The Gender and Energy Research Programme is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and established and led by the ENERGIA the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy to provide the evidence base for improving energy investment effectiveness by understanding and better addressing women’s specific needs for modern energy services through empirical research. The evidence aims to inform global energy initiatives including SE4All, the international initiative, led by the United Nations, to end energy poverty by scaling up energy access to achieve universal energy access to sustainable, modern energy services by 2030.
The Gender and Energy Research Programme is one of the three components of the DFID Sustainable Energy, Access and Gender (SEAG) programme. The other two components of SEAG are: expansion of renewable energy resources mapping programme (by the World Bank’s ESMAP) and responding to emerging SE4All knowledge priorities as this initiative expands.
Within the research programme, empirical evidence on the links between gender, energy and poverty, will be gathered and analysed, and translated into guidance and recommendations for energy policy and practice by governments, the private sector and the NGO /CSO community. The programme entails research, evidence gathering and dissemination, and raising public awareness on the importance of energy access for women and girls. The starting point for the research programme are five priority themes for research on the gender dimensions of priority areas in the energy sector: electrification through grid and decentralised systems; productive uses of energy; the political economy of energy sector dynamics; energy sector reform; and the role of the private sector in scaling up energy access. Further, commissioned research will address key gaps in evidence.