Some women in Zimbabwe are being left behind in the move to green energy because they can’t afford solar systems that can power electric stoves.
- Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg
Ubuntu feminism – the idea that everyone is obliged to care for each other’s wellbeing – should become a central focus of the renewable energy rollout in Africa.
The principles of ubuntu (a person is only human through others) should underpin the rollout of renewable energy in rural Zimbabwe if everyone is to get equal access to solar power.
Women’s relationship to the environment is shaped by their social position.
The state controls and regulates small farmers’ environmental practices without addressing what forces them to follow these practices.
Continuous growth of energy production and consumption, even from low carbon energy sources, could create more problems than solutions.
Developments in the energy sector shouldn’t be reduced to technological sophistication. They should be guided by how they improve the livelihoods of the intended beneficiaries.
When policymakers reduce electricity scarcity to a few factors like theft and vandalism, to be solved with technology and stiff penalties, they miss other factors that contribute to electricity theft.
The socio-economic and political factors that keep conventional energy out of reach of the poor can do the same with renewable energy.
Universal energy access can only be achieved if people have the capabilities to use the energy to transform their lives.
Rural people’s access to fuelwood isn’t determined by the availability of the wood, instead it’s controlled by power dynamics.
Zimbabwe’s policy makers believe that deforestation is a threat to the economy, but citizens believe environmental degradation is an outcome of the country’s dire political and economic situation.
Zimbabwe’s energy policy needs to be reconsidered if the country’s electricity shortage is to be resolved.
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