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Appropriate gender-analysis tools for unpacking the

gender-energy-poverty nexus
Joy Clancy , Fareeha Ummar , Indira Shakya & Govind Kelkar
Published online: 29 Aug 2007.
To cite this article: Joy Clancy , Fareeha Ummar , Indira Shakya & Govind Kelkar (2007) Appropriate gender-analysis tools
for unpacking the gender-energy-poverty nexus, Gender & Development, 15:2, 241-257, DOI: 10.1080/13552070701391102
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Appropriate gender-analysis tools for
unpacking the gender-energy-poverty
nexus
Joy Clancy, Fareeha Ummar, Indira Shakya, and Govind Kelkar
Downloaded by [Nova Southeastern University] at 00:31 08 October 2014
In rural and low-income urban households, energy is ‘women’s business’: women are
responsible for providing energy, and use it for domestic chores and productive
activities. However, the poor quality fuels many women use contribute to their time
poverty, ill health, and level of drudgery. Despite these negative impacts, energy policy
remains gender-blind. This can be attributed to the invisibility of women’s needs to
energy planners, stemming from a lack of appropriate gender-analysis tools to meet the
particular data requirements of the energy sector. This article analyses why standard
gender tools do not provide appropriate gender-disaggregated energy data, and
describes a set of tools that have been developed for that purpose. The paper concludes
with an evaluation of recent experiences testing the tools in Pakistan, India, and
Nepal.
Introduction
Energy is a fundamental enabling factor in development. Putting it simply: nothing
works without energy. In rural and low-income urban households in developing
countries, energy is women’s business, both in terms of collecting fuel, and in using
that fuel for domestic chores and productive activities. The poor-quality fuels (such as
wood and agricultural residues1) many women use contribute to their time poverty, ill
health, and level of drudgery, all of which are indicators that economic and social
development is passing women by. However, this gender, energy, and development
nexus has been neglected by international processes shaping both the energy and the
development sectors. Agenda 21, the plan of action adopted at the end of the UN
Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, consigned energy to a
subsector of the environment. It was not until the ten-year review of that conference
in 2003 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development that energy emerged centre
stage. The Beijing Platform for Action is deafeningly silent on women and energy. The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were formulated without any consideration
of the role energy can play in achieving the MDGs, although this contribution is slowly
Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

ISSN 1355-2074 print/1364-9221 online/07/020241 17 – Oxfam GB 2007
241
DOI: 10.1080/13552070701391102
being recognised. Gender advocates are striving hard to get acknowledgement within
discussions around climate change that poor women will bear a disproportionate
burden as the alterations to weather patterns that are expected to occur as a result of
climate change impact on livelihoods.
Why are gender needs and interests neglected in the energy sector? This is a
paradox since the Beijing Platform for Action instigated the process of gender
mainstreaming to ensure that gender is integrated into all aspects of policy
formulation and implementation. While gender mainstreaming has been more readily
accepted in many other sectors of the economy, for example, health, education,
forestry, and agriculture, there has been little enthusiasm within the energy sector for
addressing gender issues. This paper advances an argument that lack of straightfor-
ward, appropriate data gathering and analytical tools for use by planners is a key
reason for the failure of gender mainstreaming in the energy sector (Clancy et al. 2003).
One reason for this is that standard gender-analysis tools (such as the Harvard Matrix)
do not meet the needs of the energy sector. In light of this, the paper goes on to
describe new gender-analysis tools which have been developed by the Department of
Technology and Sustainable Development a the University of Twente, specifically for
use in the energy sector. Having outlined how these tools were developed, the paper
concludes by recounting their successful implementation in three rural settings in
Pakistan, Nepal, and India.
Gender blindness in the energy sector

