Gender Tool Kit: Energy. Going Beyond the Meter

The purpose of the tool kit is to assist staff and consultants of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in conceptualizing and designing gender-responsive projects in the energy sector. ADB’s Policy on Gender and Development mandates its investments in all sectors to promote gender mainstreaming.

It guides users in designing project outputs, activities, inputs, indicators, and targets to respond to gender issues in energy sector operations. ADB staff can use the tool kit in identifying social and gender issues to be documented in the initial poverty and social analysis during the concept phase. Consultants can use it in carrying out more detailed social and gender analysis during the project preparatory technical assistance or detailed design or due diligence phase. It should be noted that the tool kit is not meant to be prescriptive; rather, it offers a menu of entry points that the project team can choose from.

The tool kit has been broken down into key subsectors of ADB’s energy sector investments— namely, transmission and distribution, rural electrification, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. While not all aspects of the tool kit are relevant to all projects, this approach will assist staff and consultants to select the subsectors most relevant to the specific project context. Enabling policy and capacity development has been addressed as a crosscutting consideration applied to all subsectors.

ADB projects categorized with “gender mainstreaming” require a gender action plan (GAP) and gender targets and indicators in the project design and monitoring framework. The tool kit provides tips to designing the GAP and gender targets and indicators relevant to the specific subsector context. It also includes guidelines for preparing terms of reference for consultants to conduct a detailed gender analysis and to prepare GAPs.

Case studies from ADB’s project portfolio have been included to illustrate good practices in mainstreaming gender in energy sector projects. A selection of useful references is listed at the end.