An IISD Briefing note

Key messages:

Subsidy reform will likely reduce household expenditure on women’s needs and reduce women’s access to modern energy sources, affecting their economic opportunities and respiratory health. Reform can have positive effects if it leads to improved energy supply systems (increasing energy access), but this is likely to take place over the medium term.

There is currently no good data on the exact extent to which reform will affect women. For all near-future reforms, the government should adopt a “precautionary principle” and seek to choose compensation policies that cluster benefits on women.

Government communications will be stronger if reform is designed so that it can credibly state: i) that women, among other vulnerable groups, are protected and ii) that alternative, more effective energy access policies are being implemented using subsidy savings

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