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Community Lifelines Programme
The term 'gender' refers to the characteristics and roles that society defines for women and men. The cultural beliefs and values practiced in the Pacific are closely tied with the people and are used to maintain law and order, for example, in the Pacific region men are traditionally assumed to be the breadwinners while the women are expected to take care of the children and household.
While energy is one of the most essential inputs for sustaining people's livelihoods worldwide, billions of people around the world use traditional soil fuels for cooking and heating, and almost as many lack electricity.
Therefore the fact that some way or the other women, youths and children can be identified as one of the major energy consumers.
It has also been established that women, youth and children can always be associated with energy in their daily lives, while doing their chores, eg cooking, harvesting and gathering firewoods.
Women’s reproductive activities generally consist of primary responsibility of caring and feeding the children and family, as well as health care and education. While conducting these chores they usually indulge themselves in using energy resources.
In most Pacific Island countries, women are the sole performer of most of the work related to subsistence agriculture, gathering and managing fuel and water.
Thus, energy can be distinguished as one of the critical input in women's capacity to meet their families' basic need, through their subsistence and income-earning activities.
Women's use of biomass fuels in cooking (a major use of energy in developing countries) also is well known, but sadly, what is not recognised is the role of energy in women's small-scale activities in the informal sector.
Many women and men suffer from health problems related to gathering and using traditional fuels. The time and physical burdens involved in gathering fuel, they suffer serious long-term physical damage from exhausting work without sufficient recovery time. They have always been in danger of falls, threats of assault and animal attacks during fuel gathering, while women exposed to a variety of health hazards from cooking over poorly ventilated indoor fires.
Biomass (wood, charcoal, dung etc) are likely to remain for primary fuels for processing heat and cooking because electricity is in almost all situations more expensive, thus again linked to women.
Energy policies have always focussed on urban and industrial development, supplies of electricity and liquid fuels. These policies tend to focus only on the supply side with little attention to the energy demand characteristics of rural communities and women.
PEG network aims to recognise the need and tasks that women and men are required to perform in management of domestic energy consumption.
Sustainable development requires the full and equal participation of women at all levels.
Improving the effectiveness of poverty alleviation programs is another relevant consideration.
The Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly include a target of reducing the number of people living in poverty by half till 2015. MDGs 3 target specifically the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and MDGs.
Challenges to Gender Equality in the Pacific?
- Traditional customs and the different expectations of men and women.
- Current male/female roles in villages and urban environments.
- Lack of awareness of the value of contributions that men and women together, can make to energy and sustainable development.
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This PEG webpage has been produced with the financial assistance of CTA. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of CTA and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the Centre.
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For more information please contact:
Koin Etuati
Energy Project Officer
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