The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, is guided by a number of key Ugandan development policy objectives as well as energy policy including a mandate to mainstream gender, with the long-term objective of eliminating gender inequalities. REA has recognized gender concerns in some of its activities, and is seeking to further strengthen gender mainstreaming in its rural electrification projects, as part of its target of accelerating rural electricity access and achieving “electricity for all” by 2035. The Norwegian embassy was as per 1 July 2011 financing the construction of two rural electrification projects in Uganda, and had been requested to finance another six projects to extend the current distribution grid to unserved rural areas. On request from REA, NORAD made available funds to support assistance by ENERGIA, the International Network on Gender & Sustainable Energy, to REA to further elaborate the gender component in the proposal by assisting REA to identify concrete needs and possibilities for integrating gender activities within the planned six rural electrification projects to be funded by Norway, as a first step towards a possible integration of gender mainstreaming in these and eventually all REA projects. This report provides the results of and initial scoping mission.
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