18 October 2013: The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank has helped Tanzania’s Rural Energy Agency (REA) in developing its gender strategy and accompanying indicators, checklists and guidelines for integration of gender into its activities.

Less than 15 percent of Tanzania has access to modern energy services. The REA was set up in 2007 to assist in bringing energy to Tanzania’s rural populations, but has lacked a systematic approach and understanding of the particular energy use and access needs of women and men, and how energy programmes might impact them differently.

In response to these circumstances, ESMAP’s Africa Renewable Energy Access Program (AFREA) has worked with the Tanzanian Government since 2012 by carrying out baseline assessments on how gender dimensions were being considered in REA projects and to determine how to better mainstream gender into monitoring and evaluation, training, and operations within REA and its projects. These efforts resulted in the development and recent finalization of the REA gender strategy and accompanying tools for integrating gender considerations into its work. A gender unit has been created within the REA, gender indicators have been incorporated into all reference documents and recruitment processes, and a gender-disaggregated database has been developed. Finally, trainings have been carried out to help REA staff strengthen the integration of gender considerations in project development, implementation and evaluation.

ESMAP has supported similar work in other countries including Senegal, Mali, Kenya and Benin. ESMAP is a global, multi-donor technical assistance trust fund administered by the World Bank and cosponsored by 13 official bilateral donors. [ESMAP press release]