DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for a Just Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania (JustGESI)

Project disclaimer

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Description

The Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions recommends incorporating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in any efforts to advance the energy transition.[1] The Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development in Africa advocates for a transition based on social justice and feminist values.[2] The UN Gender and Energy Compact (under the auspices of the SDG7) identifies five outcomes for women to lead, participate in and benefit from a just, sustainable, and inclusive energy transition: increasing women’s access and control over energy resources; incorporating GESI in transition pathways, strategies and regulations; supporting women-owned and led businesses; facilitating women's career advancement in the energy transition; and enhancing the knowledge base to understand processes of exclusion.[3] However, empirical evidence shows a persistent gender and inclusion gap in the energy transition. This gap manifests in the lack of participation of women and gender non-conforming people in the sustainable energy labour force. There is limited knowledge of how gender relations and intersecting forms of social discrimination (such as racism or ableism) reproduce energy injustices in the energy transition. During the last decades, many energy projects have incorporated GESI concerns, for example, collecting gender-disaggregated data or holding single-sex learning sessions. However, such approaches fail to challenge the root causes of discrimination and social inequality. Many projects focus on differences between men and women without questioning the homogeneous, universal categories used to characterise diverse groups and complex experiences of power relations and exclusion. Over-simplifying the relationships between gender relations, discrimination, and access to energy resources leads to decontextualised, inappropriate actions (such as when cookstove improvement programmes make inaccurate assumptions about cooking practices and fuel choices). Such generalisations portray women as passive victims or virtuous stewards in ways that increase their responsibility for delivering collective action without the corresponding rewards (such as when biogas-cooking programmes seek to ‘empower’ women but inadvertently result in additional domestic labour). A GESI-transformative approach to the energy transition requires challenging these types of decisions and practices, which tend to reproduce energy injustices, whatever their intentions. JustGESI will deliver substantive action to advance GESI objectives within the energy transition in Africa, focusing on: How to advance GESI objectives within concrete projects and policy interventions. Identifying and promoting institutional and policy reforms that facilitate GESI objectives. Identifying and delivering forms of capacity building that advance transformative strategies to GESI. This interdisciplinary, international partnership will deliver practical, policy and capacity-building responses through a collaborative programme of work across four countries, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, where our well-established research network has obtained evidence of inclusivity gaps in the energy transition and are already initiating pilot actions to tackle these. The project will address the Ayrton challenge of ‘smart delivery,’ delivering ‘inclusive energy & leave no one behind’ interventions by putting questions of equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the transition to sustainable energy. Simultaneously, the project will address the challenges of ‘super-efficient demand’ and ‘modern cooking services’ by focusing on the delivery of sustainable fuels for cooking. At COP28, world leaders committed to clean cooking for all Africans. However, despite pioneering examples of gender-responsive electric cooking programmes, there is not yet a credible international GESI strategy for clean cooking. [1] https://www.iea.org/programmes/people-centred-clean-energy-transitions [2] https://justtransitionafrica.org/ [3] https://genderenergycompact.org/

Objectives

ISPF aims to foster prosperity by solving shared global research and innovation challenges. This will be done through working closely with international partners to: support research excellence and build the knowledge and technology of tomorrow strengthen ties with international partners that share our values; enable researchers and innovators to cultivate connections, follow their curiosity and pioneer transformations internationally, for the good of the planet. Activities under ISPF ODA aim to deliver research and innovation partnerships with low- and middle-income countries.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Eastern Africa, regional

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