Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Projects: A Practical Handbook has been developed by the ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy. ENERGIA was launched in 1996 as an initiative of committed individuals working on gender and energy research and advocacy. The ENERGIA network is hosted by the ETC Foundation in the Netherlands.
This Handbook on mainstreaming gender in energy projects seeks to provide guidance, practical tools and examples for energy projects that show how to undertake gender mainstreaming systematically.
What is this Handbook about?
Mainstreaming Gender in Energy Projects: A Practical Handbook was developed by ENERGIA4 to provide guidance on how to integrate gender concerns in energy projects:
- How to assess the gender situation in an energy project
- What gender interventions can be undertaken as part of project activities
- How to build capacities and institutionalise gender mainstreaming practices within implementing organisations and partners
- How to measure and monitor the progress made on gender aspects of energy projects.
Specifically, it helps energy projects to develop a concrete gender strategy, or a Gender Action Plan (GAP) for the project. Developing a GAP involves:
- Agreeing on a gender goal or objective (deciding what the project aims to achieve from a gender standpoint)
- Planning specific outcomes and activities to meet these gender goals, which can be of two types:
- Implementation actions
- Institutionalisation of gender mainstreaming in the project or organisation, to create the long-term capacity to implement the GAP activities
- Designing a monitoring and evaluation framework to track the performance of gender activities
- Including gender in project documents, such as logical frameworks and annual work plans.
Who is it for?
The Handbook is aimed at both energy project managers and staff, as well as gender experts who are tasked with mainstreaming gender by their organisations, and will:
- Demystify gender concepts
- Help them recognise gender issues in energy sector work
- Clarify what gender mainstreaming means for energy projects, and why it makes sense to implement ‘gender-sensitive energy projects’
- Provide pointers on how to mainstream gender and track its performance.
How is the Handbook structured?
The Handbook consists of two parts:
- The Practical Handbook shows how gender concerns can be systematically integrated within energy access projects and programmes. It visualises the process as consisting of four major stages – preparation, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation – each of which is broken down into blocks.
- A Resource Pack in a CD, with tools, questionnaires, guidelines and examples for each of the nine blocks.
You can download this practical handbook for free here.
