A Human Rights Approach to Energy, Poverty and Gender Inequality

Chapter 12 in Human Rights: The Hard Questions, edited by Cindy Holder and David Reidy, Cambridge University Press, 2013, pages 231 - 245

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Rights-The-Hard-Questions/dp/0521176263



A Human Rights Approach to Energy, Poverty and Gender Inequality

 Gail Karlsson

Introduction 
There are close to three billion people living with little or no access to modern energy sources for household and productive uses. They primarily use traditional biomass fuels from local woodlands and fields – firewood, dung, agricultural residues, and charcoal. Recognizing the importance and magnitude of this problem, the UN General Assembly designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, and the UN Secretary-General launched a global initiative on Sustainable Energy for All by 2030.

Is lack of adequate energy a human rights issue? Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the right to a standard of living that is adequate for health and well-being, energy is not specifically mentioned. Some level of energy access seems to be essential for basic subsistence, including fuel for cooking food and keeping warm. But is there a right to ‘modern’ energy services, such as power for water pumping, agricultural production, food processing, lighting and communications?  

In 1986, the UN member states expanded the list of human rights to include a right to development “by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development” (United Nations General Assembly 1986). Possibly a right to energy would fall within this category, as a necessity for people’s economic and social development.

Energy access is generally viewed in terms of technology and engineering, however, rather than human rights. Certainly, within governments, energy planners have little contact with ministries dealing with ‘softer’ social equity issues. Applying a human rights perspective to energy access challenges helps us focus on the ways in which energy is essential for the fulfillment of basic human needs. It also highlights the links between energy, poverty, and gender inequality. 

One very important factor in the context of human rights and energy access is that due to culturally established gender roles in many developing countries, collecting firewood and other fuels in rural areas is generally unpaid work performed by women. This unpaid work takes up large amounts of women’s time, has adverse impacts on their health, and limits their opportunities for education and employment. It also contributes to their disproportionate poverty levels, especially when combined with scarcity of other necessary resources and lack of value placed on women’s labor.

Extensive improvements in fuel supply chains and electricity grids are critical for meeting basic development needs. Yet women’s distinct energy needs, especially in poor, rural areas, receive relatively little attention from governments. This both reflects, and reinforces, gender inequities and discrimination.

When governments and institutions actively affirm the equal human rights of men and women, this creates a strong moral and legal basis for incorporating women’s perspectives into national and international energy policies and planning, thereby helping to promote women’s economic and social empowerment and participation in decision-making. It also leads to improved results from actions aimed at reaching national goals on poverty alleviation, development and climate change.

Achieving the United Nations goal of universal access to energy would definitely represent a key step in freeing up women’s time and labor and enabling them to develop their full economic and political potential.

Women, themselves, can help their countries and communities move towards meeting this universal energy access goal by transforming their current energy roles into enterprises that produce and market more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly energy technologies. Governments can support women in these efforts, including by adopting targeted policies that promote innovative financing and business development services accessible to women.  


Links between human rights, environmental conditions, energy, and poverty

The 1945 Universal Declaration of Human Rights attempted to set out a common vision acceptable to all countries in the post-World War II era. It incorporated the civil and political rights emphasized by democratic countries as well as the economic and social rights prioritized by the Soviet bloc. These economic and social rights set out in the declaration include the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, and this could be interpreted to require some basic level of energy usage.

Although many of our current environmental and energy-related concerns had not yet emerged at the time the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, the basic principles of the declaration allow for flexibility in defining basic rights and what is needed for an adequate standard of living. In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm first focused international attention on the importance of healthy environmental conditions for human well-being, especially for people in poor countries who depend on the land and natural resources for fuel and other daily requirements. “Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations” (United Nations 1972).

The 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development referred to an explicit individual human right to economic development (United Nations General Assembly 1986). Because there is little opportunity for people to escape from subsistence-level lifestyles without significant energy resources, this right to development, if taken seriously, provides an even stronger basis for including increased access to energy as an essential element of basic economic human rights.

 By 1992, the interconnection between the right to development and the need for environmental protection was the main focus of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (also known as the ‘Earth Summit’). Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration adopted at the Earth Summit states that: “Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature” (United Nations 1992a). The concept of sustainable development that emerged from the Earth Summit pulled together three interdependent and mutu­ally reinforcing pillars: economic development, social equity and environmental protection.    
  
