Sheila Oparaocha is the International coordinator and program manager of ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy. Hakahakionline talked with her about the wide-range of issues on energy and women.
Can you elaborate how ENERGIA is involved in energy through advocacy activities on empowering women, and why it is important for ENERGIA to get involved in that sector?
Yes, it a very important and relevant question. ENERGIA has been working in the energy sector for the past 20 years, and we really have been doing this because we want to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the energy sector. We are doing this because we find this very much linked with our international development goals for the energy sector. I think you might be aware of the sustainable development goals; we have one sustainable development call on energy which is called SDG 7. The objective of SDG 7 is to ensure affordable and reliable and sustainable and modern energy for all people.
Within us we think it is not enough to just say “sustainable energy for all”, you have to really break that down in who benefits from that energy, who accesses that energy, and more importantly we are there to ensure women, poor people and marginal groups are in the priority of getting this energy for all.
Now, the Nepalese government has committed to SDG 7 and because of that ENERGIA has been working in Nepal to support the Nepalese government to achieve sustainable energy for all by 2020 and we’ve been doing this because we also identified that Civil Society Organizations(CSO) have an important role to play in achieving this objective. So, ENERGIA works in Nepal to support civil society organizations, to engage with their policy makers, to engage in developing and enabling policy framework and also very much to represent the issue of poor people, women and marginalized groups in the policy environment in Nepal. So we are working with civil society organizations like CIT, NEFEJ (media also has a very important role to play), Practical Action, RECON, NACEUN and ECCA. Working with a group of civil society organizations, we’re providing them both with financial and technical support so that they can engage with their governments as well.
We’re doing it in three main ways, Advocacy and lobbying influencing activities. The other is organizing campaigns and raising awareness at the local level. Engaging with government not just with the central government but very much with local government. As you know, with amendment in the Constitution in 2016, local governments have become very important, so we need to engage with local governments. Also, we are supporting entrepreneurship development whereby women entrepreneurs deliver energy services at the community level. It is equally important to link women and micro enterprises access to finance. Connecting them to market and developing their business skills and capacity are the other ways. The last way is that we are building the evidence and making sure that all our interventions are really based on research that has been done to weigh the right measures and policies. So we are not just doing them for our own interests but we are really basing them on research and evidence. These are the ways we are working in Nepal with our partners.
Can you explain how ENERGIA is satisfied with the activities of its partners such as Nepal’s CSOs; is it by setting a target or achieving year-long goals?
We are very happy with the work the CSOs are doing in Nepal. We found that it has taken some time to first of all build the capacity of CSOs, to be able to work in the energy sector. We have been working on that since 2004 in Nepal. We found that CSOs’ capacities have really developed now, we are finding that they are really able to implement activities and engage with their policy makers. They are able to engage with women entrepreneurs, and the local governments. So we are very happy with what they are doing and they have achieved in different ways.
One way for example is through the media, we are very happy; before we were not seeing media involved in energy access activities. We are happy that now media consider themselves as part of the CSO movement which is really important for scaling up energy access. We have found that media such as NEFEJ, who we are working with, are raising awareness among other media groups such as local radio communities, national radios, national televisions. I have been here on national TV, also I’ve been to the community level, and I’ve heard radio community shows as well. Besides, they have even trained and exposed women entrepreneurs to international levels. I was in New York with one of the women entrepreneurs from Nepal who have been trained by media groups.
We reckon that CSOs are doing a lot of commendable work by engaging with private sector to raise awareness. Earlier, the CSOs were not working with private sector but now we find that we are convening forums and platforms where we bring private sector to understand the issues of poor and marginalized groups and women’s access to energy. These activities help private sector in establishing instruments and programs, look at markets to be able to engage in this area, so we are very happy with the work they are doing.
What are the upcoming strategies and how will ENERGIA get involved in Nepal’s development activities?