In what ways does energy policy fail to address gender?
The gender dimensions of energy are embedded in the gender division of labour, and
energy needs reflect gender roles. So for example, when assessing energy technologies
for water pumping, women might look for technologies which match drinking water
needs, whereas men might look for technologies which can provide sufficient water for
irrigating crops. In addition, access to sources of energy is not only determined by their
physical availability, but is also differentiated by power relations vested in a variety of
social constructions, including gender. Between men and women, distribution of, and
power over, energy services is not equal, but reflects the situation within and between
households in respect of available resources.
Energy services are the desired and useful products, processes, or services that
result from the use of energy. These include lighting, a comfortable indoor climate,
refrigerated storage, transportation, and appropriate heat for cooking (Clancy et al.
2003). Approximately 2 billion people in the world still lack access to energy services
(World Bank 1996). Energy planners tend to treat this problem as a technical issue, to
be solved by increasing the supply of fossil fuels2 and electricity. Energy planning is
implemented in a gender-neutral way, in other words it is assumed that energy policies
benefit women and men equally. What we find in reality is that energy planning is
242 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Appropriate gender-analysis tools for unpacking the gender-energy-poverty nexus
gender-blind. Policy makers and implementers do not recognise the existence of gender
needs in energy services, nor the role gender relations play in controlling access to
energy. As a consequence, women’s energy needs tend to be marginalised in policy
documents (Clancy 2000). Such an assumption of gender-neutrality in planning misses
issues that are of relevance to women and inadvertently discriminates, usually against
women. In the energy sector, the fact that in many contexts, women rely on two
sources of energy / biomass3 and metabolic or human physical energy / for
performing most of their daily tasks goes largely unrecognised. While the full
consequences of women continuing to rely on their own energy inputs and biomass
fuels are not known, it is recognised that the continued exposure to smoke from
biomass fires in enclosed spaces is detrimental to women’s health (Smith 1999), and
the time expended in the collection of biomass and other essential household tasks is
not only physically demanding, but also constrains participation in other activities
which could lead to their empowerment (ENERGIA 2005).
Why is energy policy gender-blind?

Clancy and Feenstra (2006) consider that there are two factors which cause energy
policy to be gender-blind: women’s social position, and the attitude of energy
institutions to gender issues. These factors are of course linked by expectations
around gender roles and relations, and it should be recognised that these problems are
not exclusive to the energy sector, nor are they caused by the energy sector.
Nevertheless, policy makers tend to be men, and energy institutions and organisations
both in the public and private sector, as well as in NGOs dealing with energy, tend to
be male-dominated, particularly in professional posts. Similarly, the large-scale
industries and agriculture, which are important energy customers for utilities, are
also dominated by men in senior positions. This male-dominated structure results in
men talking to men about energy issues. As a consequence, the forums where issues
are identified, and any potential solutions proposed, tend to have an inadvertent male
bias.
Male domination of political decision-making bodies related to energy at the
international, national, and local level in part reflects the small numbers of women
with qualifications in the appropriate fields for a career in the energy sector (most
notably physical sciences, engineering, and economics). However, as Clancy and
Feenstra (2006) suggest, there is not just a need for more women in influential
positions: men in energy institutions also need to be more gender sensitive.
Encouraging gender sensitivity can be done in a number of ways, but for the policy
maker and planner, becoming aware of the issue in the first place can be a catalyst to
creating policy initiatives. This awareness comes from the availability of appropriate
data; in this case, gender-disaggregated data on energy needs. As Huyer and
Westholm (2001) have said: ‘No data, no visibility; no visibility, no interest.’
Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 243

Elsewhere, Skutsch (2004) has also argued that a lack of gender-disaggregated

energy data is a contributing factor to the gender-blindness of energy policy. Skutsch
attributes this to two factors: (a) end-user surveys used to collect data that rely on
standard questionnaires administered to the household head; most often, this house-
hold head is male, and has limited knowledge of women’s energy needs; (b) the lack of
appropriate gender-analysis tools to respond to the particular data requirements of
energy planning. In addition, Clancy (2000) considers that the fact that, in general,
ministries of energy, unlike other sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and health, do
not employ field-level extension workers and hence have no direct contact with the
people they aim to serve, means that the social consequences of energy policy are
overlooked. This again contributes to the lack of gender sensitivity in energy policy
planning.
Why are standard gender-analysis tools inappropriate for the energy sector?
There are a range of gender-analysis tools available, some of which are for use in
general development-planning approaches, while others are sector specific (for
example, Fong and Bhushan (1996) in the agriculture sector). Skutsch (2004) considers
that all of these tools have their origins in two models: the Gender Roles Framework
(more commonly known as the Harvard Framework) (Overholt et al. 1985) and the
Development Planning Unit (DPU) model, also known as the Moser Framework
(Moser 1993). The Harvard Framework introduced the notion of dividing the tasks
allocated by gender roles between productive and reproductive4 activities. Analysis is
then made of how much time is spent on the tasks, who has access and control over the
resources to complete the tasks, as well as who benefits. The DPU model takes the
approach of dividing tasks into those that serve practical needs, and those that serve
strategic interests.
Gender-analysis tools which make an inventory of all types of work (household
practical needs, productive needs, and other activities) are a good starting point for
determining gendered energy use and needs. Here activities which would not
normally be covered by energy sector surveys will be incorporated, including
women’s time and metabolic-consuming tasks. This we would see as a positive
development. However, from an energy point of view what is important is not the time
spent on these activities per se, but the type and amount of energy that is used in the
activity, the positive and negative impacts and outcomes of this energy use on women
and on men, and who decides what type of energy is used for this particular activity
(Skutsch 2004). In other words, existing gender-analysis tools do not ask the right
questions for the energy sector.
As we indicated in the introduction, there is a need for gender-analysis tools that
can be readily integrated into the project planning procedure. Here we are not in
agreement with those feminists who have called for a complete redesign of the
planning system, although we have some sympathy for this viewpoint. In the short to

medium term this would be impractical at least in the energy sector, where we are still
struggling to get gender mainstreaming accepted. Instead, we need tools that can
easily be combined with existing procedures. In particular, tools need to fit into the
project cycle, which is probably the most commonly used approach to project
implementation5.
Can increasing access to energy boost women’s empowerment?

Gender-analysis tools and frameworks in general have been the subject of criticism
from feminists, who consider that the tools fail to deal with the underlying issues of
the subordination of women, despite their claims to the contrary, and hence fail to
address unequal gender relations and promote women’s empowerment (see for
example, Wieringa 1998). While we would not disagree with this criticism, we consider
that whether or not women’s empowerment is to be the goal of gender analysis is not
the underlying issue in the context of the energy sector. This is, to put it bluntly,
because we consider that the implementation of energy policy is unlikely to empower
women directly, however well it is conceived and however gender sensitively it is
framed. Energy policy and planning generally aim at increasing the availability and
reducing the cost of energy and appropriate conversion technologies. But access to one
specific resource will never empower women on its own. The reasons for women’s
subordinate position in society are complex and multi-dimensional, and involve much
more than the simplistic notion of lack of one type of resource.
There are examples where, for instance, gaining access to TV and radio as a result of
rural electrification projects has enabled women to learn about their fundamental
rights, although this was not an aim of the project (Chaieb and Ounalli 2001). Indeed,
in most examples where women are empowered as the outcome of an energy
intervention, it seems that this outcome was unplanned and coincidental. However, we
do consider that the process by which an energy technology is introduced could be a
factor or a step towards the empowerment of women. A project can be planned in such
a way that women are offered new opportunities, such as management positions, or
technical training in maintenance. Projects can be carried out in such a way that
women are properly represented in decision-making, and given scope to take
decisions where they were previously ignored. This will depend not on the technology,
but on the attitude and working practices of the implementing organisation.
We also consider that stressing empowerment as a goal will not be received
positively in the energy sector. Although many economists and engineers would accept
welfare and project efficiency approaches to meeting women’s energy needs, they
appear to find meeting equality or empowerment goals more difficult to accept. A study
by a number of international development agencies found that technical staff generally
do not see the relevance of gender to their work (Christian Michelsen Institute, 1999).
Therefore, for pragmatic reasons we consider that the promotion of gender analysis for
project efficiency reasons is more likely to gain acceptance in the energy sector.

Gender-analysis tools for the energy sector

There have been a number of attempts to develop gender-analysis tools for the energy
sector. Several authors have tried to ‘engender’ the project cycle by developing a set of
questions for use at different stages of the cycle to collect gender-disaggregated data
(Karlsson and Clancy 2004; Dutta 2003). However, we consider that the questions
posed by this approach are not comprehensive enough and in particular that these
methods fail to make explicit what gender goals are being addressed. Another more
focused methodology was developed as a special project (EnPoGen) within the World
Bank’s Asia Alternative Energy Programme (ASTAE) to monitor and evaluate the
impact of rural electrification projects on poverty alleviation and gender equity
(Ramani and Heijndermans 2003)6. Here a set of key variables to determine the nature
and degree of the impact are identified, together with indicators for measuring the
extent of achievement. One of the authors (Clancy) tried to use the methodology in a
project within the rural electricity sector in Bangladesh but the research team found it
too complicated7.
Gender-analysis tools so far developed for the energy sector have also failed to take
into account the two other important lessons identified by Skutsch’s analysis: (a) the
need to make explicit ‘gender goals’ for a project, i.e. identifying which gender issues
will be addressed; and (b) the need to assess the gender capacity of organisations
involved in project delivery (Skutsch 2004).
Gender goals for energy projects

