Gender, Energy and Human Development in Nepal; Policy Perspectives

By Ishara Mahat
In Nepal, 86% of total energy comes from biomass that includes firewood, agricultural
residue, and animal waste (WINROCK, 2004). This has huge socio-cultural, economic
and environmental impacts, particularly on the rural women who are the main collectors
and users of such fuel. The following article describes the impacts of continued use of
traditional forms of energy technologies and fuels on human development, especially on
women and girls, and links it to the inadequate access to modern energy services, and
an absence of gender sensitive energy policies. It highlights the authors views regarding
the energy policies and delivery mechanisms in Nepal and outlines her
recommendations for future improvement.
Energy is one of the central aspects of human life as it affects quality of life,
livelihoods, agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, health care and job
creation. It influences the lives of the poor, especially women, as they spend much of
their time and income on accessing energy for their basic needs and in energy related
activities.
Women often spend a considerable
amount of time travelling substantial
distances over difficult terrain to
collect firewood. They suffer back
problems from carrying heavy wood
loads (40 kg are not unusual) and
face less recognised threats of rape
and beatings (Cecelski 2004, UNDP,

A womans workload A woman carrying

firewood and her child
( Photo courtesy of Nalini Lamichane )

1997).

In

many

cases,

uterine

prolapses and miscarriages among

rural women in Nepal are attributed

to women carrying heavy firewood (Earth and Sthapit, 2002; Haile, 1991; UNDP, 1997).
A study in Nepal indicated that the highest percentage of infant mortality is associated

with acute respiratory infection, mainly caused by indoor air pollution (Pandey, 2003)
resulting from the burning of biomass in poorly ventilated kitchens.
Implications of Biomass Energy Use on Human Development
The figure below presents how, conventionally, the use of biomass energy, using
less efficient more labour intensive technologies, causes multiple deprivations within
rural households. This negatively affects human well-being, freedom and development.

Low
Wellbeing
freedom

Human
Development/
Freedom

Low
wellbeing
freedom

Human
Development/
Freedom

Social
deprivatio
n

Ecological
deprivatio
n

Human
Development/
Freedom

Biomass

Economic
deprivatio
n

Energy
Cultural
deprivation

Low wellbeing and

freedom

Figure 1: Biomass energy and human development

Human
Development/
Freedom

Low
Wellbeing
freedom

Social Deprivation
Burning biomass indicates the low accessibility to alternative fuels by the poorest
households and highlights equity concerns. The associated social deprivation affects
womens health, and restricts their choices and capacity for production and reproduction.
For instance, most of the women in impoverished villages of Kavre had eye problems
and headaches while a few had gone through uterine prolapse and miscarriages as well.
In addition, most young girls were school drop outs that prevented them from accessing
employment opportunities. Kavre is one of the central districts located in the mid hill
region of Nepal with its populace mainly engaged in agricultural activities.

Economic Deprivation
Absence of sufficient and quality energy hinders economic growth and efficiency ,
restricting households ability to start new ventures and energy based enterprises.
Despite the availability of alternative energy technologies (AETs), such as solar, biogas
and micro hydro plants in some instances, there were very little opportunities for women
to be involved in income generating activities such as local handicrafts and dairy
production. This is because energy provision has focused on electrification, and does
not adequately meet cooking and heating needs nor provide energy for livelihood
activities. Income-generating activities were taken-up only by a handful of Kavre
households on a small scale (such as incense making, soap production, garlic
production) with the availability of lights. The limited coverage of these technologies in
the villages mainly due to economic reasons (only 18% of households in Kavre have
access to solar energy plants) has created further inequalities within the small
communities.
Ecological deprivation

Using biomass for energy (especially selling firewood for fuel) aggravates the
depletion of forest resources, which in turn, impacts the livelihoods of poor local
communities, particularly women, who rely on forest produce such as fodder, firewood
and food from the ecosystem for their daily needs (OECD, 2002; Mahat, 2009).
Rural women in Kavre District have little access to firewood from community
forests which are protected. At the time of the authors visit, the national forest was
almost dry due to deforestation, and the women were forced to spend almost a day
collecting firewood from private forests once or twice a week located far away from their
villages - exposing them to risks of being caught by owners for stealing firewood and
paying penalties, as well as other unforeseen incidents.
Cultural Deprivation
Culture refers to the collective identity of a group of people to follow a way of life
of their choice. Thus cultural freedom protects not only the group but also the rights of
every individual within it (Matilla and Seppl, 2000). Despite being the main utilisers of
household energy, women have less say in decisions regarding energy interventions
(such as whether they should be installed and how they should be managed). In
addition, women often do not know how to repair and maintain these technologies as the
training and extension services target men, and this forces women to rely on male
community members/ technicians who are not always available at the time a technical
fault occurs. This in turn discourages women from adopting and using such
technologies.

