ENERGIA's National Focal Point in Nigeria, Friends of the Environment (FOTE), was performing a gender audit of the national energy policy of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN). The audit was carried out to achieve the following:

• Identify gender gaps in energy-related policies, and formulate strategies that can address those gaps.
• Make gender and energy issues visible to wide audiences in ways that support the national and international networking and advocacy initiatives to influence energy policies and programmes.

A participatory approach was used for the gender audit, which was led by a national team of experts and carried out in close consultation with ECN (Energy Commission of Nigeria), to encourage ownership of and commitment to the results and actions recommended by the national policy making and influencing apparatus.

In November 2008, pre-validation and validation workshops were held in Abuja, Nigeria. The validation workshop was an important milestone where the gender audit team met with ECN to reach a consensus and place ownership of the gender audit findings within ECN, It went on to discuss the recommendations and agree on actions with specific targets and time frames to engender the energy policy.

The gender audit is going to be followed up with a tailor-made training to policymakers to impart them with concepts, tools and guidance for mainstreaming gender in energy planning.