The Alliance Focusing on Gender Informed Approaches at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2016
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) hosted the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2016 in Manila during the week of 6-10 June 2016 at the ADB headquarters. In its 11th year ACEF brought together several hundred energy practitioners and discussed key issues including the post COP21 era of implementation. Alliance’s Bangladesh Market Manager Asna Towfiq attended the event and shared the best practices and latest activities in the clean cookstoves and fuels sector.
The Alliance was also pleased to have the opportunity to co-host a deep dive workshop on gender and energy together with ENERGIA and the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Energy for All. In the deep dive workshop on Reaching the Last Mile: Gender and Socially Inclusive Approaches for Energy Access, Asna presented the Alliance’s Gender strategy. She focused on why it is important to have gender informed approaches and what are some key challenges in implementation to reach the last mile. She also shared the Alliance’s work to ensure gender-informed approaches and women’s entrepreneurship are central to the global strategy to scale adoption of clean cooking solutions. Asna highlighted some examples from Bangladesh including how women in the value chain can increase sales, customer satisfaction, and adoption, as was seen in several research studies commissioned by the Alliance.
This year clean cooking and access to cooking energy was featured in several sessions at the ACEF. In the opening Plenary, Rachel Kyte, CEO Sustainable energy for all and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General had mentioned “There are barriers why clean cooking hasn't taken off yet. But those barriers can be removed. Women should not die because of cooking”