INTRODUCTION

With growing interest in creating a just and equitable society, a number of efforts are being made at different levels nationally and internationally to empower women and historically marginalized population. It is generally assumed that access to resources (financial, educational, quota systems, property ownership, energy technologies etc.) automatically empowers women and excluded groups. However, emerging evidence suggests that gender and socially inclusive policies and access to opportunities and resources (such as finance and energy technologies) alone may not be sufficient to ensure women’s participation in decision making within and beyond their households. When women lack agency, it becomes a challenge for them to convert their accessibility to resources into positive outcomes. Therefore, in addition to creating opportunities for women and ensuring their access to energy services, it is also important to integrate agency-based empowerment component in any women’s empowerment programme/projects.

The emPOWER Project is an implementation, mentoring, and research initiative that is intended to transform the way energy services are perceived and provided in rural and peri-urban areas. It intends to facilitate the provision of energy services that improve well being, enhance resilience by developing livelihoods, support climate-compatible community improvements, and reduce adverse health effects that cause millions of premature deaths. It acknowledges the interplay between three disparate facets of community energy: 

(1) Empowerment training with an emphasis on personal agency, including and transcending the traditional focus on entrepreneurial skills.

(2) Resource-focused interventions embedded in local context and community choice.

(3) Energy-services framing that recognizes the connectivity between equity, sustainability, aspirations, and resilience.

The project was implemented by Centre for Rural Technology Nepal, between Dec 2019 - April 2022  with funding support from Climate & Health Research Network, USA. 

OBJECTIVES

• To enhance participants self-awareness and embolden their thinking around their personal growth, vision and development.

• To help participants to reframe energy services as means to their aspirations and needs, rather than the ends.

• To help participants to develop action plan around personal behavior change and energy services to support their aspirations and needs in life.