Skutsch (2005) has identified four types of gender goals: improvement of women’s
welfare; increasing women’s economic productivity; empowerment; and project
efficiency. These goals, which are linked to meeting practical and productive needs
and strategic interests, are defined in Table 1, which also gives examples of the types of
energy interventions that could be used to meet the goals.
The gender goals will differ from one project to another, from one community to
another, and from one situation to another, but it is important that both the planners
and the community involved in the project are clear about what the gender goals are in
their particular case, and agree on this. Donor policy on gender is frequently written in
terms of women’s empowerment. But in contrast, energy ministries would be more
likely to plan projects from a welfare perspective (for example, smokeless stoves for
improving women’s health) or efficiency terms (effective use of resources). However,
the power of the donor to influence project formulation can lead to women’s
empowerment being incorporated as a goal in the project. As we have argued above,
the likelihood of an energy intervention in terms of supplying fuels or technology
‘empowering women’ is small. Often the gender goal of the project initiator can run
counter to the aspirations of the intended beneficiaries. For this reason, gender goals
need to be clear to, and agreed by, all stakeholders. It is better to be clear and realistic,

Table 1: Overview of the meaning of gender goals and examples of possible energy
interventions
Gender goal Meaning Implies Examples of possible
energy interventions
Welfare of women Drudgery of women’s Practical needs are met Improved stoves, power
work and the related ill for grinding and husking,
health reduced, but Relates mainly to powered domestic water supply,
gender roles and so-called reproductive electric light in working areas
relations are not activities

changed
Productivity of Women able to Productive needs are Special attention to supplying

women participate in economic met, but gender roles not energy (electric, mechanical
activities or increase necessarily changed power, or heat) for women’s small
their productivity/ business in the home or outside;
efficiency usually coupled with credit
schemes and technical training
E m p o w e r m e n t , Opening up of new Strategic interests need Not so much the technology, but
equality, equity roles and opportunities to be addressed how it is introduced is crucial.
for women for women outside Special attention to including
traditional ones, in Relates to new types of women on organization
economic, social, andactivities and new roles committees, management
political sphere and freedom for women. training, sensitisation of men to
Gender relations are create space for women to
Women altered to be more participate. Energy itself may be a
able to participate on favourable to women component in this, e.g. street
equal basis with men in lighting may facilitate women’s
the economic sphere; More emphasis on meetings in evening, electricity
earn and control income strengthening women’s may make internet
for themselves, if this productive activities or communication possible and
was not the case before opening new begin to reduce women’s
opportunities for isolation, etc. Access to TV and
women’s production radio increase awareness of
political and social rights
Project efficiency Gender roles properly Project should be more Could be various, but in practice
understood; the carefully targeted usually for welfare or productive
household no longer purposes
seen as the unit in
planning
(adapted from Skutsch et al . 2005; Skutsch 2005)

so that the target is visible and achievable. This can help overcome resistance to
projects and avoid disappointments.
A framework for gender-analysis tools in the energy sector

Although there is no one typical or standard approach to planning energy projects, it is
possible to identify two different general project-planning situations in which gender
and energy need to come together to address poverty issues: Energy technology projects
(ETP) and Integrated development projects (IDP). In the former approach, one or two
particular types of technology are promoted, such as solar home systems8, improved
stoves, or decentralised mini-grids9. In this case the main question that arises from a
gender point of view is: to what extent will a particular technology, or technologies,
bring about positive impacts on gender relations and gender equality? In the second
approach (IDP), communities are assisted with development over a broad range of
sectors, in which it is not energy per se that is of interest, but the services that energy
provides as a component necessary for achievements in other sectors (for example,
good quality electric light for women to have less stressful experiences during
childbirth). The gender/energy question then becomes: what are the energy services
necessary to achieve the overall goals of this project, including gender goals, and how
can these energy requirements best be satisfied? A variation on the model is women’s
development projects, where the target is clearly women. The question then becomes:
to what extent is current energy provision hindering the achievement of the gender
goals, and how can energy be used as a vehicle for the furtherance of women’s
development?
The starting point for these two types of project is different, and therefore it is
logical that to some extent the approach to gender must reflect this. The difference is
most marked at the problem analysis and project formulation stages. However, in both
cases the main line of reasoning is the same. It has also become accepted practice in
both cases to use a participatory approach in which the target group plays a significant
role in defining the problems and setting priorities. In general one could say the main
steps in planning for both types of projects will be as follows:
1. Identifying stakeholders: who is involved?
2. Problem analysis: what is the problem and how could we solve it?
3. Identifying assumptions and external factors that could influence the project in a
negative way.
4. Summing up before moving on to project implementation
These steps are common to the standard approaches used in the identification and
implementation of energy projects: project cycle, logical framework, and sustainable
livelihoods. Therefore, any gender-analysis tools will have to be sufficiently flexible

that they can be integrated into the different project types and the different project
approaches.
Developing gender-analysis tools for use in the energy sector

