Harnessing Energy Crisis and Gender Empowerment: Impacts of Household Energy Consumption Pattern on Women’s Welfare and Education

Citation:

Babalola, Folaranmi Dapo. 2010. "Harnessing Energy Crisis and Gender Empowerment: Impacts of Household Energy Consumption Pattern on Women's Welfare and Education." Paper presented at the International Conference organized by United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), Dakar, May 3-7.

Author: Folaranmi Dapo Babalola

Annotation:

“Energy and women are linked in many diverse ways, particularly through the nature of the (predominantly biomass) energy resource base, the characteristics of the household and community economy, the features of energy policy, and the position of women in families and communities. Energy can be a vital entry point for improving the position of women in households and societies. To realise this potential, energy must be brought to centre stage and given the same importance as the other major global issues. In developing countries, especially in rural areas, 7% of world primary energy demand rely on biomass, such as fuelwood, charcoal, agricultural waste and animal dung, to meet their energy needs for cooking (IEA, 2006). The use of these traditional fuels in open fires or with simple stoves is not only less efficient and more polluting than modern energy options, but they are also unreliable, not easily controllable, and subject to various supply constraints (Heruela, and Wickramasinghe, 2008). The poor in developing countries therefore pay much more in terms of health impacts, collection time, and energy quality for the equivalent level of energy services as their counterparts in the developed world" (Babalola, 2010, p. 2).
 
“The significance of the energy sector within the broader poverty-energy-environment-nexus is well established (Adelekan and Jerome, 2006). Reliance on traditional biomass energy is particularly high in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting in some countries for 70 to 90% of primary energy supply and up to 95% of the total consumption" (p. 2).
 
“African countries continue to rely on biomass energy to meet the bulk of their household energy requirements. In Nigeria, it is estimated that about 91% of the household energy needs are met by biomass (Karekezi, 1999). An important step to finding lasting solutions to gender disparity in household energy problems might be a better understanding of the household sector i.e. accessibility and affordability of the various energy sources, household consumption pattern and impacts of fuel shortages; all these will help to fast track possible solution and plan for engendering gender empowerment. The study was therefore conducted in selected rural and urban areas of southwest Nigeria with the view to evaluating the households’ energy consumption pattern and the impacts on the welfare and standard of living of women and girl child in particular” (p. 3).

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Education, Gender, Women, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2010

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