 The goal of the Agenda 21 Plan of Action adopted at the Earth Summit was to support actions that promote people’s livelihoods while also preserving the natural environment. Chapter 7, paragraph 1, noted that while the consumption patterns of industrialized countries were stressing the capacity of global ecosystems, developing countries needed more energy and economic development simply to overcome basic economic and social problems.

Recognizing the need for greater equity in income distribution and human development, Agenda 21 recommended focusing on the rights of women as a key element of an effective strategy for tackling poverty, development and environmental problems simultaneously (Chapter 3, paragraph 2). Women’s roles were also emphasized in two of the three international conventions adopted at the Earth Summit: the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification. However, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change did not explicitly recognize the importance of gender equity or women’s participation. (In considering both mitigation and adaptation policies, climate change negotiators have preferred to focus on scientific and technological measures rather than ‘soft’ policies that would address behavior and social differences (FAO 2006).)

In 2000, through the Millennium Declaration, the leaders of all the UN member states reaffirmed the principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and committed to protect social, cultural, economic, and political rights for all, including the right to development. In Paragraph 6, the Millennium Declaration endorsed the fundamental value of solidarity: “global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and social justice” (United Nations General Assembly 2000).

Although the Millennium Development Goals laid out in the Millennium Declaration include some targets for environmental sustainability, they do not directly address energy needs. Yet, strong arguments have been made that access to non-polluting energy sources is essential for meeting the goals on environmental sustainability, poverty reduction, health and education (Modi et al. 2006). Integrating rights to energy into the MDG framework is especially important for making progress towards eradicating extreme poverty.

In 2010, the International Energy Agency, UN Development Programme and UN Industrial Development Organization prepared a special report for the 10-year review of the MDGs that called for universal access to modern energy services. Noting the tremendous number of people who still rely on traditional biomass fuels for energy, the report concluded that: “the UN Millennium Development Goal of eradicating poverty by 2015 will not be achieved unless substantial progress is made on improving energy access” (IEA et al. 2010).

Based on the IEA report, and an April 2010 report from his Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (United Nations AGECC 2010), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the UN system and world leaders to commit to meeting the goal of universal access to clean, affordable energy by 2030 (Ban Ki-moon 2011). Over the next few years, it is possible that this international commitment to providing universal energy access could evolve into a broader recognition of energy as a human right.


Energy, poverty and women’s rights

Women represent a majority of the poorest people, largely due to current social and economic inequities and women’s low levels of access to resources (United Nations Development Programme 1997). Poverty generally involves not only lack of income and assets, but also conditions of disempowerment and exclusion that severely limit people’s opportunities for employment, ownership of property, and political representation. ‘Energy poverty’ has been defined as the absence of sufficient choice in accessing adequate, affordable, reliable, high quality, safe and environmentally benign energy services to support economic and human development (Reddy 2000).

The 1995 UNDP Human Development Report observed that: “Women still constitute 70% of the world's poor and two thirds of the world's illiterates. They occupy only 14% of managerial and administrative jobs, 10% of parliamentary seats and 6% of cabinet positions. In many legal systems, they are still unequal. They often work longer hours than men, but much of their work remains unvalued, unrecognized and unappreciated (United Nations Development Programme 1995). The report further recommended investments in building women's capabilities, and empowering them to exercise their rights, as a way of contributing to economic growth and overall development.

In 2010, the Millennium Development Goal Summit found continued inadequacies in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women (United Nations General Assembly 2010). The outcome resolution called for action to ensure women’s equal access to education, basic services, health care, economic opportunities and decision-making, stressing that “investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth (United Nations General Assembly 2010).  

Women’s poverty in developing countries is strongly linked to environmental degradation and inadequate energy resources, especially in areas where women must gather fuel and water from local sources to provide for their families’ needs. Article 14 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women emphasized the needs of rural women and urged signatory governments to take actions to provide them with adequate living conditions, including electricity, water and sanitation. Chapter 24 of the Earth Summit’s Agenda 21 outlined recommendations to reduce women’s workloads, and to provide environmentally sound technologies, as well as improved fuel supplies. It also urged countries to take urgent action to “avert the ongoing rapid environmental and economic degradation in developing countries that generally affects the lives of women and children in rural areas suffering drought, desertification and deforestation...” (United Nations 1992b).

