Opportunities and challenges in engendering the African energy value chain

Image: Flickr, Ashden
Image: Flickr, Ashden

This policy briefing draws on the findings of a discussion paper examining South Africa and Rwanda’s efforts to include women in the renewable energy (RE) sector.

A comprehensive gender mainstreaming toolkit was developed based on this research, which adopts a three-tier approach to the various gaps identified in national, regional and global efforts seeking to improve the participation of women in infrastructure development.

Gender mainstreaming the African RE sector is an important opportunity to include women in infrastructure design, enabling their meaningful participation in and contribution to the energy industry. Unfortunately, engendering (ie, gender equality, gendered development and gender inclusivity) the energy value chain is not without its challenges and requires a multi-level set of short-, medium- and long-term interventions.

Download the discussion paper.

The views expressed in this publication/article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).

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