We understand that it was under your leadership that renewable energy initiatives were first initiated at Gram Vikas. What inspired you to start promoting micro hydropower?

I realized early on that water is a precious resource.  In southern and western Odisha, most tribal communities are less developed than those in other parts of Odisha.  They lack basic services and access to clean water, electricity, communications, food security, healthcare, etc.  Most tribal people die from common diseases like diarrhoea, TB, fever and jaundice, most often impacted by waterborne diseases.  Water is important for many reasons.  Can you imagine that, to get a bucket of water, a woman must walk 1 to 2 kms in a mountainous area?  Cooking and eating must be finished before nightfall, otherwise families must eat by the light of a fire (“chula” light).  Some communities have abundant natural resources but cannot benefit from them; all the water goes downstream and is used for large hydroelectric dams and irrigation channels to improve agriculture production for affluent people.  The government always thinks that, unlike the rich, poor people need only poor solutions.

In this context, we noticed that some villages had very good untapped water sources up in the mountains.  It occurred to me that we could use this water to improve livelihoods through electricity access, but at first, I did not know how. I discussed this with my Director who consulted a few technical experts.  One person named Jogesh, from Utarakhanda, visited one of our sites and said the site could produce 15 to 25 KW of electricity. Using their feasibility report we decided to construct a micro hydro project.  Fortunately, at that time we had an Australian volunteer named Michael who had been working with Gram Vikas for two years, under the leadership of then-Program Manager, Liby Johnson [now Executive Director of Gram Vikas].  Michael provided technical support to initiate the first micro hydro project in a tribal village called Amthaguda in Kalahandi District.  When Michael left, Dipti Vaghela [now Network Facilitator and Manager at HPNET] joined Gram Vikas, providing technical support to continue the project and she helped to bring it to completion.  We were able to work within a very restrictive budget, since the community contributed in-kind labour and provided local materials free of cost, and we developed a system for monthly tariff collection.  We also supported one youth from the village to receive training on system operation and maintenance.  This project not only generated electricity, but also helped the community to increase their food production through land irrigation, provided 100% of households with 24/7 access to safe water for toilets, and improved health by mitigating water borne diseases.

The day electricity came to the village, people celebrated by cooking a bhoji for a jatra (as if there was a festival for the whole community).  What the government had not accomplished over 60 years, the community accomplished in two years, with perseverance to overcome various challenges. Upon seeing the success of micro hydro in Amthaguda village, other nearby villages stepped forward to develop community hydro as well.  To date, five hydro mini-grids are running in Kalahandi District.

What kind of challenges have you encountered in your career journey? Have you faced particular challenges as a woman practitioner?

Yes, I have encountered many challenges in both my personal life and working life.  Firstly, as a woman, it is often not easy to be accepted as a leader; often you are only accepted when there is no alternative and only once you have proven yourself.  I first faced this challenge and demonstrated my leadership capacity in Thuamul Rampur project in Kalahandi District.

Thuamul Rampur project was, and remains, one of the key tribal community sites for Gram Vikas.  It was situated in a forest reserve area with no communication services and only one pucca (“paved”) road from Bhawanipatna district headquarters to Thuamulpur block headquarters, thus I had to walk part of the journey.  Due to its extreme remoteness and underdevelopment, in a hilly area with dense forest, those living in the area faced many challenges including malaria, lack of electricity, no running water, and dangerous wildlife encounters.  Moreover, the site was 450 kms from Gram Vikas headquarters.  The project was initiated in 1988.  From ‘88 to ’94, 6 Team Leaders were posted within 6 years.  Most of them were not interested to stay in such poor conditions for extended periods.  Not only Team Leaders, but also staff turnover was very high.  Those who visited the site and didn’t quit immediately often came down with malaria after a few weeks (although this problem has since reduced).  As such, amongst Gram Vikas staff, this project was considered the most difficult.   Often, staff would resign before transferring to Thuamul Rampur having heard of its challenging conditions; and those who were successful in Thuamul Rampur earned great respect.  The area was rich in natural resources like water sources, forests and minerals, and both  a challenging yet inspiring context for outsiders.

In 1995, I was posted as a Team Leader in Thuamul Rampur.  I was shocked to find that 95% of my staff were much more senior than myself and there was only one woman out of 45.  “Who will take me seriously,” I thought.  The staff advised that, being a woman, I should not go to the field and, rather, remain working from the project office.  All the community work would be done by them, and I was only to process bills and pay vouchers.  I was confused and afraid -- how could I lead the project without doing field work and engaging with communities?  I informed them that my primary job required field visits and I acted accordingly.  During field visits I noticed some problems including improper reporting of finances and staff work hours, and lack of discipline among staff when in the villages.  I tried my best to correct these issues, but it was not an easy task for me.  The staff disliked the changes I was trying to instill and created obstacles for me.  The situation worsened to the point that my supervisor became my adversary; but thankfully the Gram Vikas Director was able to understand my intentions and was supportive.

How did you overcome these obstacles? What helped you to persevere?

​During that challenging time in Thuamul Rampur I discussed the situation with our Director and thankfully he provided moral and strategic support, even directly in the field.  As a result, I was able to continue and became the only Team Leader who successfully completed 5 years as a Team Leader in Thuamul Rampur.  I’m happy to see that the programs initiated during my leadership continue to be sustained by communities, including: establishing the Residential tribal school named Gramvikas  Shikhsyaniketan in August, 1998; the Livelihood, Water & Sanitation Programme which has benefitted 100% of the households in the village; solar PV systems and biodiesel projects (biodiesel produced from un-utilized local seeds, in collaboration with a Canadian NGO named CTx Green); water pumping from dug wells to supply bathrooms in tribal villages; and, of course, the micro hydro initiatives.

More broadly, I benefited from maximizing the time I spent with community members, getting to know the reality on the ground, and I learned many new things from them.  I always tried to be a friend to community members, not a boss.  Acceptance by community members is one of the most important factors for getting work done.  Sharing knowledge and, in turn, learning from local knowledge is one of the most important tools.  Local peoples’ practical knowledge is more useful than any outsider’s knowledge. For this reason, I succeeded by empowering local people to become leaders who would be the real drivers of successful development programs.

​For example, we conducted a series of village meetings to motivate the community to participate in decision making and contribute labour for the community hydro project.  All community members agreed to the meeting but the next day we didn’t see any men at the worksite.  Only women community members were present and did the work.  When we asked about men, the women said they went to the bazaar or were playing cards in the village.  “They won’t work but we cannot sit idly because we are struggling to get water,” they would say.  “It is our responsibility to fetch water for the home.”  In the end, we noticed only a few men participated.  A similar situation repeated with the collection of funds for micro hydro maintenance.  So, to answer your question, I have not faced any difficulty motivating women to participate and take the lead; in my experience, this happened naturally.

When you look back at your career, what are you most proud of?

At the end of my 33-year career with Gram Vikas, when at times I feel that friends and acquaintances may have forgotten my contributions to the organization, I feel touched that the communities I engaged with haven’t forgotten me.  Whenever I feel down, very often my spirit is lifted when I receive a phone call from a community member saying, “Didi [meaning elder sister in Oriya], please come to visit our village”. 

​I feel proud of the many development initiatives that I initiated, which improved the livelihoods of tribal communities.  I am lucky that I had the opportunity to work with tribal communities in the remote interior through Gram Vikas, in inaccessible areas where development was once just a dream.  Initially, I thought it was impossible to work in such remote areas where you could not manage adequate food and mobility, but thanks to support from colleagues, training, exposure, etc., I could succeed.  Overall, I am very thankful to Gram Vikas for a highly rewarding career.​

One of my proudest accomplishments came out of one of the most difficult struggles in my career.  In 1992, I was posted as Team Leader in Rudhapader project, in Ganjam district.  During my field visit I noticed that villagers were cultivating a small patch of brinjal in infertile land within the forest reserve; for this, every year, the forest guard and rangers took bribes from them.  I motivated the community to shift to cashew plantations instead of brinjal, which would result in a better return.  They agreed and implemented this successfully with financial support from Gram Vikas.  The next year, the forest rangers asked for bribes, but I encouraged the community not to pay any bribe to anyone.  When they didn’t pay, the rangers became angry.  They illegally arrested people and kept them in the Tarasing Rang police station.  When it came to my notice I rushed to the station and confronted them.  In the end, they released the community members, but 10 forest and criminal cases were filed in my name in 1992.  I had to regularly attend court from then until 2004.  That 12-year experience is one I will never forget, but at the end of my painful struggle I saw a remarkable outcome.

In total 20 families were living in the village.  From 1995/1996 onwards, each family was earning a minimum of 20,000 to 50,000 RP cash in a year from cashew sales (depending on land size).  Today, after a long fight, every family in the village has a land record in their name under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). Now the village scenario has completely transformed.  Recently a family showed me their new marble house through a video call.  Often, they call and invite me to visit their village.  I feel very proud of what was accomplished in this village.

Was there a particular person or situation that inspired you to focus on renewable energy and community hydro?

I became part of a movement, doing advocacy work in objection to big dams.  The World Bank was funding huge dams in the Northern part of the Philippines.  Well, the objection was led by communities.  They fought over several years and the people won, and the World Bank withdrew from the area.  It wasn’t only the dams, but issues related to logging as well.  When Ferdinand Marcos was president, under martial law, he allowed his cronies to exploit the resources up in the mountains, the watersheds.  And again, the Indigenous people in that area resisted and they won – the big corporation withdrew from the area.  So, I witnessed this and that, of course, was immense and very important to me.  I realized that only the people can make change.  Actually, it was a tribal community (the Butbut tribe) who articulated and requested  that a small-scale hydro be built in their community, as the alternative to the big dam. They realized the importance of hydropower, but at a scale that would not hurt them, that would not displace communities.  So they provided us the insight on what to do and that was the birth of the community-based micro hydro.  Reflecting now, I think that was, in fact, a key element of our framework for renewable energy development. 

