By
Fiona Lamb and Marion Davis,
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
Sub-Saharan
Africa is changing rapidly. New infrastructure, economic development and
urbanisation are transforming society. Poverty is declining and the middle
class is growing.
Yet two-thirds of the population - more than 600 million people
- still lack access to electricity, and more than 700 million cook with
traditional biomass: wood, charcoal, dung and agricultural residues.
With population growth, the number of traditional biomass users
is expected to rise to 880
million by 2020, according to the International
Energy Agency (IEA).
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How is this possible? To some extent, it reflects a broader
struggle to meet Africa's energy needs. As of 2013, the total power capacity
installed in Africa was 147 GW - about the same as in Belgium, or what China
installs every year or two, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).
But governments have also prioritised energy for mining,
industry and other large-scale investments. Thus, even with massive
electrification efforts under way, the AfDB still expects half the population
of sub-Saharan Africa to lack electricity in 2030. And although many countries
have promoted clean cookstoves and off-grid household energy solutions, the
scale of these efforts is much more modest.
It is time to recognize that modernizing household energy is
central to Africa's development - and that means bringing women to the table.
Women and girls collect most of the firewood, spending an average of 2.1 hours
per day on the task. They also do most of the cooking - a task that consumes
about 1.6 hours per day, according to World Bank estimates. This is time that
could be spent on education and income-earning activities, costing sub-Saharan
African economies as much as US$29.6 billion per year, the World Bank
estimates. Combined with health, environmental and other economic impacts, the
cost is close to US$60 billion.
Electricity access can be thus be transformative for women. A
study in South Africa, for example, found that rural electrification led to a 9
percentage-point increase in female employment. Another analysis, covering
multiple countries, found the larger the share of the population that has access
to electricity, the higher the level of gender equality, even in very poor
countries.
The reality, of course, is that electricity will not reach all
households in the immediate future - not to mention, power is so unreliable in
much of sub-Saharan Africa, and so expensive, that a large share of urban
households cook with charcoal, just a step above firewood (our recent study of
Migori County, Kenya, found 84% of urban households cooked with charcoal).
Still, there is huge scope for improving the quality of energy
sources and services available to African households, here and now. In several
countries, improved biomass cookstoves are already widely available, for
example, and new, higher-tech options and clean fuels are coming on the market.
There are also off-grid lighting and small-scale power supply options.
Women are not only the end-users of these technologies
- they are also key players in the success of any enterprise that develops and
markets them. Women are best positioned to tell designers what they want and
need, so the resulting products are desirable to consumers, and seen as worth
the cost. Women's groups, which are already active in communities across
sub-Saharan Africa, can lead educational efforts and microfinance schemes.
Women can also become household energy entrepreneurs themselves,
producing or selling improved stoves, marketing solar lights, and/or providing
after-sales services for these products. Close to their customers, women
entrepreneurs have the potential to lower customer acquisition and servicing
costs and drive these new decentralized solutions.
WOMEN POWER
Women-led renewable energy businesses have a strong track record
in accelerating off-grid energy access.
For example, Solar Sister, which combines clean energy
technology with a deliberately women-centred direct sales network to deliver
improved lighting and cooking options to women in rural Africa, has grown from
two to 1,250 entrepreneurs in five years. The company has so far created
employment opportunities for 2,000 women across Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria,
and has delivered clean, energy efficient products that benefit 300,000 people
in the region.
Another notable success story is that of the Energising
Development (EnDev) Kenya programme, run by GIZ. Women make, install and market
the stoves. As of June 2015, more than 1.45 million stoves had been installed
in different parts of Kenya, serving over 7 million people.
As part of its broader women's empowerment programme, UN Women has designed
WomenPower, an integrated cloud-based platform that links women entrepreneurs
with information, debt and equity finance, quality-assured goods and service
suppliers, customers, leads, and markets. The platform will address the data
gap by collecting first-of-its-kind gender-disaggregated data on energy access
and entrepreneurship.
Women make enormous contributions to the economies of
sub-Saharan Africa: in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, and
through unpaid care work at home. Recognizing women's central role in
transforming energy systems will bring huge economic and social benefits,
directly contributing to gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic
growth.
The timing is auspicious. Many clean household energy businesses
are already operating in sub-Saharan Africa, and their numbers are growing as
entrepreneurs recognize a significant economic opportunity.
The current global focus on enhancing access to modern energy
services across Africa presents a unique opportunity for re-evaluating how
energy access programmes are designed and delivered and placing women as energy
users and providers at the centre of all future efforts.
Fiona Lambe is a research fellow at the Stockholm Environment
Institute (SEI) and Marion Davis is a senior communications officer at the SEI.
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