Rural women’s participation in solar-powered irrigation in Niger: lessons from Dimitra Clubs

ABSTRACT

The relative lack of women’s participation in energy-related development projects around the world to transform agricultural productivity has been a source of significant concern globally. Out of 181 countries, Niger holds the current position for being the second most vulnerable to climate change. Despite the emphasis on women’s participation in solar-powered irrigation initiatives in Niger in energy project documents, their actual participation in renewable energy remains low. This article reviews the literature on renewable energy access and rural women in Niger, and argues that proactive actions could be taken sooner and more effectively to strengthen women’s participation in solar-powered irrigation technology if driven by a dialogical feminist approach. A key example is Dimitra Clubs, a well-established gender-transformative initiative piloted in Niger.

Le manque relatif de participation des femmes, aux quatre coins du monde, aux projets de développement liés à l’énergie en vue de transformer la productivité agricole a suscité une grande inquiétude à l’échelle mondiale. Sur 181 pays, le Niger occupe actuellement la position de deuxième pays le plus vulnérable au changement climatique. Malgré l’accent mis dans les documents ayant trait aux projets énergétiques sur la participation des femmes aux initiatives d’irrigation solaire au Niger, leur participation réelle au développement des énergies renouvelables reste faible. Cet article examine la littérature portant sur l’accès aux énergies renouvelables et les femmes rurales au Niger, et soutient que des actions proactives pourraient être entreprises plus tôt et plus efficacement afin de renforcer la participation des femmes aux technologies d’irrigation solaire si on adopte une approche féministe dialogique. Un exemple clé est celui des Clubs Dimitra, initiative transformatrice de genre bien établie pilotée au Niger.

La relativa falta de participación de la mujer en proyectos de desarrollo relacionados con la energía y encaminados a transformar la productividad agrícola ha sido fuente de gran preocupación a nivel mundial. De un total de 181 países, el Níger ocupa actualmente el segundo lugar en cuanto a vulnerabilidad atribuible al cambio climático. A pesar de que los documentos de proyectos energéticos del país hacen hincapié en la necesidad de que la mujer participe en iniciativas de irrigación que utilizan energía solar, su presencia real cuando se trata de asuntos de energía renovable sigue siendo baja. El presente artículo examina la bibliografía relativa al acceso a energía renovable y a las mujeres rurales del Níger. Al respecto, sostiene que la adopción de un enfoque feminista dialogante permitiría implementar medidas proactivas de manera más ágil y eficaz, fortaleciendo la participación de la mujer en la tecnología de irrigación con energía solar. Un ejemplo fundamental, ensayado originalmente en el Níger, es el de los Clubes Dimitra, una iniciativa bien establecida y dedicada a transformar conceptos sobre el género en el país.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• solar-powered irrigation
• climate change
• agriculture
• dialogical feminism
• egalitarian dialogue

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at the Gender, Peace and Nature workshop convened by the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics in June 2019. Useful comments and feedback were provided on the initial ideas for this paper, which further inspired the writing of this article. Thanks to the ABG-CAPS staff, and the FAO-Dimitra Project Coordinator for the resources and information on DCs and for confirming the actual number of DCs in existence by email. Thanks also to the editor of Gender & Development, Caroline Sweetman, for commissioning this article and the anonymous reviewers’ comments which greatly improved the article.

Notes on contributor

Olumide Adisa is a Research Fellow and Head of Centre for Abuse Research at the University of Suffolk, in the UK. She has a cross-disciplinary research experience straddling both economics and sociology. Her core specialisms are in applying economic and sociological methods in the fields of domestic abuse, social exclusion, health equity, and international development. She has completed several high-impact, high-profile complex research projects as a principal investigator and project lead. Outside academia, Olumide sits on the board of an international development organisation, providing research, strategic, and advisory input as a consultant. Postal address: Centre for Abuse Research, University of Suffolk, Waterfront Building, 19 Neptune Quay, Ipswich IP4 1QJ, UK. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 The International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy (www.energia.org/).

2 World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.FE.ZS, last checked 2 October 2020).

3 What is Dimitra? (http://www.fao.org/dimitra/about-dimitra/en/, last checked 2 October 2020).

4 Boko Haram is an ISIS-aligned jihadist group based in north-eastern Nigeria with activities in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger (source: Counter Extremism Project, www.counterextremism.com/threat/boko-haram, last checked 2 October 2020).

5 See Kang (2015) for a more thorough discussion.

6 ABG-CAPS Clean Energy Ltd initiates renewable energy projects in West Africa and aims to improve agricultural productivity and address improvement challenges through solar irrigation, particularly for women farmers in rural Nigeria, Ghana, and Niger (http://abgcapsenergy.com/).

7 Dialogical feminism has been influenced by Habermas’ (1984) egalitarian dialogue concept. This feminist perspective is concerned with bringing together academic and non-academic voices and assigning equal weights to both, not privileging one over the other. Dialogical feminism emphasises listening and valuing the voices of other women and their experiences (Merrill 2005).

8 For a review of gender audit tools, see Clancy and Mohlakoana (2020). For the purpose of this study, the ENERGIA Quick Scan tool (ENERGIA 2010) has been used because of its simplicity and relevance to renewable energy, and in light of time constraints to gather the existing evidence rapidly. The ENERGIA’s Quick Scan tool includes an approach to examine policies and documents generally by searching how many times gender-related terms were used explicitly. The key terms used in the search were ‘gender’, ‘male’, ‘female’, ‘women’, ‘men’, ‘women’s empowerment’, ‘women’s participation’, and ‘gender equality’.

9 The figure has been provided by FAO-Dimitra.

10 See www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1200214/ (last checked 2 October 2020).