24/09/2021

SNV and partners urge commitment to gender and equality to reach sustainable energy goals

Couple using a biogas lamp

On 24 September, SNV has joined the People-Centered Accelerator (PCA) partnership in a joint statement to the High-Level Dialogue on Energy, urging stakeholders to reaffirm their commitments to the principles of gender equality, social inclusion, and women’s empowerment.

The PCA and several of its members including SNV have also signed onto the Gender and Energy Compact, which engages governments, the private sector, finance, academia, civil society, youth, intergovernmental organisations and media to -jointly and individually- support a just and inclusive energy transition. This multi-stakeholder Compact aims to ensure that the energy transition is gender-responsive, youth-inclusive, locally-led and globally connected. The launch of the statement coincided with the High-Level Dialogue on Energy that took place at the end of September in New York.

The PCA is a voluntary partnership of more than 45 organisations devoted to gender equality, social inclusion and women’s empowerment. Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) serves as the Secretariat for the initiative.

The signatories of the statement called on the global community to address long-standing, systemic inequities by removing barriers to energy access—such as limited access to financing for women—and dismantle other significant barriers to achieve community-rooted, sustainable, clean energy for all.

The statement called on governments to prioritise more needs-based planning that disaggregates the needs of different end-user groups underpinned by better data on the barriers in different contexts, including the gendered aspects of energy poverty.

It is recognised by members of the PCA that the Sustainable Development goals are unattainable without clean energy access and that leadership of women, young visionaries, and communities most is the surest path to success.

Written by: Rianne Teule, Senior Advocacy Officer - Energy.