Gender, Energy and Nutrition:The burden on women and girls

Joy ClancyPrincipal Investigator ENERGIA Gender and

Energy Research ProgrammeAssociate Professor, CSTM, University of

Twente, The Netherlands

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Content

• Energy and nutrition – some links• Gender and energy – why it matters• Urban food vendors• Next steps – some suggestions

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Energy, Nutrition and Health

• Energy = cooking and boiling water• Cooking makes food palatable and reduces chances of

infection • Boiling water makes it potable – also promotes hygiene• Quantity and type of energy used is important• Insufficient quantity – induces coping strategies eg

evidence shows reduced meals, boiling water, shifting to informal sector food vendorsPhilippines – survey 22% urban households reported changed habits from increased energy prices1% skipped breakfast; 3.7% bought food

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Energy, Nutrition and Health

• Energy carrier can affect tastepositively – charcoal; negatively – kerosene

• Taste influencing factor in transition to clean fuels eg for solar cookers

• Energy is important for storing food – quality deteriorates more slowly – can help overcome ‘the hungry period’

• Processing staples using modern equipment can improve food quality

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Why gender matters in energy access

• Women and men have different energy needs and priorities

• Women and their daughters carry physical and metaphorical burden of traditional fuel collection

• Women have lower skills level than men – keeping girls from school means that they find it difficult to keep up with the boys

• Women have less access to credit because they have lower levels of asset ownership than men

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Why gender matters in energy access

• Stress for women to produce nutritious meals for their families – this includes provision of energy carriers and water (often with their daughters)

• Men generally make final decisions about major family purchases – they have to be convinced a new stove is a priority

• Smoke-free kitchen and electric light can encourage men to spend time there which builds family cohesion

• Clean energy carriers can encourage men to share household tasks – reduces women’s burden

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Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Urban informal food vendors – livelihoods, nutrition and energy

• Provide both livelihoods (particularly for women) and nutrition for urban poor

• Evidence shows women will use income to buy good quality food for their families

• Hygiene closely linked to energy access – where food is prepared is important eg householdUNDP supported project in Philippines which provided loans and business skills training to women informal ambient food vendors enabling them to formalise, improve hygiene and increase income and status. Vendors health is checked – preventing cross infection.Improved charcoal stoves – cleaner cooking (increased customers) and cheaper to operate.

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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ENERGIA research programme – gender and productive uses of

energy • Finding evidence about how energy affects informal sector food vendor

enterprises (South Africa, Rwanda and Senegal) – marginalised and lack of interest from policy makers

• Food processing heat-intensive, labour intensive with a lot of drudgery and/or lighting-intensive (if work in evenings) and are often dangerous to women's health

• Which factors influence the transition to clean energy? Are men more likely to make the transition than women?

• Does access to modern energy carriers have negative consequences for women? Will men enter the sector and displace women? (evidence from hairdressing in Africa)

• Contribution to women’s empowerment?• Customers are usually men – will they switch if vendor isn’t cooking with

‘traditional’ fuel?• Does formalisation of enterprises play a role?

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Next steps

• SE4ALL gives a valuable opportunity to address gender and energy issuesUrgent attention is needed: currently we are woefully short of the 1.7 percent target growth rate required to reach universal access to non-solid cooking fuels by 2030

• Don’t be deceived – we are dealing with complex situations which can vary with location – there is no one-size fits all solution

• ENERGIA’s position is that taking a gender approach in analysing situations and identify solutions that work provides more sustainability and greater gender equality

• But policy makers need convincing that a gender approach works and then how to do it

• ENERGIA suggests two good starting points – routine gathering of gender disaggregated data and conducting gender audits

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Private sector sees gender matters

• Private sector sees women can play a role in the stoves value chain – creates a win-win situationGood sales agents reaching places men cannot always enter; potentially higher paying jobs for women than traditional jobs

• Health/nutrition experts could team up with stakeholders in the chain to gain entry points

8 July 2015

Workshop Clean Cooking Solutions for Health and Sustainability, Milan

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Thank you

• To the audience for listening• To GACC, Aspen Institute Italy and WAME for

inviting me to be part of the workshop• To my colleagues Soma Dutta and Nthabi

Mohlakoana for data I’ve used in the presentation.

8 July 2015