It is against this background, based on the experience of trying to show how generic
gender tools could be integrated into rural energy planning, and the critical analysis by
Skutsch (2005) of these tools, that the Department of Technology and Sustainable
Development (TSD), University of Twente has developed gender-analysis tools

specifically for the energy sector. These tools were originally developed following
field work in Africa (Sudan and Kenya10), but in subsequent tests in other regions,
detailed below, have proved to be suitable for use in other cultural contexts.
The starting point was that the tools needed to be easy to incorporate into current
energy project planning approaches, that they should not be too complicated, and that
they should be sufficiently flexible to be adapted by users to their own situation. We
have drawn on what we consider to be strong points of existing tools and approaches,
for example, a matrix (or table) that makes a comprehensive list of all activities carried
out by the target community. As stated above, patterns of use of biomass energy and
metabolic energy are more likely to emerge with this approach. We divide the activities
between those meeting practical needs (related to activities that keep the household
running and ensure the family’s daily survival), productive needs (that earn income),
and strategic interests (transforming gender relations and improving women’s social
and political position). By making a distinction between practical and productive
activities we can draw attention to the use of standard household equipment for
income generation (for example, preparing food for sale using the cookstove), activities
which are often overlooked as a result of assumptions made about household
technology use. In this way, the energy planner gains a more comprehensive picture
of women’s energy needs.
We also considered that the use of indicators to measure the impacts of energy
interventions are important in assessing whether goals have been reached. However,
they also shape the methodology for the type of data that needs to be collected and the
manner of collection. Hence indicators need to be developed from the beginning of the
project-formulation stage.
The gender-analysis tools have been formulated within a framework guided by the
four project-planning steps set out above (see Figure 1). Within each step there are a
number of questions that need to be asked in a logical order, and the data can be
gathered by a number of methods, including desk studies and participatory
approaches. We have aimed not to be prescriptive. The questions can be adjusted to
suit the context. The data collected are then used to complete a number of matrices (or
tables), as is common in many gender-analysis tools, which can then be used to analyse
data, aid in decision making, and help identify areas for remedial action (for example,

Figure 1: The gender-planning framework for energy projects

A. Identifying stakeholders
A1. Who are the stakeholders?
A2. What subdivisions among men and women in the community need to be recognised?
A3. What are the gender goals of the stakeholders and subgroups?
A4. What indicators should be used to measure achievement of gender goals?
A5. What opportunities/constraints do local cultural practices pose to the planning process?
Integrated development Energy technology

project project
What kind of project
are you involved in?
B. IDS problem analysis/project formulation B*. ETS problem analysis/project formulation
B1. What tasks would people in the B*1. Given that the project is working with /
community (men/women) most like to improve can offer energy technology type X (or types Y
and in what way? and Z) for what kinds of task currently
undertaken, or which are likely to be undertaken
B2. What energy sources, technologies and services in the future, could they be used?
are involved in the activities people presently undertake
and what are the energy requirements of any new B*2. Who (men/women) are, or will be,
activities which they plan to undertake in the future? involved in the activities to which this technology might
be applied? In what ways are they involved?
B3. In what way could energy services
play a part in improving the tasks that people (men/ B*3. Who (men/women) has access to and/
women) have prioritised? or control over energy sources and technologies used?
B4. Who (men/women) uses, and who
controls energy sources, technologies and services used? B*4. What are people's views on the proposed energy
technologies?
B5. What energy technologies and services do people
themselves see as possible solutions to improve their lives? B*5. Is the adoption of this energy technology
What are the views of men and women on the value of the a high priority for people?
proposed energy technologies and services and what are
their priorities?
C. Identifying assumptions and external factors
C1. Who (men/women) will benefit/be disadvantaged, and in what way, by adoption of the proposed energy technologies/services
and by the proposed means of implementation?
C2. Who (men/women) have access to and control over key resources critical to adoption and sustainable
use of the energy technology and services? And who participates in implementation?
C3. Who (men/women) is going to be involved in maintenance and repair; and is capacity
building necessary? If so, for whom?
C4. Who (men/women) is going to be involved in management and under what arrangements?
C5. Is the implementing agency sufficiently aware of gender issues to ensure the project is implemented in a gender-
sensitive way?
C6. What opportunities to support women’s participation follow from international, national, or regional policies?
D. Summing up
D1. What are the appropriate gender indicators for the project's gender goals?
D2. Given the proposed energy technologies, what effect will they have on the quality of life of men and women and how do
these benefits relate to the gender goals?

