Learning by Doing

The program’s regional focus provides the foundation for mainstreaming gender into energy projects and has facilitated the piloting of learning-by-doing approaches with the client countries and energy task teams. In the Africa region, ESMAP is piloting a Gender and Energy Program within the Africa Renewable Energy Access Program (AFREA) to work with energy task teams and government clients, such as rural energy agencies, to help strengthen the gender dimensions of their energy projects and programs.

This program has been critical in linking gender experts to the energy community at a national and regional level, and has aided the dialogue on gender to transition from advocacy to action on the ground. Initial activities have begun in Mali, Senegal and Tanzania.
 

Africa Energy and Gender Program

In the Africa region, ESMAP is piloting a Gender and Energy Program within the Africa Renewable Energy Access Program (AFREA) to work with energy task teams and government clients, such as rural energy agencies, to help strengthen the gender dimensions of their energy projects and programs. This program has been critical in linking the gender experts to the energy community at a national and regional level and has aided the dialogue on gender to transition from advocacy to action on the ground.  Initial activities have begun in Mali, Senegal and Tanzania.

 
Key Objectives: The key objective is to develop a gender sensitive approach for energy projects of the Africa region. Activities will be developed around four key areas:

(i) technical support; (ii) generation of knowledge products; (iii) capacity building; and (iv) training and dissemination. Interventions in particular target countries will include activities covering all of the four areas. This work will commence in Phase I with the identification of the SWAT team and scoping missions in selected countries, and will continue with scaling up this approach in Phase II, through consultation with an advisory panel to report on the status, the challenges/barriers, areas of success and plan of action going forward. This “learning by doing approach” will allow for necessary dialogue with TTLs and clients to ensure relevance of the gender components and buy-in for implementation. Phase II will be the continuation of Phase I but will benefit from a check-in with an advisory team of experts to ensure that the plan is operational, sustainable and on track.

A Phased Approach to Learning by Doing

The Africa Energy and Gender Program aims to develop and mainstream the application of good practices in applying a gender sensitive approach to energy policies and projects. The program will include two phases:

The first phase will:

• Focus on building a network of gender and energy experts on the local, regional and global level.

• Carry on scoping and planning missions with task teams to begin developing the tools and methodology for gender mainstreaming through a practical approach. This will include “just in time” technical assistance to AFREA projects in Sub-Saharan Africa spread, across the three sub-regions.

• This is the knowledge generating and stocktaking phase, which will initiate development of concrete and operational action plans for implementation of Phase II.  

The second phase will:

• Scale-up initial activities of Phase I

• Include consultation with an advisory panel to ensure that the action plans develop ed are operational, relevant and taking the opportunity to receive constructive feedback and suggestions.

• The team will also begin extending a similar scoping approach to other to other energy projects within Africa energy portfolio, depending on availability of funding.

Program Outputs