Energy for Strengthening Resilience at Community Level

On October 23, the latest Capacity4Change (C4C) event took place in Brussels. During the event the Energising Development (EnDev) program, jointly implemented by GIZ and RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) together with its partner the AVSI Foundation shared practical examples of women’s empowerment and job creation through energy access projects. Cookstoves projects in Mozambique and Tanzania, electrification of health centers in Liberia, mini-grid projects in Indonesia and solar projects in Tanzania were highlighted, followed by a panel discussion with gender experts and policy makers. 

EnDev is a multi-donor partnership, currently financed by the governments of the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Sweden. It promotes sustainable access to modern energy services for households, social institutions and small to medium-sized enterprises in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In the stoves sector alone, EnDev created more than 2.000 full time equivalent jobs for women and contributed to the health of 3.7 million women and girls by reducing the exposure to indoor air polution.

During the panel discussion, EnDev’s co-director, Marcel Raats, highlighted the importance of an overall approach. Gender expert, Ana Victoria Rojas, stressed the need for training to foster empowerment. ‘’Providing access alone is not enough. You need to provide tools to empower women to reach transformative change’’, Rojas stated. And Georgios Pantoulis from the European Commission highlighted that accessable business models, especially for women are key.  ‘’More time and money needs to be invested in developing clear indicators that can be used to monitor gender impacts’’, added Francesca Olivia, energy expert at AVSI. More than 50 participants from mainly Brussels based organisations joined the lively discussion.