skills building to allow women’s participation in a particular activity). The framework

questions are complementary to other planning questions which would be asked at the
different steps in the project cycle.
The first step (A in figure 1) analyses stakeholders from a gender perspective. Here
particular emphasis is given to clarifying the gender goals of the different stakeholders
and to making a gender assessment of implementation organisations. Indicators are also
developed for monitoring and assessment. The next step involves finding out more
about the context, problems and priorities to be addressed from a gender perspective.
There are slightly different questions in this step for IDP and ETP projects (B and B*
respectively in Figure 1). The third step (C in Figure 1) looks at opportunities for
ensuring that women are able to participate fully in all aspects of the project, not only as
end-users. The final step (D) requires a return to analysing the gender goals formulated
in the first step. Are they realistically formulated? Do they match beneficiaries’ own
goals? If they require adjustment, indicators may also need to be reformulated.
The tools have been presented in a training manual funded by ENERGIA, the
international network on gender and sustainable energy. The manual is free to
download from ENERGIA’s website11. The manual consists of an explanation of how
to use the tools together with a worked example based on field data from Sudan
(Skutsch et al. 2005). The tools have also recently been tested by members of the
ENERGIA network in Asia (see below).
Who can use the tools?

The tools were originally developed for energy sector professionals (civil servants and
energy utility company employees). However, we consider that the tools can be used
by others with an interest in energy. They can be used by the research community,
including NGOs, for providing data that can be used for advocacy purposes. Gender
specialists should also find them useful for clarifying gender goals in energy projects,
as well as providing a gender mainstreaming methodology for use in a sector which
has been slow to adopt gender analysis.
It should be stressed that the tools are designed to be combined with other standard
planning tools to give a holistic picture of a community.
Testing the tools

The gender and energy analysis tools were recently tested by three members of the
ENERGIA network in rural areas in Pakistan, Nepal, and India12, details of which can
be found in the box below.
The tools were designed for the planning phase of energy projects. However, in the
ENERGIA test they were also used as part of energy project evaluation (Nepal and
Pakistan) (GEW Net and CRT/N 2006; Ummar and Bibi 2006), and in a research
context (in India), looking at the complexity of the relationship between gender,

Testing the gender-analysis tools in Pakistan, Nepal, and India

In Pakistan the tools were tested in the settlement of Narion-Khorain. The
settlement is predominantly agricultural, and women’s role in farming is mostly
linked to harvesting. Most houses in the villages have no access to electricity,
clean drinking water, or sanitation facilities.
The tools were tested as part of the evaluation of a recently completed pilot
project providing around 100 households with solar home systems. Each
household was also given a solar cooker, solar fan, and solar lantern. In addition,
a water desalination plant was installed in the village in order to provide clean
and safe drinking water to the community.
In Nepal, the area selected to test the tools was Makaibari village, about 162
km north-east of Kathmandu. The area is mountainous, predominantly agricul-
tural, and ethnically diverse. Most households have access to drinking water
supplied by pipe/tap, although some depend on community waterspouts and
nearby rivulets and streams for drinking water, and most rely on biomass as a
source of energy for cooking. Almost half of all homes in the villages have access
to electricity.
Here the tools were tested to measure the impact of an improved water mill
that had been introduced as part of a programme for improved access to grain
grinding facilities. The aim was to see if the tools could help to contribute
towards greater gender sensitivity in planning of future activities within the
programme.
In India, the tools were tested in two states in northeast India, Meghalaya and
Nagaland. In Meghalaya, most of the men worked as daily wage labourers, while
most women were engaged in clearing fields, or working as maids, looking after
young children, washing clothes, etc. In Nagaland, a large number of women and
men work in the nearest town as small entrepreneurs/ shopkeepers. In addition
to grid electricity, the available sources of energy include liquified petroleum gas
(LPG), biogas, solar lanterns, water purifiers, charcoal, kerosene, and fuel wood.
Women reportedly took the decision to switch to improved energy technologies,
such as LPG, for food preparation while wood fuel is used for heating water. The
introduction of street lighting has generated a feeling of security among the
women.
The research team wanted to understand the complexity of the relationship
between gender, culture and energy technology. In particular they sought to find
out to what extent culture and social norms limit poor rural women in their use
and management of energy resources.

