ENERGIA focused on the importance of sharing communications products to raise awareness and contribute to influencing the public and private sector on the linkages between gender and energy access.

Gender mainstreaming continued to be crucial and cross-cutting in most of ENERGIA’s activities. ENERGIA supported ministries of energy, rural electrification agencies, electric utilities and nationally implemented donor programs to apply a gender lens to organizational processes, practices and operations.

ENERGIA continued to partner with national institutions and local stakeholders to influence national strategies, energy policies and action plans. This inclusive approach allowed ENERGIA to collaborate with different actors and fully support the integration of gender strategies at all levels, from households to governments.

ENERGIA stimulates and facilitates conversations and collaborations between different organizations and stakeholders, including local finance institutions (LFIs), renewable energy (RE) companies, governments, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and women entrepreneurs, to establish a common understanding of the challenges women entrepreneurs face, and formulate and undertake actions to bring a systemic change.

Gender mainstreaming turned out to play a significant role in scaling up energy projects and creating an enabling environment for women to achieve their potential at all levels. ENERGIA’s collaboration with institutions, international agencies and governments offered the opportunity to highlight how gender norms and gender-blind actions represent a barrier to achieving the newly launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

ENERGIA has always believed that a multi-pronged, multi-sectoral, collaborative and integrated approach that combines different actions at different levels (international, national, community, household, individual) is needed to accelerate coordinated action across the energy sector.