The connection between women’s poverty and environmental conditions was reiterated in the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women. “The deterioration of natural resources displaces communities, especially women, from income-generating activities, while greatly adding to unremunerated work” (United Nations 1995). Strategic Objective F.2 of the Beijing Platform for Action called on governments to support equal access for women to sustainable and affordable energy technologies (United Nations 1995).

The UN agencies have specifically acknowledged that: “Access to energy services is particularly important to women, given that energy services and technologies are not gender neutral. The lack of modern fuels and electricity reinforces gender inequalities” (UN-Energy 2005). Nevertheless, the energy poverty of women, especially in rural areas, still receives relatively little attention or funding from governments.

Energy policies that appear to be gender neutral may in fact be discriminatory. For example, many developing countries prioritize energy investments to promote industrial and commercial sectors rather than universal energy access (United Nations AGECC 2010). As a result, there is less energy available for household use, especially in rural areas. This has a disproportionate impact on women, due to their traditional roles in supplying the fuel needed for household cooking, heating and lighting.  

Unpaid wood and biomass fuel collection can take up large amounts of women’s time and labor. It also makes women vulnerable to fuel scarcity caused by environmental degradation (including from climate change, industrial agriculture, and extractive or polluting industries). Women face risks of physical violence and injury when they have to travel far from home to find fuel and carry it back. At home, cooking over smoky fires causes serious respiratory diseases and other health problems, especially for women.

However, this unpaid women’s work generally does not figure in national economic reports or energy sector planning, even when traditional biomass fuels, primarily collected by women, represent the majority of the country’s energy resources. In Uganda, for example, biomass (mostly gathered by women) accounts for over 90% of the total energy consumed, and in Zambia wood fuel for use by households represents over 80% of the total energy supply (ENERGIA 2007).

Meanwhile, without access to electricity or motorized power for pumps and processing equipment, women also have to carry water for household needs and food production, and grind grains for family meals using their own manual labor. These daily activities contribute to the constraints that limit employment options for women and educational opportunities for girls. 

Incorporating a women’s human rights perspective in energy policies

Applying a human rights based approach involves making respect for women’s rights a specific objective of energy policies and actions, as well as a guiding principle for related decision-making and implementation processes. National affirmation of a human rights approach in government activities, including energy initiatives, can also change women’s expectations of their governments. If access to electricity comes to be accepted as a right, then lack of access, or gender discrimination in delivery of services, can be viewed as a violation of government obligations. 

Efforts to apply human rights principles in an energy context to benefit and empower women are usually more effective if there are already general government policies in place that promote gender equality. In Kenya, for example, the new Constitution adopted in 2010 includes a Bill of Rights, which states that men and women have the right to equal treatment and opportunities. This affects the policies and activities of government agencies, including the Ministry of Energy, and the operations of the national power companies.

In countries where there is resistance to gender equality, references to human rights covenants and principles can support the legitimacy of women’s claims for basic services, and the obligations of governments to respond to those claims. The Convention to End Discrimination Against Women, for example, calls on signatories to take “all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development” (United Nations General Assembly 1979). Requirements for broad-based participation in decision-making and programming also help create frameworks for governments to take women’s roles and rights seriously.

Gender equality in legal status and property rights is critical for women to be able to reach adequate standards of living for their health and well-being. In cases where women are subject to discrimination and exclusion under their country’s political and legal systems, a human rights based approach to development would create a basis for viewing women as people whose rights must be respected. It would also provide a moral and legal basis for more participation of women in decision-making processes, and actions to change existing discriminatory norms, values, policies and practices. This might involve, for example, providing support
for women’s basic economic and social rights by reforming government policies that limit women’s ability to own land, start businesses, obtain credit, or gain access to training and agricultural extension services.

With regard to energy policies and programs, a focus on rights helps to reveal existing injustices, and ensure that women benefit from energy services. With better services, and equal opportunities, women can make gains in education and incomes that improve not only their fulfillment of basic needs, but also their political power and representation.

However, understanding why and how to apply a human rights based approach to development can present significant challenges, especially for scientists and engineers who are more comfortable with technical planning than with social justice issues. It requires looking at the larger political and legal context and considering why certain people and communities lack basic rights, services and resources.

The ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy has been working with governments and energy institutions to help them analyze the connections between gender equity, energy policies and development goals through gender audits. In Kenya, for example, an ENERGIA audit helped energy decision-makers identify and focus on the gender dimensions of their policies and decisions.

 

Key issues in Kenya's energy policy and possible gender dimensions

Issue	Gender dimensions
1. Investment decisions The commercial and economic sectors receive the bulk of investment funding (for conventional energy sources, including grid electricity and petroleum fuels) compared to biomass and renewables	Policy determines which energy sectors receive attention and support. Poor women are unlikely to benefit from the large-scale commercial energy expansion programs, especially if the expansion programs do not support connections to households.     Poor women derive their energy services from nonconventional energy sources including renewable energy. Support to local level, if focused on renewable energy. May provide women with both employment and new energy services.
2. Access to affordable clean energy	The rural poor including women do not have access to modern energy. Continued dependence on biomass for cooking and lighting disproportionately predispose women and children to health hazards of indoor air pollution, drudgery.
3. Energy pricing	Income disparities between men and women; men control household income; decisions about access to energy supply are male dominated. This means that energy pricing will impact men and women differently.
4. Infrastructure construction	Men benefit more than women in terms of employment opportunities. Also large-scale energy projects raise gender equality issues related to differentiated impact on women and men.
5. Community participation strategies	Men and women’s concerns are not explicitly included in energy program implementation. Neither is gender approach emphasized during the pre-development Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Gender inequalities exist in various aspects of community participation.
6. Human resource planning	Women’s specific contribution in energy decision-making is not explicitly recognized. Males at policy and technical and professional levels also dominate energy sector. For example in the renewable energy Department of Ministry of Energy, there is only one female professional against 20 men.
7. Energy related health hazards	Women and children are more exposed to biomass based indoor air pollution.
8. Access to electricity	Most rural women have no access to electricity. Even when connected through rural electrification, they lack finances to engage in income generating enterprises.
9 Dwindling biomass energy supply	Biomass shortage increases drudgery for women. There are health implications on women walking long distances to collect firewood.

Source: Mbuthi et al. 2007

 

 Based on the recommendations made by the audit team, the Kenyan government considered ways to make gender issues more visible to energy managers, for example by establishing a database that includes gender-disaggregated data, and identifying criteria for assessing the impact of programs on men and women.

Similarly, in Botswana, an ENERGIA-sponsored audit showed that an apparently gender-neutral process for putting together the country’s Draft Energy Policy did not include input from women, who are the major users and managers of domestic energy sources (Botswana Technology Centre 2006). Following the audit, the Botswana Power Corporation’s rural electrification program adopted a gender-mainstreaming program for their rural electrification activities.

Energy access, women’s rights and climate change solutions

The UN General Assembly’s designation of 2012 as the International Year of Universal Energy Access, and the establishment of the UN system’s related global initiative, have provided clear opportunities for promoting human rights and women’s rights perspectives in international and national energy policies. This is particularly important as efforts to respond to climate change threats are likely to create new markets, investments and employment based on energy technologies with low greenhouse gas emissions, and women need to be included in these activities in order to take advantage of the increased economic development possibilities.

New cleaner energy market opportunities in developing countries can actually promote women’s human rights and economic empowerment, if steps are taken to ensure that women as well as men are involved, and share the benefits. The report from world leaders attending the September 2010 UN Millennium Development Goals Review Summit particularly mentioned the importance of expanding opportunities for women and girls as agents of development, investing in rural infrastructure to reduce women’s domestic burdens, and improving access to energy (United Nations General Assembly 2010c).

The recently formed Global Gender and Climate Alliance is playing a key role in pressing for attention to women’s rights under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Alliance’s workshops for national delegates attending convention meetings have led to more attention to gender disparities in climate negotiations, institutions and funding mechanisms. In November 2008, the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (which includes a number of UN agencies as well as civil society organizations) joined in the Manila Declaration for Global Action on Gender in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (GGCA 2008). The Declaration underscored the roles of women as vital agents of change, holders of valuable knowledge and skills, and potentially powerful leaders in climate change mitigation and adaptation. It also denounced the absence of a gender perspective in the global agreements on climate change, despite national, regional and international commitments, and legally binding instruments on gender equality.

