The government of Senegal has committed to integrating gender into energy policies and programmes, in an effort to achieve fair and equitable access to energy for men and women - a sine qua non condition to sustainable development. However, despite the fact that the SE4ALL national action plan and investment prospectus now include clear gender objectives, as a result of Energy 4 Impact’s Advocacy campaign, little concrete action has been taken so far. More needs to be done to turn intentions into reality. This is the conclusion that came from the stakeholders workshop on lessons learned from the implementation of the Advocacy and Women Economic Empowerment programmes that Energy 4 Impact held in Dakar on 2-3 November, 2017.

More than 42,000 people in 65 villages in the region of Tambacounda (Senegal) have better access to energy and gender has been mainstreamed in the country’s energy policies and programmes, following a number of initiatives implemented by Energy 4 Impact and financed by ENERGIA over the last three years.

These results were presented by Energy 4 Impact during its knowledge-sharing workshop, held on November 2nd and 3rd in Dakar. The two-day event brought together a number of stakeholders working to increase women’s economic empowerment and their participation in the energy value chain. The workshop was an opportunity for government agencies, private sector companies, financial institutions, civil societies, NGOs and women entrepreneurs to share, reflect on and learn from each other’s experiences.

The discussions focused on identifying the main challenges faced by women in accessing energy markets; the barriers to making products and services available and affordable to ‘last mile’ customers; appropriate financial mechanisms to improve the availability of products in remote areas; the gender-related gaps that exist at the institutional and cultural level. The workshop’s participants also contributed to proposing solutions and to identifying existing gender-informed initiatives and possible cross-sector collaborations.

The workshop highlighted the importance of resolving certain issues that hinder energy access in rural areas. Amongst these issues were the weak purchasing power of rural populations, the difficulty to access working capital and consumer finance, the lack of training and skill-transfer opportunities for women entrepreneurs, the high cost of imported energy products, and the lack of coordination and synergies of actions between different stakeholders.

A key message that emerged from the discussions was the need for an integrated approach to scaling up energy access, as a way of achieving equitable and sustainable development. Beyond the benefits that it brings at the household level, access to energy is also transversal to most economic sectors and key in achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Access to energy impacts on education, healthcare, environment, transport and agriculture. Therefore a coordinated multi-sectorial approach that empowers women to play a central role is required.

During the group works, the participating parties focused on identifying new strategies and pathways to overcome the stumbling blocks, including creating new synergies multi-stakeholder collaborations for resolving issues. Recommendations were made for strengthening and formalising a multi-sectoral Gender/ Energy cluster to facilitate exchange of information and best practices and coordinate actions.

The participants also urged the government to ensure that their pledges are translated into interventions and investments that support female leadership in the energy sector. Louis SECK, Country Manager of Energy 4 Impact Senegal said: