From Marginalization to Inclusive Empowerment: Women Shaping the Energy Transition

In the global pursuit of a sustainable energy future, the voices and experiences of women and marginalized groups often remain unheard and overlooked. Despite playing pivotal roles in driving the energy transition, women face barriers that hinder their inclusion and full participation in decision-making processes.

Yet, there is a growing urgency to amplify these voices, signaling the need for a more inclusive approach. Here, in observance of this year’s International Women’s Day theme of inclusion, we explore the key challenges and opportunities faced by different stakeholders in advancing gender equality within the extractives sector.

In 2023, NRGI engaged with diverse partners and stakeholders on gender-focused projects. Discussions from these events underscore three key factors in advancing gender equality in the energy transition.

Enhancing gender-inclusive decision-making processes

Across NRGI’s different engagements, including a workshop on gender and the energy transition with participants from the executive course on "Oil, Gas, and Mining Governance" in Oxford, United Kingdom, a clear consensus emerged: achieving a gender-equitable energy transition requires the inclusion of gender considerations in every stage of policymaking. This begins with ensuring women's active participation in decision-making processes, as emphasized by Georgette Barnes, an alumna of NRGI's executive course and president of Women in Mining, Ghana, and Winnie Mirembe, an alumna of NRGI's advanced course and executive director of  Global Rights Alert, Uganda, during a recent just transition workshop hosted by NRGI in Accra, Ghana.

In Nigeria, NRGI conducted a series of just energy transition workshops in collaboration with the BudgIt Foundation to address the positive and negative impacts of the transition away from fossil fuels in the Niger Delta region, calling on government actors to include women at every step of decision-making processes. This involves engaging them in discussions around energy policies and around energy transition at government, subregional government, or at community levels.

Given the direct impact of energy transition plans on women's livelihoods and environments in resource-rich countries, government officials and civil society organization (CSO) staff should prioritize inclusive decision-making processes that involve communities, extractive companies and public bodies. They should also effectively communicate these plans at local levels to foster responsive and varied actions toward gender-just transition processes.

"A just energy transition should include all vulnerable groups in all aspects of the decision-making process, including women, and in a way that addresses women’s needs and tools that can favour their fair representation. Women should actively contribute to change, not just receive its benefits." Georgette Barnes during a workshop on a just transition hosted by NRGI in Accra, Ghana.

Unlocking the power of gender-disaggregated data

Unlocking the power of gender-relevant and gender-disaggregated data is vital for advancing gender equity and women's rights within the extractive industries. By directly collecting critical data from women, CSOs, governments and extractive companies can assess and map socio-economic circumstances and potential impacts before extractive projects begin.

During an NRGI’s workshop around gender-just natural resources governance in Oxford, participants emphasized the challenge of data accessibility, addressing the lack of gender-disaggregated data and its inadequate use.

Efforts by grassroots actors to collect and share gender-disaggregated data are essential. They help local governments and extractive companies to better understand the true impact of their actions on women and communities. In addition, they enable communities, CSOs, public authorities and private companies to more accurately assess the progress of women-centered policies.

However, decision-makers at governmental or corporate level often exclude women from discussions around extractives; when women do participate, their role is often informal and undervalued. NRGI research in Uganda, which involved consultation with 70 community stakeholders, underscored this disparity, highlighting the need for early assessment of communities' socioeconomic circumstances by local authorities and extractive companies.

Investing in gender-disaggregated data is crucial, as it exposes inequalities, informs women and communities about social and economic opportunities, and can help communities and local CSOs hold elected representatives accountable. CSOs and governments can advocate for extractive companies and investors to create effective funds that target gender-transformative action plans. Extractive companies’ social and environmental funds can include allocations for community consultations and gender-disaggregated data collection. This helps create sustainable and context-specific gender action plans for just transitions.

"Numerous countries across the African region have established systems and engaged stakeholders conducting valuable research on gender-sensitive and gender-disaggregated data, encompassing aspects such as local content contracts, training opportunities and employment figures," Mukupa Nsenduluka (Tax Justice Network Africa, Zambia, and NRGI's Executive Course alumna), who participated in a recent gender workshop organized by NRGI in Oxford, England.

Ensuring meaningful community consultations

Governments, companies and CSOs conducting consultations within extraction-impacted communities must ensure the meaningful participation of women, particularly indigenous women.

Empowering women through safe and inclusive consultation enables them to identify opportunities and advocate for transparency in negotiation around energy policies and extractive investment plans. However, despite the importance of community consultations play in every phase of extractive industry operations—from initial exploration to compensation —women often face exclusion from these discussions. Various factors contribute to this exclusion, including cultural norms, constraints imposed by formal community leaders, lack of formal land tenure, economic disparities, language barriers, and limited access to information about the consultation process.

Additionally, many women may not realize that they are directly being disadvantaged by external decisions, further hindering their active engagement in consultations that influence significant community-level decisions. We have also observed this through an ongoing NRGI analysis of a Colombian coal-producing region undergoing production phaseout. The analysis revealed challenges in assessing the different dynamics and gendered impacts on men and women in the region.

But change can happen. NRGI initiatives, such as establishing an experts committee and local civil society actors in Tunisia, resulted in improved decision-making at community level, as well as at government and corporate level, leading to increased phosphate production. This was achieved through constructive dialogue and openness between communities and local authorities. Similarly, collaborations in Colombia provided valuable insights into civil society participants’ views on energy transition plans. Replicating these collaborations to amplify women’s voices through community consultations can help civil society actors to influence decision-making processes in the energy transition.  

As challenges and opportunities faced by women vary depending on their country’s natural resource and energy context, CSOs, governments and extractive companies should engage in participatory community consultations. They should also ensure that women have adequate spaces for obtaining information about and express concerns around transition processes that directly impact them.