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3 Key takeaways: "Women’s human rights in the energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa; Roundtable event outcome report"

On October 6, 2021, Solar Sister was honored to be a contributing participant at a virtual roundtable hosted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) on the rights of women and girls in the energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa.  CEO, Katherine Lucey, and Tanzania Country Director, Fatma Muzo, had the opportunity to share the perspectives of women as entrepreneurs and consumers of clean energy.  The purpose of the roundtable discussion was to map out key gender issues, questions, impacts, challenges, opportunities, and ways forward to ensure that renewable energy development fully integrates respect for the rights of women and girls. The roundtable discussion focused on the nexus of climate justice and gender equity.

Three key takeaways from the event:

1. The development of and transition to renewable energy is positioned by various stakeholders as ‘inherently good’ due to the potential contribution of the green transition to mitigating climate change and enhancing energy access.
2. However, women and girls frequently bear a disproportionate burden of the adverse impacts associated with energy projects and are less likely to share in the benefits.
3. If attention is not given to gender inequalities and dynamics, the transition into green energy solutions could maintain, or even increase, rather than diminish gender inequalities, or create new inequalities, and its subsequent socioeconomic, environmental & financial repercussions.

In stark summary, gender-responsive approaches in renewable energy development in the region are overlooked, but necessary part of building a clean energy future.

If we are not intentional and deliberate about including women and girls in the green energy transition, then we unintentionally exclude them from fully realizing the benefits and opportunities that will result, and even worse, our actions can widen the burden of inequity that they bear. – Katherine Lucey, CEO, Solar Sister

The outcome report and background paper are available for download here.

The background scoping paper was compiled by Mirjam Hagmann, Kayla Winarsky Green, Nora Götzmann and Mathilde Dicalou.