About the Network

The Malian Network for gender and energy was established on 29 July 2004. The network includes members from civil society, enterprises, administration and international and bilateral organisations. The network activities have been mostly punctual, related to the activities of international ENERGIA network. However, the different members are active on gender and energy issues separately and communicating in different occasions like workshops, meetings and by email. The latest activity of the network was the participation and intervention by the chairman of the network in the launching of solar bakery in a women’s cooperative in a rural commune of Bougoula in November 2009.

Activities in 2010

• Advocacy and Lobbying of the government and the municipal authorities (lead by Fédération National du Collectif des Femmes- FENACOF)
  The seed funding will be used to actively engage the members of the Malian ENERGIA Network in advocacy and lobbying work towards the government and the municipal authorities to ensure that gender approaches are mainstreamed in the energy sector development policies in order to improve women’s status, providing them with more opportunities for income-generating work to increase their resilience to climate chance and also improve their general health and living conditions.
  This will be achieved through the drafting of a position paper that will be used to lobby the government, the parliamentarians and municipal authorities on the need for gender sensitive considerations in energy and climate change policies. This paper will be presented to key stakeholders involved in gender, energy and climate change issues. 
  One workshop will be organised to share experiences gained by the network’s members in implementing gender sensitive energy and climate adaptation projects with decision makers and development planners. The Network members already have some projects including the utilisation of solar lighting in health centre to ease the delivery at night for pregnant women and also for medicine refrigeration. There are also multifunctional platform comprising diesel engine that can power several devices including cereals grinding, oil expeller and generator. These platforms mainly benefit women as they provide mechanical and electrical power that eases the work of women. For example the grinding machine is used to grind shea nut for butter production, which is an important source of income for women in Mali. There are also projects using solar photovoltaic to pump ground water, which is used for drinking water and gardening activities. 
  These workshops will offer an opportunity to discuss the constraints affecting women, and the ways for women to gain better access to energy for domestic and productive purposes to adapt to climate change.
• Participation in the national environmental forum (lead by Mali-Folkecenter Nyetaa)
  The National Environmental Forum organised every year, is an event that bring together civil society organisations from rural areas, NGO, state institutions and decision makers to discuss environmental issues including energy and climate change. The seed funding will also be used to prepare the participation of about 10 rural women to the 4th edition of the national environmental forum, which will take place early in 2010 (January or February). This will offer them an opportunity to lobby the decision makers by putting forward the views and concerns of women in improving access to energy and adaptation to climate change.
• Organisation of exchange visits to raise awareness on alternative energy solutions (lead by Mali-Folkecenter Nyetaa)
  Many rural women often have very limited information on alternative energy technologies or how to use them. This presents a barrier to introduction of, and demand for, new energy options. More information about technology options, such as improved cook-stoves and renewable energy systems, and about modern fuels like liquid petroleum gases (LPG) and biomass-derived fuels, is needed. If this information and the technologies themselves were more widely available and accessible, women and men would be better able to make their own choices out of a range of possible options. In order to increase awareness of the rural populations on the energy solutions, one exchange visit will be organised to visit energy projects implemented in the country. A group of women from the different areas where the network members are implementing projects will visit one area where a variety of energy technologies are used.