From Call to Count: Gender-Responsive Energy Actions for the Final Mile (HLPF 2026 Side Event)

Okay.
Good morning, everyone.
Let's just wait one more minute.
Good morning.
Can everyone hear me reasonably well? Your Excellency, distinguished delegates, partners, and friends.
Welcome to today's high level political forum and side events from call to count, gender responsive energy across actions for the Final Mile.
This event is co organized by EnergA International, Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy and the World Bank Groups Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, ESMA, in cooperation with governments of Iceland and Kenya and with support from you and TSA and colleagues from the working group on gender Indicators for sustainable energy.
My name is Sonny miss Berdings.
I am a manager for ESMA or the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program at the World Bank Group.
It's a real pleasure for me to welcome this distinguished group of speakers and partners.
I would also like to recognize our ESMA donor partners here today, including Iceland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada, whose leadership and support have helped make this work possible.
We are here today because gender equality is essential to achieving universal energy access.
Yet, SDG seven remains one of the few goals without a dedicated gender indicator.
If we do not measure who benefits from energy access, who is left behind, and whether women can participate in and benefit from the energy transition, we cannot fully deliver on its promise.
This is why today's discussion is so important.
Exactly a year ago, we issued a call to action highlighting the urgent need for better gender data and energy and for global monitoring frameworks such as SDG seven to include metrics that would take into account the different ways women and girls are impacted by electrification.
Since then, we have made important progress on two intertwined fronts.
First, strengthening the evidence based to country mapping exercise and second, engaging with gender focal points in Ministries of Energy and National Statistics Organizations.
And through global and regional partnerships.
This week, we launch the 20 26th edition of the HLPF policy brief.
It maps out what gender data is currently available and what it reveals about women's energy access and economic opportunities in the energy sector by also exposing the gaps we still need to fill.
The progress has been possible because organizations have come together around a shared agenda.
Anchored in the SDG seven Technical Advisory Group platform, our working group on gender Data and Sustainable Energy has grown to 14 organizations, including the SDG seven custodian agencies, UN Women, and the co conveners of the Gender and Energy Compact, and regional energy organizations like AFRAC and OLcta.
This collective effort is helping to shape concrete outcomes, including the recognition of gender equality as a key pillar in UN Energy's roadmap to 2030.
This positive impact is visible not just in global policy, but in practice.
In World Bank Group supported projects such as the distributed access through Renewable Energy Scale Up or DAS project in Nigeria, and the Rwanda Renewable Energy Fund, deliberate gender interventions are creating tangible opportunities, opportunities not only for women, but opportunities to get things done better for energy access in general.
For example, women's employment in Nigeria's off grid solar companies has more than doubled.
While women now represent 45% of off grid solar jobs in Rwanda.
When gender is intentionally integrated into energy programs, women thrive as workers and as entrepreneurs.
But our work is far from finished.
We must continue working together and continue using evidence to drive investment and scale approaches that expand women's access to electricity and opportunities across the energy value chain.
Today is an opportunity to sustain this momentum, learn from country and partner experiences, and spotlight these positive achievements.
We have a full agenda today and I look forward to hearing from our distinguished speakers.
I kindly ask everyone to keep their remarks brief so that we can hear from as many voices as possible.
With that, I would like to invite doctor Sheila Upcha.
Sorry, Sheila after so many years.
Director of Energy, International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy and co convener of the Gender and Energy Compact to provide and present the findings of our latest work.
Over to you, Sheila.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Fanny.
I think one of the tests of being a moderator is how you pronounce the names of your panelists.
But you pronounce mine well.
Good morning, distinguished delegates and colleagues.
First, let me join my fellow co organizers and welcome you to this important side event as one of the co conveners of the Gender and Energy Compact together with Unido, SE for all, and GW Net.
Could we go to the next slide, please? I'm pleased to share with you some of the highlights of the work undertaken since the launch of the 2025 HRPF policy brief, gender indicators for sustainable energy a call to action.
As Fanny already shared, to move from concept to action, the working group established a roadmap and launched a country mapping exercise to better understand the current state of gender and energy data and identify critical gaps.
This mapping follows an agreed framework based on two core dimensions.
The first is energy access.
Clean energy mitigates health risks for women, reduces time poverty resulting from unpaid care work, and opens pathways to entrepreneurship and livelihoods.
For the energy sector, engaging women as consumers and clean energy providers unlocks market growth and provides vital user insights.
The second dimension is economic opportunities.
The clean energy transition offers women a pathway to decent quality jobs.
For an energy sector facing labor bottlenecks, increasing women's participation, and women currently make up less than 5% of the technical workforce will help bridge critical skill gaps and drive innovation.
Yet, as the policy brief highlights, despite these clear interlinkages, SDG seven currently lacks a dedicated gender indicator to measure and track this critical dimension.
To identify practical pathways for strengthening gender matrixs in the energy sector, we began by asking a simple question, what data do countries already collect? Using a replica biblical country mapping methodology, we reviewed national data systems across a growing number of countries.
What we discovered is a defined data paradox.
The data exists, but it remains largely invisible.
Across many countries, standard national surveys already collect the raw information needed to measure key apes of energy access and the participation in the energy workforce.
The underlying datasets contain variables that can be analyzed by sex and used to generate valuable gender insights.
However, these opportunities are rarely reflected in official reporting.
In many cases, we find that the data that could be sex disaggregated rarely is analyzed or reported in that way.
Where reporting does take place, the absence of common standards results in significant inconsistencies across countries.
This finding has important strategic implications.
It suggests that the gender data gap is not primarily a data collection challenge, rather, it is an analysis, desegregation, and reporting challenge.
This insight opens a pragmatic way forward, leveraging existing statistical infrastructure, which we will try to demonstrate in the next two slides.
Because countries rarely report sex desegregated data on electricity access, we analyze micro data from 30 recent demographic and health surveys to demonstrate the type of insights that are already available within existing data.
For electricity access, the direction and magnitude of gender gaps vary significantly across countries.
My apologies that the slide is small, but we will make these slides available for all of you to read.
For example, in Ethiopia, female headed households hold a distinct advantage with nearly 13% points higher electrification rates.
Co conversely, in Angola, male headed households lead by nearly 10% points.
We also examined appliance ownership, which provides a more nuanced picture of how electricity is actually used.
Male headed households typically dominated ownerships of entertainment assets such as televisions, while female headed households showed a stronger tendency towards domestic appliances such as refrigerators.
These results aligned closely with the development literature illustrating how intra household resource allocation reflects gender divisions of labor and diing assets priorities.
Next slide, please.
Similarly, employment in the energy sector is not systematically deseggregated by sex.
However, our mapping exercise captured countries that do report it.
As shown on this slide, indicators vary across countries.
Countries may report multiple indicators based on different data sources, for example, household labor safe surveys or enterprise surveys.
Data is most often categorized under the broad industrial classifications of electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply.
Finally, one important gap to highlight from the findings of the country mapping is that data unemployment in the renewable energy sector is still scarce.
Next slide, please.
In conclusion, allow me to convey three key takeaways from the country mapping.
First, the headline finding from our work is that the challenge is not the lack of primary data collection.
The foundations are already there.
Countries are collecting much of the information needed to measure the links between gender and clean energy.
Second, what is missing is the systematic analysis, sex desegregation, and upward reporting of this data.
Third, this insight reframes our solution.
We must leverage existing national surveys and pair them with clear reporting standards.
Moving into our next phase, the working group's operational agenda is expanding the mac exercise to 50 priority countries while finalizing and validating all country profiles with national experts and institutions.
Capturing missing dimensions, particularly by exploring ways to incorporate women's agency and decision making into the data and deliver a global synthesis note that summarizes the key trends, common indicators, and initial data caps across all 50 countries.
Thank you, Fanny and over to you.
Thank you so much, Sheila, for what I think is really good progress achieved by everyone around the table here over the last year.
I'm now very honored to introduce the co host of today's event, He Excellency Ambassador Anna Johan St, permanent representative of Iceland to the United Nations.
She brings deep diplomatic and multilateral experience, including senior leadership roles in Iceland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and as Iceland's permanent representative to NATO.
Thank you.
Thank you so much and excellent work on my surname.
Excellencies, colleagues, dear friends, good morning and thank you for joining us.
It is a pleasure to be with you as we reflect on our joint progress towards sustainable development goal seven and the broader ambitions of the 2030 agenda.
As we all know, energy is central to sustainable development.
Around the world, countries and regions are working to expand access to energy, strengthen energy security, and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy systems.
These efforts are essential for economic prosperity, climate action, and sustainable growth.
The success of that transition, however, will depend on who is included in shaping it.
The benefits of sustainable energy are not reaching everyone equally.
Women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by energy poverty with implications for health, education, economic opportunities, and livelihoods.
At the same time, barriers to participation and leadership continue to limit the contribution of people whose knowledge, skills, and perspectives are essential to achieving a truly inclusive and sustainable energy transition.
Addressing these challenges does not happen automatically.
It requires sustained effort, commitment, and willingness to remove barriers that prevent people from contributing fully.
In Iceland, we have seen the value of this effort firsthand.
The progress we enjoy today is the result of decades of determined effort to advance gender equality.
Women across the country have organized, advocated, and driven change, helping to create the foundations for meaningful social and policy reforms.
These developments are also reflected in the energy sector where women increasingly contribute to leadership and decision making.
While a lot of work remains to further enhance inclusion, Iceland's experience has reinforced an important lesson.
Broader participation leads to stronger outcomes.
When talent, expertise, and leadership are drawn from the whole population, societies become more innovative, resilient, and better equipped to address complex challenges.
The same holds true for energy transition.
The principle has also guided Iceland's international engagement.
Throughout our development partnership, we seek to promote opportunities, inclusive decision making, and support activities that enhance equal energy access regardless of gender.
Allow me to conclude by highlighting one point that is central to today's discussion.
To accelerate progress, gender considerations must be integrated systematically into energy planning, implementation, and monitoring.
This requires quality data, as explained here in the first context setting, as well as strong partnerships and cooperation across governments, international organizations, civil society, financial institutions, and the private sector.
Today's discussion provides an opportunity to consider how we can strengthen this connection in practice.
It allows us to share experiences, identify gaps, and consider how global efforts on sustainable energy can better reflect and respond to the realities of people's lives.
Iceland greatly values the partnerships that have helped advance this agenda, and we remain committed to working with governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to support a sustainable and inclusive energy future.
I thank the organizers for convening this event and look forward to the discussion.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Ambassador.
At this point, we also like to thank the co host, Kenya, the government of Kenya for their participation, the participant who was scheduled to be here, Mr.
Paul Buti, advisor to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum of the Government of Kenya.
Is unfortunately not able to be present today, but we have been given authorization for Sheila to read his remarks.
Over to you, Sheila, while reading his remarks.
Thank you.
It just shows that when you work on women's issues, they're very inclusive and cut across different institutions.
I think my mother is from Kenya, so I'm happy to be doing this as well.
It's my pleasure to deliver the statement that was to be delivered by Mr.
Polmbuhi on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum from the government of Kenya.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to speak on behalf of the government of Kenya as co host of this important dialogue.
As we approach the final stretch of 2030, the question before us is no longer whether we can achieve universal energy access.
The real question is whether we can reach the last mile in a way that is equitable, inclusive, and transformative.
The final mile is no longer defined by geography alone.
It is defined by the millions of women and girls who continue to bear the disproportionate burden of energy poverty.
It is defined by the entrepreneur without reliable electricity, the mother still cooking with polluting fuels and young girls whose opportunities are limited because clean and modern energy remains beyond reach.
The policy note rightly reminds us that unless we act differently, hundreds of women will still be left behind by 2030.
Kenya has learned an important lesson.
Energy policies become more effective when gender equality is designed into them, not added as an afterthought.
Over the years, Kenya has embedded gender considerations in energy policy and planning, undertaken gender assessments, expanded women's participation in clean cooking value chain, strengthened access to productive uses of energy, and placed inclusivity at the center of our national energy transition.
Today, through integrated National Energy Planning, we are ensuring that evidence, participation, and equity shapes investment decisions from the national level to counties.
Yet we recognize that good intentions are not enough.
If we are serious about leaving no one behind, we must move from commitment to accountability, from antidotes to evidence, from counting connections to counting lives transformed.
This requires three global actions.
First, we must strengthen gender deggregated energy data.
What is not measured is too often ignored.
Better data will enable better policies, smarter investments, and stronger accountability.
Second, we must invest in women not only as beneficiaries of energy access, but as leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, and decision makers driving the energy transition.
Third, we must ensure that financing for the final mile deliberately reaches those who have historically been excluded, particularly women led enterprises and underserved communities.
Excellencies, the energy transition will only be just if it works for everyone.
Gender equality is therefore not a social add on.
It is a prerequisite for achieving SDG seven and an accelerator for the entire 2030 agenda.
Kenya calls upon member states, development partners, financial institutions, and the private sector to join us in making gender responsive energy action the global standard.
Let us ensure that every national energy plan, every investment decision, and every progress report answers one simple question, who is being reached? Who is benefiting and who is still being left behind? The final mile is our greatest opportunity to demonstrate that sustainable development is measured not only by mega workats generated or connections made, but by lives improved, opportunities created, and equalities achieved.
Let us move together from call to count and from ambition to measurable impact.
I thank you.
Thank you so much, Sheila, for, you know, speaking, I mean, Paul's contribution, Paul being the advisor to the Kenya Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, So now we're moving to a different segment of this session, which is really about member state leadership.
I'm very pleased to introduce her Excellency, doctor Bahia Tazebli, who's the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations.
She's a distinguished diplomat and an international human rights expert and has over three decades of experience in diplomacy, international law, and multilateral affairs.
Over to you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for giving me the floor.
Good morning, everyone.
Wonderful to see you all and also seeing that the room is slowly, slowly really becoming completely full, that's a good sign that this topic is very much close to your minds and hearts.
It is a great pleasure for me to join you all here on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, my country, for this event and I love the title and it's also so meaningful gender responsive energy actions for the Final mile, just explaining how far we are removed from the finish line for those who run and Anna Ami, we love running.
It means a lot because then you're usually tired and need to stamina and resilience to carry on to the finish line.
I also would like to really thank the organizers for bringing this crucial topic to the forefront.
Thank you, Iceland, thank you, Kenya.
Thank you, ESMA and thank you Energia.
Wonderful that you acted as a magnet to bring us all together.
Yes, this topic is very close to my heart, in my previous capacity as human rights ambassador for the Netherlands.
I was working for years to continuously promote and protect human rights in different parts of the world.
Also when it came to gender equality, this was something I was really advocating for that it remains high on the international agenda, of course, always with like minded countries and civil society organizations.
And also in my current capacity as ambassador and deputy permanent representative, I remain, of course, committed to that same priority.
Well, we already heard from the various speakers that SDG seven and gender are very closely linked, and they should be closely linked.
Gender equality is fundamental to a sustainable energy transition, and that was very clearly understood from all the interventions, and my country actively supports the key SDG seven related programs run by the World Bank, SMAP, UNDSA and also IEA, as well as government aid agencies such as the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and also the Dutch Development Bank.
We also partner, and we are happy to do so with Energia, for example, under the umbrella of the energizing Development Program.
As we could also hear from previous speakers, through gender indicators in all these programs, we can track how they empower women.
What we see is women are disproportionately vulnerable to energy poverty.
Access to energy frees up time that can be spent on, for example, education and work, and access to clean cooking solutions reduces premature deaths of women and children caused by indoor air pollution.
But framing women only as a vulnerable group would ignore their enormous potential as, entrepreneurs, skilled workers, and decision makers.
Empowering women to take on leadership roles and to grow as entrepreneurs is just as important because true leadership is about empowerment, often in the most literal sense.
However, what we see despite all efforts, the energy sector remains one of the least gender diverse sectors in the economy, and this is in some ways really difficult to explain.
What happens is that leaves a major talent pool underused.
At precisely the moment we need more skills, innovation, and leadership to deliver the energy transition.
In such an innovation driven sector, equality and diversity are not a luxury, but a necessity and tracking progress through gender indicators is essential, as we heard.
Tracking progress through our gender indicators has provided us with important insights that I would like to share.
First, tracking progress is crucial to increase gender awareness and to uncover systemic limitations throughout our programs.
This is a continuous process that needs repeated attention.
Besides data from our own indicators, we benefit from the concerted efforts of the IEA, Irina, MTF, and RICE.
A second insight, gender awareness alone is not enough.
Systemic limitations must be addressed, and do this effectively, we need to tackle root causes.
For that, it is important that women are not only recipients of support, but equal partners.
To share the third and last insight, do not ignore small practical steps.
Time and location matter.
Women are often the primary caregivers and there are moments when care responsibilities mean they miss important opportunities.
In conclusion, I would like to underscore once more my country's firm commitment to this agenda.
Again, we're very happy to be present at this event.
I also personally really hope that the outcomes of this side event will help advance it in the coming years.
So thank you very much.
Thank you so much Excellency.
We now hear from miss Lydia John, team leader for the Energy Access Team and Energy for Development, International Energy Unit, Energy and Climate Directorate at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, otherwise known as FCDO of the UK.
Before joining FCDO John led the Cop 26 Energy Transition Council at the Department for Energy Security and NetZero.
Over to you, Lydia.
Thanks so much.
Can you hear me okay? Great to be here and apologies in advance for such a long job title and such a long acronym for my department.
But it's great to be here today and it's a pleasure to give this statement on this really critical and important event on behalf of the United Kingdom.
First of all, thank you to the chair, Esmep and energia, and welcome to all the Excellencies, distinguished colleagues and guests here today.
I I think it's really important that before talking about the progress across the sector that we situate when the goal was created in 2012, as Ban Ki Moon said, energy is the golden thread across development, connecting societies, economies, empowering opportunity for all.
And over a decade later, those words can't ring truer, and we've seen how important and how systemic energy is into developing society.
But in that development, you can see that across the piece, energy access and the SEG seven target isn't equally being met and the progress isn't equally being met either.
Part of that reason is you can see, is because that often energy and gender aren't treated as mutually inclusive and indicators, they're treated as separate issues, and we can't treat something and leave out 50% of humanity when we're driving forward our action.
And I think it's really important that we don't view women as just sort of beneficiaries of energy.
We see them as active participants across the sector.
And as my Excellency has pointed as well, that women are entrepreneurs, they're the decision makers and often they're the ones leading the households driving forward the economic decisions.
So therefore, when we think about building a secure, resilient energy future for all, women must be at the heart of that as well.
I think part of the reason, when we look at the SEG seven indicators, the indicator that's most off track at the moment, clean cooking, we can all often agree here that part of that reason is because it is impacting women and girls the most.
I won't go over the statistics that we almost know here, but we all know that 2.1 billion people across the planet right now don't have access to clean cooking solutions, and that disproportionately impacts women and girls.
I'd like to speak to what the UK is doing in this action.
We've got a long and strong, um, long and strong term commitment to a just inclusive transition for all, and it's in our legislation.
Since 2016, all public money that's spent on our ODI must have a gender indicator, and across both domestic and international interventions, we think about how not only women but across the broader Gen Z implications are considered as well.
And if I sort of break it down into our domestic as well, we are committed to making the UK a clean energy superpower by 2030.
And to be able to do that, we are setting up an office for the sort of clean Center and jobs, and part of that is trying to work with community groups, retrain women within the sector as we appreciate that.
I The current data of the sector indicates that women aren't active participants.
So we're looking to retrain more women within the sector as we believe that the only way that the clean energy transition will be successful is incorporating women within that sector and advance that sector also.
But also on an international level, I previously mentioned how we're doing that in legislation.
Also through our flagship programs such as transforming Energy Access and modern Energy Cooking Services, which you'll hear from Ed Brown today, we have clear indicators that are responsive to gender so that our results because we know how important data is can speak to the work that's being done in that way.
I think international cooperation is a powerful tool to achieving gender parity, and the UK is an active member of multilateral efforts such as forums here today.
And in particular, I'd like to call out the SEM equality and Energy Transitions Initiative that we're proud to be a signatory of, which is the SEM campaign to work towards equal pay leadership opportunity for women in the clean energy sector by 2030.
But I think clear as we leave the high level political forum, this week and we think about what's next.
When we're pushing for what is next, clearly must be women at the heart of those decision making.
Clearly, women's experiences and lived realities must be also at the forefront of decision making as well.
I'll close by saying the UK will continue to work with partners, governments, civil society, multilateral Development Bank to push forward just inclusive transition for all.
I'm hoping that As we move forward, there will be no need for events that call upon an action for gender inclusivity because it rings true for everything that we do across policy.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Lidia.
Let's now turn to a more regional perspective and listen to the evidence and data driven insights from both Africa and Latin America.
I'm pleased to introduce Mr.
Samson Bug, who's the head of Energy Information Systems and Statistics Division at the African Energy Commission EAC.
Samson, please go ahead.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much Fanny for moderating this session.
Excellency, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to address you here on the perspective of African Energy Commission, specialized agency of African Union responsible for coordinating the Energy Information System and supporting African Union member states internal energy Statistics.
As you are well aware, Africa is making a significant progress toward expanding access to modern energy.
Yet one fundamental challenge remaining.
We still know too little about who is benefiting from that progress.
Behind every national statistical and real people, I think it is very important.
Women and gender continue to spend our collecting traditional fuel.
Women entrepreneur often face a limited access to re electricity for productive activity.
Women remain under represented in the energy workforce and the energy decision making.
Yet, many of these reality remain invisible because of our such system were not originally designated to capture them.
As we often say, what is not counted is too often not considered and what is not considered is unlikely to be prioritized.
Recognize this challenge, the African Energy Commission in partnership with the International Development Research Center of Canada developed what we call the meter guideline on integration of gender into SDG seven indicator in Africa.
This guideline represents the first continental wide meteoric framework dedicated to integrate gender into energy statistics and reporting.
The guidelines provide to our African Union member states with a practical tool to strength collaboration between the Ministry of Energy, National Statistical Office, and Gender institution to harmonize data collection methodology and system integration, gender dimension into the energy information system.
However, our ambition go beyond producing be statistics.
We want to ensure that gender responsive energy data become an essential part of the policy making, investment planning, and accountability.
This work is particularly important as Africa advance major continental priorities such as what we call African Continental Free Trade Area, the Mission 300 managed by World Bank and then African Development Bank, both of which depend on relevant evidence to ensure that energy investment promote inclusive economic growth and enrich women, youth, and endeavor community.
Looking ahead, I believe that Pity are scaling effort through our Agenda 2030 and beyond.
First, we must move we must move from pilot initiative to incenting.
Gender responsive energy statistic should become a routine of a national statical system and energy information system support by sustainable financing and strong ownership.
Second, we must invest in people as much as in data.
Strengthening national capacity, including statistician, energy planner, policymaker, and the researcher is essential if data are to be transformed into evidence that shape public policy.
Third, we need stronger regional and global partnership.
No single institution can achieve this alone.
Regional organization, the United systems, development partner, academia, civil society, and private sector all have important role in harmonized methodology, sharing innovation, and mobilized resource.
Finally, Africa is a unique opportunity has a unique opportunity to contribute to a future of a global energy monotroum.
As discussion begin of the evolution of SDG seven beyond 2013, the evidence generated through African experience can help ensure that future global indicator better reflect equity, inclusion, and the reality of women and men across different energy contexts.
Ladies and gentlemen, energy responsible energy statistics are not simply a number.
They are evidence that allow government to design better policy that help direct investment where they are most needed.
They make women and girls visible in national energy planning.
And ensure that energy transition is not only faster but free.
At African Energy Commission, we believe that better data leads to better decision, better decision lead to better investment, and better investment lead to better life.
As we work toward the SGG seven and then agenda, measure how many people has access.
Let's measure who benefits, who is left behind, and how energy can become a driver of equality.
Opportunity and certain development for all.
Africa Energy Commission remain fully committed to working with member states, the uniting family, development partner, research institution to make gender responsive energy statistic a cornerstone as Africa energy transition and mindful contribution to the global sustainable development agenda.
I thank you.
Thank you so much, Saman, for making such a clear case for better data.
With that, I would like to turn to a video.
Miss Gloria Dolores Alvarga, Director of Integration Access and Energy Security at the Latin American and Caribbean Energy Organization or lac was not able to join us, but she provided the video.
Good morning, everyone.
This is an honor to address this distinguished panel.
Gender equality is not just a social dimension of energy policy, it is an essential enabling condition to sustainable development.
As the Latin American and the Caribbean rapidly advance in their energy transitions, gender must be deliberated, woven into the agenda.
At OLT, we are taking responsibility to make this dimension visible, measurable, and actionable.
Statistic play a fundamental role in this mission.
What is not measured cannot be made visible and what it remains invisible is rarely transformed.
Regional data shows a historic reality.
While woman represents nearly 45% of those research personnel in our region, they make unless a 35% of the team's graduates and only 24% of energy workfce.
Robust gender degraded information is essential to identify and to close the gaps, the leadership, the employment, and the decision making.
With the strategic commitment of our 27 member countries, latte is actively incorporated gender variables into regional energy statistics, but data is not an end itself.
It tools of action.
We can design training programs and inclusion policies and strategies or emergent green jobs.
The gender gaps are not homogeneous.
We understand that there are not many women who works in the sector, but they are works and what barriers they faced.
Ultimately, no statistic systems can be built in insulation.
Internal initiatives like MAPs complement the regional efforts, but progress require multi stakeholders, active ministers and companies and academia and social civil society.
Measuring this energy is not a simply adding to the column database, is just generate insights, needs to build more inclusive, effective, and sustainable energy future to our region.
Thank you very much.
Yes, we are really grateful for both Africa and Olacta for have opened their data books literally together with, of course, the UN statistics and other member countries, which has enabled us to really make some great progress over the last year.
Now, we would like to hear a little bit more, from other stakeholders and focus on the global indicators framework and the steps needed to better support the gender aspect in SDG seven monitoring and implementation.
Who to start with than Mr.
Leonardo Sosa, who is the chief of the Energy Statistics section at the United Nations Statistics Division.
Over to you, Leonardo.
Thank you.
Thank you, Fanny.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
I'm going to the guiding question is, what are the key gaps in the current global Indicator framework on energy and gender and what steps are needed to strengthen these indicators to better support SDG seven monitoring and implementation.
Well, we all know that SDG seven doesn't have an explicit gender indicator.
Those some indirect and inferential results can be derived from the access data, particularly the clean cooking access data.
But the two energy access indicators, access to electricity, access to clean cooking are well suited for gender deseggregation.
While we don't see any disagggregated results by sex, this is a key gap.
Have.
As we saw in Sheila's presentation, the working group on gender and energy under the tag updated its policy brief with a study of country cases.
The key gaps in the current global indicator framework on energy and gender can be filled by the types of information being already compiled by countries, which the brief has identified as clustering around two themes, gender disaggregated energy access and economic opportunities in the energy sector.
Now, the policy brief Sil also showed, reveals an astonishing situation.
Countries do collect gender energy data, but they do not use it.
There is little analyzing or high level reporting on the findings of such data collections.
One of the possible causes, as it was pointed out, is a lack of clarity due to missing standardized methodologies and definitions.
Well, the UN is the place to develop such internationally agreed statistical standards through its statistical commission.
The Commission has already mandated streamlining gender in all areas of statistics, all areas doesn't exclude energy.
Looking forward, the first step To eventually strengthen gender energy indicators is to form a task team under one of the commission groups.
The current working group on the tag, I'm talking about this working group, not under the Commission can serve as a backbone of this task team under the commission.
But the initiative must come from the countries, from the member states as UNSC only acts as a Secretariat of the Commission, which is composed of countries.
If step one is a creation of this task team, step zero consists in mobilizing countries to actively participate in the process.
Once a widely recognized methodology is developed through this testing, it will provide clarity for informing gender energy policies and thus attract political support.
This will naturally bring it to the post 2030 conversation.
Can I see that min? Thank you.
We will facilitate the adoption of a gender energy indicator by the post SDG framework.
Also, a commission endorsed methodology.
We will enable UNST to carry out methodological training to countries.
With all these in place, we'll be well positioned to advocate for specific indicators to inform the important topic of gender and energy.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Leonardo.