Such
have

restrictions

stifled

womens

personal development.
It

is

thus

worth

mentioning that building

capabilities and providing
opportunities
basic

serve

prerequisite

as
for

human development and

human

Cooking with poor ventilation

(Photo courtesy of Nalini Lamichane)

mentioned

freedom,
by

as
Sen

(1999).
Energy Policy and Programmes
At present, the energy policymakers in developing countries have placed
more emphasis on large energy projects, such as the construction of large hydropower
plants, which focus on electrification and give relatively little attention to meeting other
household energy needs such as energy for cooking. For instance, Community forestry
programmes in Nepal were designed towards preserving local forests, could potentially
address the cooking energy needs of rural communities, however the preference seems
to be towards timber production rather than firewood production. The challenges
remained for integrating the sustainable forestry with livelihood promotion especially for
the poorest of the poor despite its potential for significant economic growth with high
value timber and non timber products (Kanel and Dahal, 2008). In addition, the
environmental impacts of commercial and illegal logging (the major causes of
deforestation, soil erosion and degradation) have been largely overlooked by policy and

law makers in Nepal. Most of the energy interventions in Nepal have been targeted at
economic growth. For instance, the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre 1 (AEPC) in
Nepal has no clear policy agenda with regard to community energy plans and policies as
well as for implementation of the energy projects except on its role of managing the
donor funds and subsidies for alternative energy technologies (Mahat, 2009). Although
AEPC supports the executing agencies such as BSP and REDP for an effective delivery
of services with its central focus to promote the renewable energy technologies, its
policy has a little say on participatory planning at local level to incorporate the energy
needs and priorities of both men and women.
There has been little effort to bring gender perspectives into energy policy
analysis in order to achieve an equitable outcome of sustainable development even with
the growing attention to link gender and energy.
Energy planning, without its integration with social indicators, such as womens
empowerment and poverty reduction, has limited impact on the overall development of
the community. Most rural energy interventions in Nepal under the Tenth Five Year Plan
(2003-2008) make no linkage between energy and womens empowerment However, in
environmental policy, the plan has underlined gender sensitisation and building

womens capacity and leadershi p in order to ensure access to and control over
resources related to forestry and soil conservation. The rural energy policies
(REP) based on REDP (Rural Energy Development Program) model aims at
promoting clean energy technologies (such as micro-hydro, solar and wind
energy, biomass energy), however, there is a little attention on human aspect for
reducing womens drudgery (REP, 2006). In addition, the energy policies in Nepal
have a least focus on biomass energy policy, which is a prior concern of
majorities of rural population and especially women as producers and managers
of household energy system (Practical Action, 2009).
Although the renewable energy (RE) sector acknowledges the need for AETs to
promote better energy services in rural areas it does not recognise women as
1

The AEPC is a Government institution established with the objective of developing and promoting
renewable/alternative energy technologies in Nepal

beneficiaries, participants or agents of alternative energy generation and development.

Nepals policy statements for both traditional and RE technologies are completely
gender blind in their situational analysis, setting of objectives, and identification of
strategies (Bhadra, 2004). Such policy situations imply that gender concerns are not a
matter of priority for policy-makers which is the greatest challenge for addressing the
gender issues in the energy sector. In the Tenth Plan (2003-2008) , there has been an
effort to address the renewable energy issues by focusing on the short term vs. long
term energy plans that call for increased coverage of biogas plant use in the short term
and the integrated use of micro hydro plants for cooking in the long term (NPC, 2008).
However, such plans need to be developed with other sectors policies in mind.
Given the socio-economic conditions of rural households in Nepal, even
subsidised energy plants are not accessible by the poorest section of society unless they
are made pro-poor. Any new interventions on household energy have to be integrated
with a package program such as market and credit facilities, user-directed training on the
use and maintenance of technologies, and a phase-wise monitoring program in order to
ensure the affordability, adoptability, and reliability of new technologies.

Recommendations
The following strategies are recommended as ways of integrating gender sensitisation
into energy policies and to see its translation into approaches in program formulation
and implementation.

Integrate energy access into the process of formulation and implementation of

national development strategies (NDS) to meet the energy demands of the poor
and recognise the specific energy demands of women,

Strengthen the capacity of local authorities such as Village and District

Development Committees to undertake gender based participatory planning and
budgeting, energy assessment and manage delivery of energy services,

Develop the capacity of local actors such as communities (both men and
women), NGOs, small-sized enterprises, and financial institutions to enable them
to identify the energy needs and priorities of local communities including women
and respond to them accordingly,

Promote extension services on use and implications of renewable energy

technologies as well as for repair and maintenance of these technologies so as
to make them user friendly in order to increase adoptability and reliability of such
technologies and replicate them nation wise for enhancing better energy
services,

Ensure country-level coordination through discussions among development

partners to help harmonise and bring alignment of their development assistance
to national energy access priorities and for integrated gender sensitive social and
economic development.

As indicated earlier, if the technologies are not convenient to the users (mostly women),
they would rather use traditional biomass energy, which restricts their human
development. Thus, coordinated efforts need to be made by policy makers and
implementers on the ground to respond to Nepals household energy needs. It is time to
think about the type of fuel technologies and the delivery mechanism that can help to
make a large scale transition away from traditional biomass cooking for the majority of
poor.

Ms. Ishara Mahat is a development practitioner whose present research focuses

on energy poverty and how that affects human development, particularly the well-being
of rural mountainous women in Nepal. She has worked for over 10 years on areas
concerning gender, alternative energy technologies and women's empowerment
in Nepal. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario.
Contact e-mail: imahat2@uwo.ca or ishara.mahat@gmail.com

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