ENERGIA News
The international magazine on gender and energy related issues.
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Smoke Reduction Project Kadibo, Kenya.
“Buy a wood stove?” what a joke – why should I pay money - a shallow hole in the ground and three stones is all I need and there – I have a stove!” This is the attitude that energy entrepreneurs have to contend with in selling a variety of cooking stoves. There is no doubt that they are risk takers as several of them are surmounting the obstacles and are making viable commercial businesses in stove sales.
Multi-Purpose Rocket Stoves Adoption in Lanet Division Scaling Up Uptake through Women Participation
Until recently, little attention was given to the new technologies, management practices and institutions communities have developed themselves – to “local innovation”. This refers to the dynamics of indigenous knowledge – the knowledge that has developed over time within a social group incorporating both learning from the experience of earlier generations and knowledge that has been gained in the meantime from whatever source and has been fully internalized within local ways of thinking and doing.
Intellectual Property Right and Innovations
Until recently, little attention was given to the new technologies, management practices and institutions communities have developed themselves – to “local innovation”. This refers to the dynamics of indigenous knowledge – the knowledge that has developed over time within a social group incorporating both learning from the experience of earlier generations and knowledge that has been gained in the meantime from whatever source and has been fully internalized within local ways of thinking and doing. The need to enhance local innovation is because diversity requires locally specific practices and rapidly changing conditions requires local capacities to adapt quickly.
Impacts of Climate Change on Gender and Energy Case of Olangabobo Village in Narok County
Climate change is considered to be the most serious threat to sustainable development, globally, regionally and locally. Impacts of climate change are affecting many sectors such as environment, human health, food security, economic activities, natural resources and physical infrastructure.
Gender Mainstreaming in SCODE ICS Project - a Case Study
As part “Gender Mainstreaming into Energy Access Projects and Markets” strategy, ENERGIA aims to begin to incorporate gender awareness into energy projects by providing technical and financial assistance to mainstream gender approaches in SCODE’ existing energy access project in Kenya. The gender mainstreaming exercise was planned to be dovetailed into SCODE’s on-going project processes. This means that at each stage of the project cycle, the gender mainstreaming team would make specific interventions into the process, to ensure that gender concerns are not inadvertently overlooked.
Kenya Gender and Energy Network National Workshop
The three-day National Training Workshop on Concepts in Gender and Energy Planning was organized by the Kenya Gender and Energy Network (KGEN) in November 2010. KGEN is a member of ENERGIA (International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy), which links individuals and groups concerned with gender. The workshop brought together a total of 31 participants including 20 women and 11 men.
Strengthening the Kenya Gender & Energy Network
In this project ENERGIA, Hivos and Practical Action Kenya partnered to strengthen the Kenya Gender and Energy Network (KGEN) via seed funding. The duration of this project was July 2010 and June 2011. The main activities carried out in this project were: establishment of the KGEN secretariat; gender awareness training for energy practitioners; identification of gender gaps in the Kenyan Rural Energy Act (REA); creation of a popular version of the gender audit of the Kenya energy policy.
Kenya Women and Energy Network (KWEN)
National Focal Point: | Practical Action East Africa |
Contact Person: | |
Contact Address: | Practical Action East Africa
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About the Network
KGEN currently has 62 members drawn from Civil Society, Government, Research Institutions, Community Based Organisations Private Sector and Media. Some of the members form the 6 thematic groups: Capacity Building, Socio–cultural, Information Packaging and Dissemination, Gender Mainstreaming, Local Innovations and Policy and Advocacy. Each thematic group nominates a member to the National Steering Committee.
The network is working to achieve the following broad aims:
- To enhance levels of awareness and motivation among NGOs and energy access delivery actors to disseminate and finance energy technologies to benefit women and men.
- To enhance capabilities of KGEN members and Partners to mainstream gender concerns into energy and development projects.
- To inform and influence national energy institutions to incorporate gender into the design of sector policies, budgets, practices and poverty reduction strategies.
Activities
Practical Action East Africa, as the National Focal Point for Kenya, has coordinated the following activities for the network since its inception:
- A 2-day national consultative workshop was held in Nairobi 18th -19th June, 2009. A total of 45 network members participated in the workshop. The workshop offered an opportunity for members to share experiences in energy, gender and poverty and to strengthen the network. New members were recruited and sensitized on the activities and objectives of the network. They were able to reflect on how these relate to their own activities and poverty reduction. During the workshop, members were able to identify key priority areas and issues in their own work that the network can address.
- Practical Action as the ENERGIA Focal Point hosted the Africa Regional ENERGIA Focal Point meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in June 2002.
- Preparation of position papers on gender and energy in the 3 East African countries titled “Developing a Working Strategy for the Tanzania Country Women and Energy Network”, “Gender and Energy: A Brief About Initiatives Undertaken in Uganda’ and “Gender and Energy in Kenya: Constraints and Opportunities”.
- Coordination of the regional Education and Training work package under the EC COOPENER funded program “Turning Information into Empowerment –Strengthening Gender and Energy Networking in Africa” (TIE-ENERGIA). 18 network members benefited in the training.
- A gender audit of the national energy policy and programs was carried out in Kenya, also under the TIE-ENERGIA program. More
- Technical support to the Zimbabwe focal point during a workshop organized to review the Zimbabwe National Energy Policy in 2007 and oversaw the implementation of activities under the seed funding in 2008-2009.
Established in 2000, ENERGIA Africa is a network of men and women whose common goal is to create equal opportunity and access to relevant energy resources for the poor.
Kenya Gender Audit Flyer
[PDF, 1mb]
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