Advocacy & Advice

Participation in meetings, conferences, and workshops

ENERGIA is participating in international and regional meetings on gender and sustainable energy development, including major UN international consultations, and follow-up meetings to the WSSD. Members from the South will have an increasingly important role to play in this activity and, if necessary, will be supported in developing their capacities to play that role.

Activity update

• Monitoring and Evaluation for Energy and Development (M&EED) International Working Group Meeting
  7-8 December 2006, Roskilde, Denmark
  Wendy Annecke, on behalf of ENERGIA, participated at this meeting, where it was concluded that the group almost completed the tasks it set itself, including the development of a 10 Step Guide to M&E of Energy Projects. The group also dicussed its future.
  Wendy Annecke's report to ENERGIA
• ENERGIA Participation at WREC IX
  19-25 August 2006, Florence, Italy
  ENERGIA actively participated at the Gender and Energy Track of the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC) IX. Several ENERGIA members presented papers and served on discussion panels.
  • Summary of the Gender and Energy Track
  • Energy Poverty and Gender Nexus: A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh, India (Jyoti Parikh, Saudamini Sharma, IRADe)
  • Women’s Economic Development Related to Sustainable Development (Manorama Bawa, AIWC)
  • An alternative use of waste in a recycling centre created by women (Laura Valdés-Kuri and Fabio Manzini, Ayotl A.C.)
  • Renewable/Energy Strategies for Gender Equitable Poverty Reduction (Dominique Lallement, ESMAP)
  • A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh, India and beyond (Jyoti Parikh, IRADe)
  • Engendering Participation in energy-related interventions (Melanie Jaeger, Petra Schweizer-Ries, University of Magdeburg & Ulrike Beisel, University of Lancaster, UK)
  • Renewable Energy for Poverty Renewable Energy for Poverty Alleviation & Conflict Mitigation in Rural Philippines (Ellen S. Bomasang-Son, Cirila Baco-Alvaran & David Balleza, Winrock)
• Monitoring and Evaluation for Energy and Development (M&EED) International Working Group Meeting
  20-21 June 2006, London, UK
  Dr Wendy Annecke of Gender and Energy Research and Training and senior technical advisor to ENERGIA made a presentation at this event.
  Wendy Annecke's report to ENERGIA
  More on the M&EED Group...
• ENERGIA at CSD-14
  1-12 May 2006, New York, UN Headquarters
  Energy for Sustainable Development was one of the topics at the 14th session of the UN Commision on Sustainable Development (CSD-14). ENERGIA actively participated and organised women's events at the CSD-14 and also participated in preparatory events running up to CSD-14.
  More...
• Reporting on Gender and Energy at the World Bank Energy Week
  6-9 March, 2006, Washington DC, World Bank Headquarters
  For the first time at World Bank Energy Week 2006 (held in March), gender was brought to the fore of the discussion. Three gender and energy sessions explored lessons and challenges in integrating gender in energy policies, programs, and projects.
  More...
• Energy, Gender, and Microfinance Seminar
  October 18, 2005, Brasilia, Brazil
  ENERGIA organised this side event at the first Global Village Energy Partnership Assembly. GVEP’s primary objective relates to the development of country programmes which recognize the importance of Energy for poverty reduction and attainment of the MDGs.In linking this objective to the scaling up of investments in energy services targeted at the poor and unserved or underserved, GVEP acknowledges the important role that microfinance has to play in its approach. It is well known that poor women have become more visible as successful micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector; disciplined credit payers, who invest the proceeds from their businesses to improve their households and the family nutrition, childcare, health, and education. Similarly, projects that have given poor women leadership roles in the management of basic community services such as water, sanitation, housing, health and education have shown that women can usually deliver better results, at lower cost and with less corruption. The Gender, Energy and Microfinance side event will provide a forum to exchange lessons and discuss proven "best practice" development sector approaches to microfinance, aimed at income-generation for the poor, particularly women that can benefit from increased access to energy services.
  Read report by Mr Shafi Nambobi, FINCA UGANDA
  View the concept and agenda
  View presentations
• Workshop on Meeting the Needs of the Urban Poor: The Case of Electrification
  12-14 September 2005, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
  Dr Wendy Annecke, of Gender and Energy Research and Training a senior technical advisor to ENERGIA and a member of the South Africa Gender and Energy Network attended this event that was sponsored by ESMAP, US AID, Cities Alliance, IDB, Electricité de Francé (EdF) and Coelba.
  Read Dr Annecke’s report ...
  Read Dr Annecke’s presentation...
  For other presentations at the workshop, view...
• Asian Regional Workshop on Electricity and Development
  28-29 April 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
  Dr. Sadeka Halim of the Department of Sociology of the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh,, represented ENERGIA at this event, which was organised jointly by UNDP, UNEP, and IEA.
  Read Dr Halim's presentation...
• World Renewable Energy Conference and Exhibition for Asia and Africa
  17-21 April 2005, Jakarta, Indonesia
  Dr Indira Shakya of the Gender in Water and Energy Network in Nepal participated at the conference on behalf of ENERGIA.
  
  Read the report...
• FINESSE Regional Consultative Workshop
  23-25 February 2005, Tunis, Tunisia
  Joanna Olu Maduka (FOE, Nigeria), Subregional Focal Point for the West Africa Network on Gender and Energy represented ENERGIA in this workshop on financing energy services for small-scale energy users.
  Read Ms Maduka's paper...
  Read Ms Maduka's report of the workshop...
  
• E-discussion on Women and the Environment: Achievements and Emerging Challenges since Beijing, 10 January - 4 February 2005
  ENERGIA provided gender and energy inputs into this online discussion to assess achievements and challenges since the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. As part of a series sponsored by the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality and hosted by WomenWatch, the outcomes of the discussion will feed into the forth-coming ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which will be held from 28 February to 11 March 2005 during the forty-ninth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
  More...
• Providing Gender Mainstreaming Inputs in UNESCAP Regional Project
  The UNESCAP project “Capacity building on integration of energy and rural development planning” was developed to enhance national capacities in identifying linkages between energy and rural development to promote long-term, integrated and well-coordinated rural energy planning. Several ENERGIA national focal points in Asia have been involved at country level activities, especially in the area of mainstreaming gender into the national energy and development policies and programmes.
  View the report...
• Energy for Development Conference, 12-14 December 2004, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
  ENERGIA participated at this conference, which was attended by over 300 delegates including ministers and other government officials, representatives of the business world, NGOs, and international institutions. The conference was convened as a follow-up of the World Summit on Sustainable Development with the objective of accelerating the implementation of energy-related policy issues in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. Main issues discussed were energy for poverty eradication, energy for economic development, the relationship between energy and environment and health issues and the ways how public and private investments in the energy sector in developing countries can be supported.
  More on ENERGIA's participation...
  Energia Position paper...
• Developing a New Sida Energy Policy - Consultative Workshop, 9-10 December 2004, Stockholm, Sweden
  Wendy Annecke participated on behalf of ENERGIA at this workshop to develop Sida's Energy Policy for the next 5 years.
  View Wendy's report...
• Women as the Voice for the Environment (WAVE), 11-13 October 2004, in Nairobi, Kenya
  Khamarunga Banda and Lydia Muchiri represented ENERGIA at UNEP's first Global Women's Assembly on Environment: Women as the Voice for the Environment (WAVE). WAVE undertook an assessment of the commitments made by governments, the international community and major groups since the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992). Over 150 participants from 60 countries attended the Assembly.
  More on ENERGIA's participation...
  Read Khamarunga's report...
• Presentation on Gender and Energy Policy Formulation in Botswana
  Nozipho Ditlhale of the Botswana Gender and Energy Network made a presentation on "Relationship between research and policy making in the energy sector: a gender perspective" during a seminar organised by GDN/AFREPREN at the University of Botswana on 18 October 2004. The presentation was very well received by the policymakers, researchers and AFREPREN representatives at the seminar.
  View presentation...
• WREC VIII - Denver, USA, 29 August - 3 September 2004, Denver, USA
  With povery alleviation and environment getting high priority on the agenda, the WREC (World Renewable Energy Congress), for the first time in its history, called out gender and energy as a track in its own right. ENERGIA Network members provided significant support in organising events, presenting papers, co-chairing sessions, and leading discussions. On 29 August, a whole day workshop was organised on the theme 'Gender and Poverty Reduction: Issues and Roles of the North and the South'.
  Presentations on the human face of energy and poverty were made at the plenary sessions on two days of the conference. During the week, 22 speakers from around the world reported on gender and energy research and policy issues. The WREC VIII participants recommended a number of actions regarding gender, energy, water, health, and poverty reduction to be taken to the 14th and 15th sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 14 & 15).
  Participant's Report WREC VIII - Anoja Wickramasinghe
• Support to "Renewable Futures - Seminar on Energy and Change"
  This European seminar was hosted by ESCANDA and INFORSE in Asturias, Spain, from 22-29 August 2004. ENERGIA provided input in bringing gender and energy issues into the seminar. The paper of Joy Clancy and Ulrike Roehr, "Gender and Energy - Is there a Northern perspective?", was included in the seminar reader.
• Renewables 2004 - Bonn, Germany, June 2004
  ENERGIA, together with LIFE e.V. has been actively involved in bringing gender and energy issues into the International Conference on Renewable Energy 2004 by participating at several preparatory events, contributing a Thematic Background Paper, organising a gender and energy side event at the conference, and by successfully lobbying for the integration of gender in the outcome document.
  More...
• Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, HHEAP Workshop, 8-10 March 2004, Rome, Italy
  Elizabeth Cecelski participated on behalf of ENERGIA at the Harmonised Health and Exposure Assessments Protocol Workshop in order to learn more about the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air and to make gender inputs. The meeting had a strong technical bias and did not provide the room for social aspects to be brought in. The Southern representation at the meeting was also minimal. ENERGIA does not feel it should join the partnership, but will follow its developments in gender-related issues.
• World Bank Energy Week, 8-12 March 2004
  Sheila Oparaocha, ENERGIA Coordinator, was invited to participate at the World Bank Energy Week in Washington D.C. It was an opportunity to meet many of the regional World bank staff, and representatives from private energy utilities, national energy ministries, etc. Gender in the mining industry was a highlight of the session on gender and energy.
• Gender and Climate Change at COP-9, 1-12 December 2003
  Is gender an issue in climate change and, if so, how should it be approached?
  More than 30 people participated at an informal meeting organised by LIFE and ENERGIA with a view of taking stock of the interest of participants in gender as an issue in climate change, and planning how to increase the visibility of gender issues in the climate change debate.
  More...
• Promoting Gender Equality, Providing Energy Solutions, Preventing Climate Change
  Another important gender side event at COP-9 was the seminar hosted by the Swedish Ministry for the Environment on 10 December 2003: "Promoting Gender Equality, Providing Energy Solutions, Preventing Climate Change". Inputs on behalf of ENERGIA were made by Ms Fatma Denton of ENDA-Tiers Monde, Senegal, who was one of the panellists.
• Renewable Energy Technology for Rural Development - Nepal, October 2003
  This conference looked at technical, policy/institutional, and educational/information dissemination aspects of renewable energy technology. The South and North Indian focal points for the India Gender and Energy Network participated in the workshop and contributed to the gender discussions.