Like I said we have been working in Nepal since 2004 and we see our work with Nepal over the next 10 years and even beyond that. Our strategy is to align ourselves with the objectives of the government of Nepal in order to scale up universal access to energy for all, that’s the first strategy. The second strategy is to continue to strengthen, see ourselves being able to effectively engage in the energy sector in Nepal. The third is, not just to work with CSOs but also to link with private sector to bring private sector so they can have inclusive approach to scaling up energy access and to building energy markets in Nepal.
The fourth strategy we have is also to work on research, really building the evidence so that we can inform ourselves. And one last strategy is to make sure the voices of the people we are working for—especially women entrepreneurs—are brought to forefront at Nepal’s government’s highest level of decision making. Weather it is at the local level or national level, the government of Nepal goes to represent their issues on the international policy forum by bringing the voices of people from the ground. They also become part of the delegation, for instance, by going to international forums and have represent their issues.
As you motioned you visited grassroots level, so how do you feel women and marginalized groups are accepting your activities?
Yes, I’ve been to various places in Lalitpur, and Sindhuli. I went with our partners who took us to the rural areas as they wanted ENERGIA to see what are they doing on the ground. They don’t want us to just come to Kathmandu, meet people and speak with us in our offices. They told us we have to go out there to see what we are doing. What we found is that they have mobilized a great number of women. For instance, we are working with more than 500 women entrepreneurs in Nepal. They are planning raise that number to 1000 over the next three years. I found that women in these rural areas were smoothly running businesses selling energy services. We found not only women but also other poor and marginalized groups engaged in businesses such as distribution chain of improved cooking stoves from Kathmandu to their village. These are the things we found at local levels. National campaigns were happening. it’s working with men, women, health workers, and local leaders to raise awareness about this issue. So we saw a lot of works going on at the grassroots level.
Would you like to share with us any heart touching story from your visits?
One story that really touched and captured my heart is of women called ‘Niru’. Niru is working in Sindhuli district and she has started working with our partners, particularly Center for technology in Nepal, and also with NEKONG about three years ago. When Niru started, she was running her business of selling a few biscuits here and there, and a few household commodities. Niru was approached by CRT and said, “I’ve seen that you are working in this business but we want to inform you about renewable energy and how this can be a business that you can work with.” They focus on improved cook stoves; they explain to her the importance of improved cook stoves in the communities. Niru was pleasantly surprised by that because she didn’t have a good clean cooking energy technologies that she had seen at her neighbors’ houses. She was excited to be able to work with a partner to do this, so she said, “yes, I’m willing to do this and will make my commitment, investment whatever little money I have to engage in this, but I need your support.”
Since then CRT has been working with Niru, they have given her trainings. They have been mentoring her on a daily basis, every week, every month. They connected her with a financial institution, and local manufacturing company. Niru travelled with us to New York this year in April to present what she had done, and it was a fantastic story. She met with representatives from the Secretary General and they were surprised. What Niru said was “over the three years I’ve been able to build a business where I’ve managed to sell more than 15,000 stoves” and this was surpassing the target that the alternative AEPC had and local government had set for disseminating stoves in the country.
She had surpassed target by three times, she said, “I have 50,000 stoves, and employed nearly 100 people to do the job, to help me disseminate and I’ve got a dream to disseminate another 8000 stoves, for that need the continuation of your, my business is growing.” This was an incredible story, she says “by doing this I’ve been able to educate my children, I’ve been able to build a house, I’ve been able to send my children from primary school to university, and I’ve been able to help not just myself but 100 employees.” She has become a local leader and inspiration in the community. It made me cry, this was really an inspirational story.
Any final thoughts?
Nepal is one of the best practice models, there are many countries looking at what you are doing, the way that you are working on renewable energy and decentralized energy on cooking energy, you have prioritized the way the government is working with CSOs and bringing in private sector. Other countries are closely following this because they are not doing it this way, so keep up the good work continue to prioritize the needs of poor and marginalized groups, and to achieve the ambitions of your country for everyone to be prosperous, for everyone to have energy by 2022.