We are also joined by miss Ana Batt, a statistics specialist in the research and data section of UN Women.
Please go ahead.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Hope you can hear me.
So I think we've said a lot about the energy statistics.
I'm not going to repeat any of the statistics that you all have highlighted.
I just want to re emphasize the fact that just what Leonardo said right now, there are indicators in SDG seven that lend themselves to gender disaggregation and we should take advantage of them.
The clean cooking fuel indicator we've all heard is one particular one, but also the electricity access indicator, which has large implications, as already has been said by many speakers, not wanting to repeat anything.
Particularly the point on barriers to leadership, we've heard a lot about that as well.
Very critical for not just thinking of women as a vulnerable group, which is really not the framing we should think about.
It's really half of humanity that we're talking about there, but as really the powerful agents of change.
I think I'm going to focus a little bit on the next steps more than a what the gaps are since we've heard a lot about the gaps.
In terms of the work that the colleagues who put together this event have done that we have been doing every year for UN Women and UNSDs joint Gender Snapshot Report, as well as the SDG seven tracking report, we've applied demographics to all of these indicators and have been repeatedly saying one of the stats that we keep saying there is around 900 million women could lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies by 2030 if current trends continue.
We've also been saying that 320 million women could still lack access to electricity access by 2030 if current trends continue.
Now, everything that we are saying in this is really based on demographics of how many women and girls live in households that lack access to electricity, lack access to clean cooking fuel.
What we do not know and which I think is a big suggestion is to think about women who live in households that have access to electricity, but cannot access it because they do not have the agency to, and they probably do not have the agency because they do not participate in the decision making around resources, which is not just financial resources, but every resource within the household.
Um, again, these are not marginal findings in the work that we've done on poverty and particularly poverty of lone mothers, we have found them to be a very significant group of women and girls who really are invisible in some sense because we think that when resources are available to the household, they're available to everyone.
So just two small points before I end the intervention is fully UN Women fully supports publishing data already available, getting around standard ways to analyze the data.
Data are not sparse.
So, data are sparse, but not zero, that's great.
Um, But then again, we need to see what's the story behind the numbers that we see.
We disaggregate statistics based on existing data, but the foundational methodological reform that is much needed that should be in the guiding principles of documents that the statistical commission also puts out is that intra household decision making and agency data are key.
We cannot know or measure these dynamics with data that really just focuses on head of the household.
So last point is something that we didn't hear today that I'd like to say is about mega trends that will impact some of the existing data that we see.
We know that gender inequalities, they do not just appear out of nowhere.
These are pre existing inequalities that are amplified when crises happen.
So with the AI revolution coming through, there is going to be more and more demand for energy.
Is this going to crowd out the much needed investment for the last mile and particularly for women and girls? I think we haven't touched upon this.
We're still talking in the context of the current times, but it's really important.
So I think these are the two additional reflections that I would like to offer from my side.
Thank you very much for the floor.
Thank you so much, Ana, for this very interesting perspective and additional points that really need to be considered further.
What we'll now do is return to hear from Research Institute Civil Society and youth representative on how advocacy, evidence generation and accountability can reinforce its Asia.
I'm very pleased to introduce miss Erin Tanzi, Program Director for Sustainable Inclusive Economies at the International Development Research Center at Crown Establishment of Canada.
Please go ahead.
Thank you.
I think you're already.
Okay.
Good.
Thanks so much.
It's wonderful to be here and to see such a crowded room on a rainy Monday morning.
So the International Development Research Center, if you don't know us, we are a Canadian crown corporation, so we're part of the government of Canada.
We were created by an act of Parliament in 1970, so we're a good 55, 56-years-old, and we were created as the world's first institution dedicated to supporting and funding high quality research led by low and middle income countries.
So more than 50 years later, IDRC remains a unique and strategic element of Canada's international engagement.
We know from experience that solutions work best when they're created by the people closest to the challenge.
This principle drives our work to generate evidence, strengthen institutions, and inform policies that improve lives.
We invest in practical, locally led research to identify problems, develop solutions, and inform sound public policy.
Our collaboration with Africa to develop some guidelines for mainstreaming gender considerations into SDG seven indicators in Africa is consistent with our resolve to supporting data and evidence leadership from the Global South to contribute to global debates like this one.
Our collaboration is also consistent with our resolve to promote and support evidence informed decision making for gender equality, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability hold center stage.
As IDRC we see a lot of value in the work that Africa is doing to ensure data consistency and comparability across Africa's energy sector.
I'd also like just to make a bit of a plug for some of the work that IDRCs been doing on clean energy for development since 2022.
We have an initiative at the moment across, I think 17 countries, about a $20 million Canadian dollar investment, looking mainly at women owned enterprises and their access as leaders in the clean energy space, what are the regulatory barriers? What are the financial barriers? I encourage you to check out our website on that.
Um, so in closing, I would just like to commend ESMAP, the World Bank Group, Energia, the working group on gender indicators and sustainable energy, and co conveners of the Gender and Energy Compact for spearheading these important consultations, which we hope will put gender equality at the center of SDG discussions and related energy policy priorities.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Aaron, for these interesting remarks.
Let me now turn to Professor Ed Brown.
Ed is the Professor of Global Energy challenges and Co Director Steer.
He's also Research Director of the modern Energy Cooking Services MAX program.
He's Deputy program Director of Climate Compatible Growth and he's the national coordinator of the UK Low Carbon Energy for Development Network.
Ed La La Brough University in the UK.
All right to you, Ed.
Thank you very much.
Olivia, this must be something about British people.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to say a few words this morning.
I am the Research Director of Modern Energy Cooking Services, which is a collaboration between Loro and Esme and Clasp.
I want to very quickly say three things or talk about three initiatives this morning that I think relate very well to this.
The first is people rightly have focused on clean cooking as one of the major arenas where gender and energy are particularly important components.
I think this is for a variety of reasons that we've heard.
One of which is simply the fact that clean cooking has been so often relegated to a side issue rather than being seen as absolutely central.
One of the main reasons is that because it mainly affects women.
And so I think that's a really important part of it.
Secondly, I think also that relates to maybe the ways in which the issue has previously been treated so that rather than focusing on what women really want, it's been a focus on the bare minimum of the changes that can occur in women's lives.
So certainly within MX, one of the things we've tried to do is have a gender perspective to everything that we do on clean cooking.
And we have developed this MX gender framework that does just that.
And it's certainly that will be something we will bear in mind very centrally in the work we're doing with AFREC going forward.
On the clean cooking roadmap for the continent, which we are currently embarking upon.
Secondly, is that we also were involved in producing one of the briefing papers that's been published this week as part of the 2026 process, and in this case, it was a briefing looking at the relationship between SDG seven and SDG ten, which as we all know, is the SDG on inequality.
And what we tried to do on a piece that we did with the Access Coalition, which Sheila is also heavily involved in, is to conceive of energy access as a right.
And therefore, when you look at it as a right, I think it raises many of the issues that we've looked at today in terms of understanding who it is that lacks access to energy and clean cooking specifically within that, and therefore, women are often those that are lacking access, so therefore, we can see the connection across all of this.
What we try to do is look at some very concrete actions that we could be taking to ensure that inequality is more centered within analyses of energy and that relates to the visibility of those that lack access.
It relates to the fact that often sub national action can more effectively target inequality, looking at issues like minimum energy access, targeting specific groups that would have been noted through the lack of previous visibility, but also raising the importance of tackling inequality at the global as well as the national scale.
Then finally, again, nodding to Minoru, also thinking around, we are still going to be here after 2030.
I can say that as an academic around here that many of you can't.
Therefore, we need to think very seriously about what we are going to be looking at post 2030 in the energy architecture and we are this week launching a briefing note around what issues that process needs to focus on.
Two of the issues I think that are central to that paper have been talked about quite a lot here, which is around a focus going forward on the quality of access rather than a dualistic, yes, you have, no, you haven't type of approach, and secondly on the sustainability and security of access going forward.
Thank you very much for allowing me to have a few contributions today.
Thank you so much, Professor.
Well, our session would not be complete without hearing from young voices.
I'm pleased to introduce Mr.
Josh Oxby global focal point for the SDG seven constituency.
Over to you, Josh.
Thank you, Chair.
Let me start by saying that I think data can sound really technical, it can sound neutral, and it can sound administrative.
But in the context of energy, as we've all heard today, data decides who is visible, who's protected, and who's still left out systems altogether.
When we talk about moving from a call to count, as the framing of the sessions today, I think we have to push this narrative one step further because gender deaggregated energy data isn't only a reporting issue.
It's a question of power power in the household, power in policy, and ultimately power in deciding what the energy transition is actually for.
I think that's why this HLPF can't just be treated as another progress check.
We know it's the final one before 2030.
But at this stage, the numbers are not only telling us whether STG Civil is moving.
They're exposing what the framework still struggles to see.
Because four years out from 2030, the uncomfortable truth is that some gaps aren't moving, they're concentrating.
So inequalities aren't being solved, they're being hidden behind averages.
From a youth perspective, that's the real test for what comes next.
Not only what the SDGs delivered, but whether the future development goals will be brave enough to measure what the SDGs left behind.
Which is why I want to highlight three points from our global youth perspective on how gender disaggregated data can move from visibility to delivery.
First, gender energy data can help us move from access to agency.
We've all heard this here today.
A household connection doesn't tell us who controls the energy use inside of a home.
Clean cooking statistics don't tell us whether women and girls have gained time, safety, health, and income.
Electricity access figures don't tell us whether energy is affordable, reliable, meaningful, useful enough to support learning, enterprise, and decent work.
That's one of the real use cases of gender data that I see, helping us to see whether energy access is becoming empowerment or whether we're simply just electrifying inequality.
My second point, gender and youth data must connect skills to real jobs.
One of the reflections I've just taken away from London Climate Action We just there is that we're seeing the energy transition is increasingly being directed by the systems around energy, finance, skills, infrastructure, labor market statistics, Gender disaggregated data then can't simply sit at the edge of energy conversations.
It has to cut through all of those systems.
It should shape where finance goes, how projects are designed, who gets trained, and who moves from informal community energy work into decent work.
Because future jobs are already being promised.
But without that data, we simply can't tell whether those jobs are going to become pathways for young women and girls or another closed door with a better branding.
My third point is that youth organizations, women's groups, and academia can really help turn data into accountability.
We can help show what national averages miss, who pays for energy, who loses time when it fails, and who's still invisible in the data.
That evidence has to move into national energy plans, project design, procurement rules, and this post 2030 framework narrative that we're all pushing here today.
Because if what gets financed actually gets done, then what gets measured shapes what gets financed.
That for me is the real challenge in the final four years to 2030 and for the future development goals that come after it.
Gender disaggregated data can't sit at the margins of SDG seven as a technical add on.
It has to become a part of how we understand whether energy access is actually delivering agency affordability, productive youth, you, decent work and leadership.
And for young people, that distinction really matters because visibility isn't the same as a voice.
Participation isn't the same as power, and inclusion isn't the same as accountability.
So as we move from the SDGs to the FDGs, the next generation of energy policy really has to tell the truth about delivery, who benefits, who's left out, who carries the burden, and what needs to change.
Not just counting women and young people in the transition, but making it near impossible to design, finance, or report on the future of the transition without them.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Let me turn now to miss Rosemary Edem.
She's a program manager, women and youth at the forefront at C for A, which is one of our partners also on Mission Ben.
Thank you, Fannie and Excellencies.
Thanks for the privilege to speak here today.
My name is Rosemary Dm, and I work with Sustainable Energy for all.
I just want to make a few points, building on what all the amazing speakers have spoken here today.
SFL sits in the intersection of energy, climate, and development and One of the key priorities of our work is entering people within SDG seven.
As as all speakers have mentioned here today, energy is the foundational system.
It shapes who benefits from what and the quality of services to receive.
So it goes to say that the the system should reflect all users.
And energy is also a key system that unlocks opportunities, growth, and energy poverty.
And as one of the speakers spoke today, it's not just duality.
Our approach to the energy transition looks at the transition as a whole economy from a whole economic perspective, looking at how energy intersects with different sectors, how people use energy and how energy can create pathways for people to come out of energy poverty.
So I want to shine a light on that nuance that energy for us to be able to utilize this data, energy should not just be looked at from the perspective of who is connected.
And I know even from the annual tracking of energy access.
We've seen how climate shocks population growth have impacted the numbers as we have tried to close the energy access gap.
It's also useful to see how we can ensure that the methodology going forward to capture all sectors, looking at how access to energy in the health sector impacts women, looking at how it shapes education and access to education for everybody, looking at how other key sectors within the SEG seven, like energy efficiency and cooling how this impact women and other users in different ways.
That gives us the foundation to utilize the data in a way that we can design policies, initiatives that can ensure that we don't women are not falling through the cracks in some certain areas as we build the sector going forward.
Thank you so very much.
Thank you all for your commitment and partnership on this agenda.
I think we have learned a lot and who better to close the session and help us frame the way forward.
I'd like to invite Mr.
Minuro Takata, who's the Deputy Director in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the head of the Secretariat of UN Energy.
Miura has been a thought leader and strong champion of this initiative from the very start.
Over to you, Minoro.
Thank you very much, Fanny.
Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it's a very pleasure to be joining this discussion, and we've been having this discussion more than several years.
See that? Yes.
I think you all have content and intent.
I think we together needs to work and deliver together.
I think this is what is in front of us.
But the slip points here.
When we say HRPF is reviewing SDGs, I don't know whether you really look at the program.
Tomorrow is going to be a start of that.
It says review of SDG, let's say SDT seven, that's afternoon tomorrow and interlinkages with other SDGs.
That's the official title of the program.
It's not just to reviewing SD seven or SD six for that but those things.
In other words, what you are talking about here actually already has a space.
To a case.
Let's not wait until some other things happen.
We have been talking about this one, and then in other words, this interlinkages part indivisible nature of SDGs.
I think we set it and member states enshrined it.
But I think this is a work in progress agenda for everybody.
Then I think this is one thing that we really have to not only speak up, but also start doing something about it, and this group has shown that we are actually doing it, we have to do far more.
I think next couple of years on the up to 2030, we do have political space to be able to do so.
So please do not hesitate to bring that issues up and more.
Second, in a year time, there's going to be SDG summit to come next year at the GA in September, prior to that, there's going to be HFPF causing to come and the member states would have to decide what to do beyond 2030.
That's in the pack for the future documents.
So this is the fact that member states cannot run away from it.
It's not this by the way.
Let me see this ones.
It's obvious that people talking about it, that people have some ideas.
I really think that people who have some ideas, who have experiences, we should do it.
This is important.
It's not every year that we have this opportunity.
In the case of this development framework globally, every ten years, every 15 years or every 20 years, who knows.
We'll be entering into this on a very special period where the like minded have some opportunity to contribute globally.
Then I think here sitting in front of this issue, we have responsibility to contribute, share ideas, experiences.
Uh huh.
I think I'm not stopping Ed from sharing any ideas on those.
It's just that I don't own it, but it's Ed of who owns it.
But I think that we should all do this one.
We should all do this.
The next year, there's going to be a discussion about the process.
After that, there's going to be a very serious discussion to come.
We want a sustainable development framework to be as strong as it could be, of course, much stronger than to sunset the agenda, and I'm actually looking at the delegates here to make sure those things are going to be happening in that way.
But certainly, you know, looking back a little bit and then connecting to the future on the Sean and I have been observing this one since the days of the Commission of Sustainable Development and come to the MDGs and the SDGs.
Here you are.
We are talking about beyond the SDGs I can't believe that we are spending so much time in these things.
It's very important that, of course, in prior to supporting this big discussion globbery to actually write some document and frame it, but we also have some way to drive things forward, anticipating that there's going to be some decisions to come.
If you try to do it in sequence, let's wait for decisions to come and think about how to do it, then already you'll be five years behind.
I think the opportunity we have is not only do we contribute and contribute really seriously to the sustainable development framework discussion to come, but also think about What if then we have framework in some way, how do we make sure that immediately after the framework is established day one, we are already on the ground and starting? I think this is going to be the most important part in my view.
This is not only the responsibility of member states, I would say, this is really a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders who are involved in, who care about development, prosperity, of course, human rights and inequality and those things.
He then gender could not be more center.
We all know that.
Let's not just put on gender on paper.
But of course, when we think about doing something, delivering something, we be sure to have mechanism to put this one at the center of our action.
If we can do that, all those things are easy.
Wow, this group would have transformed the world.
Then I'm sure this is going to come.
Thank you very much, Fanny.
I appreciate it very much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, everyone.
With this, the session comes to a close and I'm very tempted to use this we would really love to take a picture for those who can spare a few minutes.
I don't know where we should in the back of the room here maybe.
Yeah.
Can we go here? Okay.
Let's everyone go to the back.
There's also no windows.
Or unless we take a picture from a picture of everyone sitting down? Yeah, let's do that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Please, everyone, stay seated for a minute.
Yeah.
Thank you very much for jumping in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Excuse me, everyone.
I kindly request you? Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Take care.