Many women are already dealing with, and adapting to, climatic changes, and have valuable knowledge about local resources, as well as the energy needs and priorities of their communities. With appropriate training and incentives, women and women’s groups can initiate energy access projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support ‘green’ economic development, and also contribute to the empowerment of women through energy entrepreneurship. If women’s rights are not taken into account, however, the impacts of climate change, and related governmental responses, could instead reinforce existing gender inequities.

It particularly makes sense to promote women’s engagement in producing and/or marketing low-emission cooking stoves (ones that are more fuel-efficient and produce less smoke), and other small-scale renewable energy technologies, through initiatives providing technical training, entrepreneurial skills, and access to credit. For example, in India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has worked with the Solar Electric Light Company to develop a smokeless gas stove and, together with a partner organization, Mahila Housing Trust, is training women masons to construct and sell the stoves. In November 2011, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, agreed to guarantee loans from local banks to SEWA members to finance sales of stoves, as well as solar lanterns, to more than 200,000 of its members. The aim is to test the potential for a financially self-sustaining business model engaging consumers, distributors, and entrepreneurs at the lowest level of the economic pyramid (The Hindu 2011). The project is expected to generate carbon credits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which can also generate some income for SEWA members.

In Uganda, Solar Sister is another women-focused energy enterprise that uses a woman-to-woman network of sales agents to distribute solar lanterns as replacements for candles and kerosene lanterns in areas without electricity. Solar Sister provides the lanterns to the agents, who sell them on consignment and keep a commission.

In off-grid areas, renewable energy options such as wind, solar and small hydro generators can be used to provide low-emission electricity or battery-charging services, and also empower women. For example, some of the Solar Sister lanterns also have battery-charging capacity, which provides possibilities for new small-scale business opportunities. In India, the non-profit Barefoot College teaches poor, illiterate women how to work in non-traditional occupations, including manufacturing and installing solar panels for electricity generation. The Grameen Shakti organization in Bangladesh also trains women as solar technicians and sales agents, and as renewable energy entrepreneurs, linking them up with various technical and financial services.
 Renewable energy technologies can also provide motorized power for essential equipment such as water pumps and grain mills that relieve women in rural areas from domestic labor and free up their time for other types of productive activities. The Tanzania Traditional Energy Development and Environment Organization (TaTEDO) is one of the organizations in Africa facilitating the installation of village power systems called ‘multifunctional platforms’. They are based on a simple diesel engine mounted on a steel chassis, and interchangeable attachments can be used for a variety of tasks, including milling, grinding, water pumping, electricity generation, and battery charging. Women are trained to maintain and operate the machines, and manage sales of the services they provide. They also use the machines to support new income-generating activities.

In some cases, production of biogas and other biofuels from plant products and local agricultural waste materials may also allow women and communities to gain access to homegrown energy resources, as well as related social and economic development opportunities, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Nepal has undertaken a national program to promote biogas as a clean and convenient cooking fuel that can reduce women’s time burdens and health risks. Due in part to a gender action plan facilitated by ENERGIA, this program is emphasizing the engagement of women as masons to construct the biogas systems, and as managers of biogas companies (Tamrakar et al. 2009). Because the biogas systems help reduce the number of tons of firewood and liters of kerosene burned, and prevent large amounts of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, the program is also applying for greenhouse gas emission credits.

Conclusion

Without specific recognition of women’s rights, and removal of gender-based barriers to economic development, women are less likely to be able to benefit from investments in clean energy technologies, new climate funds, and government energy policies. However, if women’s human rights are respected and taken into account, energy access programs and investments will be more effective and comprehensive, and support better living conditions and economic opportunities for both men and women.

Given the flexibility of the UN’s human rights principles, an international commitment to providing universal energy access could potentially evolve into recognition of energy as a human right. In any event, the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative is likely to raise the expectations of individuals regarding the obligations of their governments in this regard. By incorporating a human rights perspective, the initiative can serve to ensure that the basic energy needs of women as well as men are addressed.

Besides being an essential factor for poverty alleviation and human development, energy policies and investments are also critical for effective climate change responses and overall environmental sustainability. In this context, adoption of low-carbon energy choices has a clear impact on everyone’s human rights, as the risks of catastrophic climate changes threaten to undermine the economic, social and political rights of people across the entire planet.

 

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