culture, and energy technologies (Kelkar and Nathan 2007). Teams using the tools
reported that they were easy to work with; this included a multi-disciplinary team
made up of social scientists, engineers, and environmental scientists who trialled the
analysis tools in Nepal.
The tools provide comprehensive data, although they do need to be adapted for the
particular context either to prevent the collection of redundant data, or to ensure the
collection of more specific data. For example, in Pakistan, since the tools were used in
an evaluation, there was no need to collect detailed data on the types and forms of
energy use which would be needed for the design phase. However, what emerged
from the use of the tools in Pakistan was that women had not been consulted at the
identification phase of a project that was intended to benefit them. This failure resulted
in public latrines being sited next to the mosque, meaning that cultural norms
prevented the women from using a resource intended to benefit them. Trials have
revealed that the tools work well as part of project evaluation not only in terms of the
data they reveal, but also the impact that using the tools has on sensitising
implementing organisations on the need for integrating gender analysis into project
planning. This particularly proved to be the case in Pakistan with regard to
highlighting the needs of marginalised groups, and issues relating to gender equity
(Ummar and Bibi 2006). The tools use participatory methods for data collection with
the intended beneficiaries on the assumption that beneficiaries want, and benefit from,
this type of involvement. Thus, it was reassuring to learn that in Pakistan the
communities involved in the study had benefited from clarification of the concepts of
gender and energy (particularly related to gender goals), and that in Nepal addressing
the social as well as the technical aspects of energy projects was seen as added value by
planners and beneficiaries.
The teams have drawn our attention to parts of the manual which need to be
improved, for example, areas of duplication of information, which will help TSD and
ENERGIA provide a more comprehensive set of tools. An interesting suggestion from
the Nepal team was for the development of generic indicators which could then be
used for comparative studies at the national and regional levels. The tools seem to
have been less successful in the research context in providing the data to help answer
more specific questions, for example, related to the value of women’s labour (Kelkar
and Nathan 2007). This provides us with a new challenge to make the tools more
flexible and to adapt to new areas of research related to human rights in the energy
sector, for example, the role of energy technologies in reducing violence against
women both in the home and outside.
Conclusion
The field-testing of the gender-analysis tools developed for the energy sector has
shown that the tools work at all stages of the project cycle, providing useful gender

disaggregated data for the energy planner. The tools are not culturally bound,
although they may not be sensitive enough to detect cultural transformations as a
result of access to energy services. In the India study, sitting around the fire, where
stories are told transmitting traditional cultural norms and values, has now given way
to gathering in the T.V room where a new set of cultural norms and values are
received. For academic researchers the tools might provide too broad a picture but
then the challenge is for the researcher to develop tools of their own to meet their
needs.
Dr Joy Clancy is a Reader/Associate Professor in technology transfer with the Department of

Technology and Sustainable Development, the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Dr Clancy is a
founder member and a technical advisor to ENERGIA, the international network on gender and
sustainable energy. Email: j.s.clancy@utwente.nl
Govind Kelkar is Coordinator of the IFAD-UNIFEM Gender Mainstreaming Programme

in Asia, New Delhi, and the founding editor of the journal Gender, Technology and Develop-
ment. She has previously taught at Delhi University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai,
and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand where she also
founded the graduate programme in Gender and Development Studies. Email: govind.kelkar@
unifem.org
Dr Indira (Sthapit) Shakya is the Unit Chief of the Science Policy Research Unit of the Nepal
Academy of Science and Technology, Kathmandu, Nepal. She is also steering committee member of
the Gender, Energy and Water Network (GEWNetwork), a national focal point of ENERGIA in the
Netherlands, and hosted by the Centre for Rural Technology in Nepal (CRT-Nepal). Email:
ishakya99@yahoo.com
Fareeha Ummar holds a postgraduate degree in Gender and Development from the London School
of Economics and Political Science and is presently Senior Advisor, Gender Equality, to the
Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, Government of Pakistan. Fareeha is a
member of the steering committee and national focal person to ENERGIA Pakistan. Email:
f_malik_99@yahoo.com
The TSD would like to acknowledge the financial support given by ENERGIA for the development
of the gender-analysis tools for use in energy project planning as well as our thanks to the three
teams and their communities who tested the tools. Ummar, Shakiyar and Kelkar would also
like to acknowledge the financial support given by ENERGIA for the testing of these gender
tools in Pakistan and Nepal respectively. The authors would also like to thank Dr Margaret Skutsch
of the University of Twente who kindly reviewed a draft of this paper.

