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Energy and rural women's work by Elizabeth Cecelski
This is a background paper prepared for the International Workshop on the Rural Energy Crisis, April 1986, the Hague and is the result of long term ILO studies of villages in Peru, Ghana, Mozambique, India and Indonesia. It deals with national energy balances, with particular emphasis on the role of rural women as energy users; the impact of fuel shortages on the living conditions and health of women in poor villages. Energy-related activites are the most time-consuming for women in these villages. Women's time spent on fuel collection and cooking varies from 1-5 hours daily in an irrigated village in West Java to 5.3 hours in a village in Maharashtra. These activities take up between 10% and 38% of the women's total time. The causes and effects of de-forestation were studied and the table below suggests that domestic cooking is not a major factor and that village women are justified in assuming that they can do little about it and that in the short term, feeding their families from day to day has little effect on de-forestation. The report goes on to say that "If deforestation is not caused by rural household fuel use, it will not be halted solely by measures to improve rural household fuel supplies (see table below). Policies with the objective of reducing deforestation should therefore first analyse and then aim at its true causes, whether agricultural and land settlement policies, industrial or urban users. Table 9: Some causes of deforestation in study villages in five countries
On the other hand, a major consequence of deforestation and associated environmental deterioration is declining agriculture productivity, food output and rural income sources. Fuel production and distribution provide low but important incomes for many villagers men and women. "A massive fuel production, transport and marketing system - First, in rural areas, wood collection and charcoal making, transport and marketing for cities were an important source of income for many rural women and men; especiallly in Africa, where rationing and shortages of fossil fuels have kept cities reliant on woodfuels. An estimated 73,000 mostly female firewood carriers work in transporting a significant part of Addis Abbaba's fuel supplies - the poorest of the poor. Steadily rising prices for fuelwood and charcoal in urban markets have made this increasingly attractive and men and organized dealers are becoming more involved. Finally, the report looks at development funds for energy development and shows that about 10-20% are allocated to village cooking fuels. Forestry projects devoted only 11% to afforestation and deforestation most of which will be for timber for export. " The effects of these capital intensive projects are diverse, but they have one thing in common: they are not primarily designed - if at all - to meet local needs. Some governments and donors require major projects to be evaluated beforehand in terms of their potential environmental and good economic impacts, including impacts on women. But this is too often easily dismissed with a few lines in a project document. As well as drawing on the results of the studies in the Sahel, the report brings together much data on rural energy, fuel uses, forestry, women's work etc. which shows the need for a greater and more effectve involvement of women in programme planning and monitoring in all these fields. [top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 11: Successful Stove Programmes
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29 September 2008; Last edited:
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Pagename: BP11:EnergyAndRuralWomensWork @HEDON: UVNA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
