Awareness raising continued to be an essential and cross-cutting strategy in all advocacy activities that aimed to drive political or behavioural change. Yet, policy- and decision-makers, as well as stakeholders, did not take into account the different energy needs of women and men, and this resulted in unequal and gender-blind policies, projects and programs.

Thanks to experience gained over the years, ENERGIA strengthened its advocacy approach and identified all stakeholders—public, policy influencers, decision makers and relevant energy institutions—critical to achieving desired policy outcomes that could tackle persistent gender challenges. ENERGIA’s advocacy strategy aimed to engage with different actors and partners in order to influence behaviours, implement policies and take actions to make institutional change that could benefit both men and women in the energy sector and build a just and gender-sensitive dimension for all.

Together with key international partners, we collaborated to advance national agendas for a more gender-inclusive energy sector. We worked on awareness raising campaigns and partnered with local media to make sure that gender and energy were well placed on the public agenda. We facilitated gender mainstreaming actions within selected national energy actors to enhance the gender-responsiveness of the sector. Alongside promoting gender-responsive policies, we also worked with the private sector, financial institutions and other donors to unlock finance for women’s energy businesses.