Energizing Finance: Financing for Gender-focused Energy Access

Development finance for the energy sector with a gender equality objective has remained low (only 9 percent of all energy sector development finance in 2018) in recent years, in contrast to the proportion of development finance for other sectors.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 7 are inextricably linked, as a lack of energy access disproportionately affects women and girls in the form of health, productivity, unpaid labour, and employment burdens. Both SDGs are also inextricably linked to climate change, which likewise disproportionately affects women and girls who represent a majority of the world’s poor and who are more dependent than men on local natural resources facing risk of depletion (UN WomenWatch).

In Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2019, SEforALL, for the first time, assessed public sector finance for energy projects targeting women and girls, and discussed strategies to reduce gender inequality in and through the energy sector. This study, published in Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape 2020, updates the figures and proposes a framework for donor countries to improve the accuracy and consistency of reporting finance with a gender equality objective.

See also: Energizing Finance series