The gendered implications of energy gaps in health care: A comparative analysis of Haiti, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Delivering quality primary health care requires reliable energy access. In rural health facilities, electricity is often unreliable or absent. Low energy access has a gendered impact, affecting the ability of mothers to experience safe childbirth, for which basic lighting and sterilization are essential. Moreover, low energy access acts as a barrier to attract and retain female medical staff, who constitute women-predominated nursing and midwifery cadres that are critical for providing care to women. Using quantitative facility-level data, we explore the intersection of energy, health care, and gender in Haiti, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Acknowledgements

VS acknowledges support from the J.J. “Jake” Pickle Doctoral Fellowship. SMM acknowledges support from the grant P2CHD042849, Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This research has also received support from the grant, T32HD007081, Training Program in Population Studies, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Ethical approval

Based on the University of Texas at Austin Institutional Review Board, no approval was necessary because only deidentified publicly available data were utilized for this analysis.