Notes
1 ‘Poor quality’ in this context means that when the fuel is burned large quantities of
smoke and other particulates are emitted. These emissions are a consequence of either
burning damp fuels, or using low efficiency combustion devices such as traditional
stoves, or a combination of both. We would wish to stress that wood fuels are not
inherently polluting and it is possible to design low emission stoves and to practice
good fuel management so that the fuel is dry before burning.
2 Fossil fuels include natural gas, oil, and coal.
3 Biomass is a general term which covers a wide variety of material of plant or animal
origin. It includes firewood, charcoal, agricultural residues, and animal faeces, which
can all yield useful fuels either directly or after some form of conversion.
4 These are all tasks undertaken to reproduce the labour force (bringing up the next
generation) and include child bearing and rearing, feeding the family, caring for the
sick, teaching acceptable behaviour, and so on.
5 One of the common features of projects is that they all go through a number of clearly
defined stages (problem identification; formulation; appraisal; design; implementation;
monitoring; evaluation). While the various stages can be considered to be a linear
progression, good project planning and implementation is considered to have feedback
mechanisms, based on monitoring and evaluation, which both improve the project’s
own chances of success and also allow for the learning of lessons and possibly the
identification of new activities. This idea of feedback changes the linear progression
into a cycle.
6 It is interesting to note that the Toolkit developed by Karlsson and Clancy is on behalf
of UNDP for their own project staff which, together with the World Bank’s EnPoGen
project, signals that major international development agencies are beginning to
mainstream gender into their energy work and hence see the need for tools specifically
for the energy sector.
7 The Bangladesh field team had only limited resources and there was insufficient
budget for participatory data gathering processes which are the core of the ASTAE
methodology. There are at least 10 tables of ranking matrices which need to be
completed with focus group discussion. A large part of the discussion is coming to a
common understanding of the distinction between degrees to which different
indicators are to be measured, for example: has the productivity of an income-
generating activity increased more noticeably or significantly since the introduction of
electricity? There is also the added complication of the construction of the focus group
or groups (female/male/mixed).
8 A solar home system is a technological system based on solar energy and consisting of
a photovoltaic panel (which converts solar energy into electricity), a battery (for storing
the electricity), and wiring to connect up a number of low power appliances such as
fluorescent lamps, black and white TV, radio and a fan. It is not suitable for high power
appliances such as irons and cookers.
9 The national grid is a network of electricity lines, underground cables, wires,
substations, and transformers running from the power station, to transmit and

distribute electricity to consumers in order to meet demand at any time. The electricity
is usually generated in a small number of large power stations. An alternative, where
geographical conditions or prohibitive cost do not allow connection to the national
grid, is the mini-grid, which connects a smaller number of consumers than the national
grid. There is no standard size definition of a mini-grid, although it would usually
centre around one generating station/unit. The number of consumers ranges from a
small number of isolated households to a small town.
10 The first set of tools was developed by Otto Wormgoor, a Masters student from the
University of Twente, together with Lydia Muchiri and Martha Mathenge of Practical
Action East Africa and their colleagues. The worked case study is based on data from
field research in Sudan conducted by Norallah Ahmed (a PhD student at UT).
11 www.energia.org (last accessed 29 January 2007).
12 Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan; Gender Energy and Water Network and Centre for
Rural Technology in Dolakha, in the Central Development Region of Nepal; and
Govind Kelkar and Dev Nathan in the states of Meghalaya and Nagaland in north-east
India.
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Gender & Development

Appropriate gender-analysis tools for unpacking the

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Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Gender blindness in the energy sector

242 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Why is energy policy gender-blind?

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 243

Elsewhere, Skutsch (2004) has also argued that a lack of gender-disaggregated

244 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Can increasing access to energy boost women’s empowerment?

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 245

Gender-analysis tools for the energy sector

Gender goals for energy projects

246 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

relations are not activities

Productivity of Women able to Productive needs are Special attention to supplying

(adapted from Skutsch et al . 2005; Skutsch 2005)

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 247

A framework for gender-analysis tools in the energy sector

248 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Developing gender-analysis tools for use in the energy sector

Development (TSD), University of Twente has developed gender-analysis tools

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 249

Figure 1: The gender-planning framework for energy projects

A1. Who are the stakeholders?

A4. What indicators should be used to measure achievement of gender goals?

Integrated development Energy technology

B. IDS problem analysis/project formulation B*. ETS problem analysis/project formulation

C. Identifying assumptions and external factors

250 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

skills building to allow women’s participation in a particular activity). The framework

Who can use the tools?

Testing the tools

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 251

Testing the gender-analysis tools in Pakistan, Nepal, and India

252 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 253

Dr Joy Clancy is a Reader/Associate Professor in technology transfer with the Department of

Govind Kelkar is Coordinator of the IFAD-UNIFEM Gender Mainstreaming Programme

254 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 255

256 Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007

Gender & Development Vol. 15, No. 2, July 2007 257

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