Supporting Gender and Sustainable Energy Initiatives in Central America, Volume 2

Abstract

This report presents findings on the
 ESMAP-funded Central America Gender and Sustainable Energy
 project. The project has provided support to the
 Mesoamerican Gender in Sustainable Energy (GENES) Network,
 which seeks to enable the equitable access of women and men
 to sustainable energy services. Between April and July,
 2002, a series of two bi-national and one tri-national
 workshop on gender and sustainable energy was conducted for
 members of GENES. Specific objectives were : become familiar
 with various types of renewable energy technologies, their
 applications and trends in their use; understand the
 principle concepts of gender equity; reflect on the
 relationship between gender equity, sustainable development,
 and renewable energy, and identify how key concepts of
 gender equity can be applied in the workplace and in the
 field; familiarize with recent advances in the gender and
 energy nexus; become familiar with gender methodologies,
 their uses and limitations. To ground the concepts
 presented, each workshop incorporated a technology
 demonstration and / or a field visit to a project site where
 participants could see one or more applications of
 sustainable energy technologies. These trips included
 exchanges on solar coffee drying and solar cooking; solar
 lighting and water pumping and brief field visits to
 projects involving photovoltaic pumping and electrification;
 solar fruit and wood drying; and the use of improved cook stoves.