CESET/GESIS team members Carlos Shenga and Lorraine Howe have published a new policy brief in Portuguese that provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges for the uptake of off grid projects in the region. The study is titled ‘Oportunidades para Absorver Projectos Comunitários Energéticos’ and was funded by the Impact Acceleration Account of The University of Sheffield. You can read the entire document here on the CESET site

The gender equality and social inclusion (GESIS) and new White Paper 2023 "A norm regulating the implementation of GESI in Mozambique’s energy sector" was launched at a stakeholder meeting at the Palona Hotel in Maputo.

In 2018, the Government of Mozambique approved the National Electrification Strategy to reach universal access to electricity in 2030. The “Energia para Todos” (Energy for All) project will expand the on-grid and the off-grid energy infrastructure in Mozambique at a rate of 450,000 new households every year until 2030.

For this to work, massive social change needs to take place. However existing structures of dissemination may lead to certain groups being excluded from the social benefits of improved energy access. In response to this, the CESET project received funding from The University of Sheffield ESRC Impact Accelerator Accounts to initiate The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Seal (GESIS) in collaboration with BRILHO. GESIS is specifically concerned with ensuring gender equality in the energy sector, so that all participants have safe and equal access to resources, and can be involved in decision making processes, and everyone is treated fairly and with dignity; and that all participants have equal opportunities, regardless of their backgrounds, to achieve their full potential in life.

GESIS is an incentive-based system for energy operators to improve their performance in matters of gender equality and social inclusion. By signing up to GESIS they are signing up to supporting increased economic performance improved productivity, and increased rates of innovation and impact.

Please read the recent GESIS White Paper 2023 to find out more.

Additionally, in November 2022 the CESET team visited Maputo in Mozambique to participate in the “Off-grid energy regulatory framework: a regional perspective” organised by BRILHO. CESET Principal Investigator Professor Vanesa Castán Broto presented GESIS, which you can watch on the CESET YouTube Channel.

Prof. Vanesa Castan Broto from The University of Sheffield delivered a talk on “Local content and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in the off-grid sector” at the first Regional Conference on the Regulatory Framework for Access to Off-grid Energy, an international event which brought together more than 50 panelists, with the aim of sharing the regulatory framework for access to energy in off-grid areas with relevant regulatory bodies and associations, providing the exchange of experiences, as well as creating opportunities for synergies in the off-grid energy sector in Africa and Mozambique.

You can watch her presentation here: https://youtu.be/tbgfRcEmoh0