WOMEN AND THE ENERGY VALUE CHAIN

The paper examines the role of women in the renewable energy sectors of Rwanda and South Africa, highlighting a systemic disconnect between gender-equality policies and their practical implementation in large-scale infrastructure projects. In Rwanda, while national gender strategies are strong, private sector integration remains low. In South Africa, the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme is praised for its structure but lacks specific gender-based targets and monitoring. Key barriers identified across both contexts include limited access to STEM education for women, a lack of gender-responsive financing for women-owned businesses, and a 'tick-box' approach to gender targets by developers. The document proposes a three-tier toolkit focusing on political mandates, financial mechanisms, and educational pipelines to foster a more inclusive energy value chain.

• There is a significant gap between the formulation of gender policies and their actual implementation in both Rwanda and South Africa, exacerbated by insufficient evaluation of government policies and projects.
• Gender mainstreaming in the energy sector is often treated as a superficial exercise, with donors and private sector actors frequently adopting a 'tick-box' approach to female headcounts rather than implementing meaningful structural changes.
• Access to finance remains a primary obstacle for women-owned businesses in the renewable energy sector. While the Facility for Investment in Renewable Small Energy Transactions (FIRST) helps smaller entrants, it lacks a specific mandate to prioritize women-led businesses.
• Limited access to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) education from secondary to tertiary levels in Rwanda and South Africa contributes to the low number of women in technical and management roles within the energy sector.
• In Rwanda, electricity access is skewed by gender, with 70% of male-headed households having access compared to 56% of female-headed households in urban areas.
• South Africa's REIPPP programme lacks a specific policy goal for gender mainstreaming, and there is currently no mechanism to track women's ownership, shareholding, or management positions within the participating companies.
• Preferential procurement from women-owned vendors (WoVs) in South Africa's RE sector is often limited to non-technical services like cleaning and cooking, which fails to integrate women into the professional energy value chain.
• The lack of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) and investing is a critical factor in the failure of gender mainstreaming across the broader infrastructure sector in Africa.

APA

Parshotam, A., & van der Westhuizen, H. (2018). WOMEN AND THE ENERGY VALUE CHAIN. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Women-and-the-energy-value-chain.pdf

Chicago

Parshotam, Asmita, and Hanneke van der Westhuizen. WOMEN AND THE ENERGY VALUE CHAIN. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Women-and-the-energy-value-chain.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parshotam |first1=Asmita |last2=van der Westhuizen |first2=Hanneke |title=WOMEN AND THE ENERGY VALUE CHAIN |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=October 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Women-and-the-energy-value-chain.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parshotam2018women, author = {Parshotam, Asmita and van der Westhuizen, Hanneke}, title = {{WOMEN AND THE ENERGY VALUE CHAIN}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Women-and-the-energy-value-chain.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }