1. Vienna Energy Forum, Austria
Empowering Customers as Producers The role of gender-responsive Clean energy Investments
GEF Side-Event on: Innovative Business Models to Attract Sustainable Energy Investment for LDCs and SIDS
Vienna Energy Forum, Austria
9 May 2017
Monica Maduekwe
Programme Coordinator, ECOWAS Programme on Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access (ECOW-GEN)

2. Gender-responsive clean energy investments
From customers to producers :
Income generation is improved through energy access
Women are empowered through the business of improving energy access
Objective: Climbing up the Energy Ladder
What have we learnt from the mobile telecommunication experience?

3. ECOWAS Women’s Business Fund –Results (Senegal)
Going beyond electrification rates
Built 7 furnaces
Revolving microcredit fund created
300 rural women trained
Results:
Improved productivity & income levels
Healthier working environment
Improved social status (land acquisition)
Spillover benefits:
Cleaner air
Community re-orientation

4. ECOWAS Women’s Business Fund –Results (Ghana)
Supply push (increasing availability and affordability):
LPG stove production facility built
Results:
Manufacturing output increased & business expanded
Reduced dependence on woodfuel
Spillover benefits:
Contributes to the country’s LPG program
Young women employed in stove production
Reduced air pollution

5. Cross-regional Collaboration - IWON
Mainstreaming gender in the energy sector
ECREEE
PCREEE
CCREEE
IWON - Island Women Open Network
A flag-ship initiative that promotes gender mainstreaming in sustainable energy sector of SIDS in the Pacific, Caribbean, Africa and Indian Ocean.
Gender-responsive investment and business promotion

6. MERCI Monica Maduekwe Programme Coordinator, ECOW-GEN ECREEE