
• evolving less fuel demanding meals, eating cold or re-heated left-overs;
• changing food types;
• purchasing fuel wood or other alternatives, such as kerosene.

Unfortunately, some of these survival strategies have negative health implications. Purchasing fuel is becoming a basic necessity in areas of severe fuel shortages within Zimbabwe, which affects the family's disposable income.

The project dilemma: do women ever benfit?

Within most if not all communities, women occupy subordinate decision making positions, despite their being in the majority in most communal areas. Access to land is through their kinsmen or spouses and they have limited control and access to the more capital intensive assets within the home. Energy projects therefore have to be designed in such a way to enhance women's decision making capabilities and ensure their fair share of the benefits of the programme. If this is not done the gap between women and men in terms of access to resources is further widened.

To ensure that women are not disadvantaged by energy projects, the following questions need to be answered:

• how to ensure that women take a part in decision making?
• how to ensure that women accrue benefits that are adequate remunerations for their inputs?
• how to facilitate the creation of time so that women can fully participate in energy projects without adding to their daily burdens?

Conclusions

There is a need for an appreciation of gender issues in rural energy planning. An overhaul of the present system which undervalues the rural economy in general, and women's contributions and requirements in particular, is a must if the situation of rural women is to be improved. Despite the deterioration in the natural resource base in rural areas which is exacerbating the energy crisis, the wide range of women's energy needs have not been adequately addressed. Women's labour needs to be substituted, the fuel wood supply secured, and energy interventions should be made in transport, agriculture and income generation.

The author is a development consultant, working with formal and community based development agents. The work ranges from community based participatory research project formulation and management, to policy issues of national macro-economic dimensions and regional issues. She is currently engaged in project selection, funding and monitoring of water and energy projects for an international agenent. For more information she can be contacted at: Sithembile L. Nyoni Director African Pride, Consultancy Services, Box A748, Avondale Harare, Zimbabwe; Tel. +263-4-33395, Fax +263-4-302208