So, basically, it was in that region where the micro hydro work started.  We provided the technical support and the community contributed as well, and that became our framework going forward.  And we leveraged this to reach out to funding agencies such as the UN Development Programme Small Grants Program and the Department of Energy, who then supported a number of our projects.  Then that experience in that area inspired other tribal, Indigenous communities in the North to build similar systems, which in turn set an example for other Indigenous provinces to do the same.

I built a team of effective people.  Not all were engineers; we especially paid attention to involving people from the ground.  In time they all learned the theories behind the civil works.  And, most importantly, we built all of the micro hydro components locally.  We were in collaboration with a university in the North, who had good people who understood community-based work.  There was one very good engineer, who has since passed away, who  really provided strong, technological knowledge to our team, who we are very thankful for.  

That was a period in the Philippines when policies were being drawn up to embark on renewable energy.  We advocated for a community-based approach, but the government was influenced by the big energy companies coming in.  So we continued our work even without policy to support us and, in the Cordillera Region, we built 27 micro hydro systems in collaboration with the communities and with local government units who recognized the role of the communities.  The people, women, men and even children, came to do the physical construction work.  The micro hydro organizations were built coming from the collective work in construction,  and each organization formulated and enforced the policies to maintain and sustain the plant over these many years.  The community organization provided the guidance to manage and sustain the micro hydro.  Certainly, women have important roles to play in managing the micro hydro organizations, such as enforcing policies, and collectively sustaining the waterways and hillsides along these. 
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Following a period of rehabilitation after some 10 years or more, all the projects there are further improved and made to function up to the present, delivering the required energy per household and per community, providing 24-hour lighting, use of household appliances and powering livelihoods.  

​So we started with resisting the big dam and won.  And then the anti-logging struggle also played an important role in making the people understand the importance of defending their forests.  In that province, where most of the micro hydro projects were implemented, the communities experienced a learning process around watershed protection.  This strengthened the lappat system, the traditional system of forest protection in the indigenous communities.  With that understanding of the need to protect the water source to enable electricity generation, the communities have been able to sustain their systems for more than 20 years now. 

What kind of changes have you seen in the sector since you started out?

There are more and more people in the science and technology sector, including students and professionals, who are interested to volunteer and come with us to the field and take part. ​

​In addition, the government’s energy programs are very strong and they look down at what we’re doing; but in recent years we’ve been able to show the economic impact of our approach.  In 2018, we convened a conference addressing the impact of about 20 years of work.  Looking back, earlier on a number of us were working on advocacy in our organization but not very systematically. Of course, we wrote papers and convened big, national conferences, especially at the start when we were trying to promote our work nationally; but now there is evidence we can leverage, standing side by side, something we can show the big systems of the government. 

A few years back you established a new organization called RESILIENCE. Can you tell us about RESILIENCE and what led you to initiate it?

So, this was after my work in SIBAT.  I thought of broadening the focus to embrace climate change because that is a very big threat to societies and it will have a very adverse impact on resources, and even on the micro hydro systems that we were advocating for.  SIBAT already focused on sustainable agriculture, so we had that framework for addressing how different issues are connected, but climate is something that had to be addressed.  So I organized RESILIENCE with a few people, but it will take us some more years to develop.  With the pandemic it really had slowed down due to movement restrictions; but once the situation improves we will get back to it.  And it will involve connecting with organizations that focus on climate change and us contributing our strength in sustainable agriculture, in watershed management, as well as renewable energy.  It has yet to take off strongly, but the concept is there.
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Why is climate resilience important in micro hydro communities?

Well, it's for the protection of the systems themselves against landslides, the lowering of the water level – all those aspects that affect the resources in the communities.  Now communities are seeing an increase in specific impacts of climate change, such as typhoons and landslides.  When these things happen we have to rehabilitate the systems, strengthen the civil works, and strengthen the role of the communities in conserving the forests and maintaining the water channels.  In micro hydro communities, climate resilience encompasses a lot – the lives of the people and the protection of their innovations, successes and achievements.
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We’ve heard from other colleagues in the Philippines how Indigenous communities have long traditions of environmental stewardship.  How does that come into play?

We have seen many communities that lead in this – they have formulated community policies that govern watershed management, including the cutting of trees and protection of resources in the watershed area.  But there are communities that still have to formulate theirs. So the traditional system that’s at the forefront of sustainable watershed protection is called lapat, which is a very important policy that people hold sacred and that they abide by. That is a great tradition being sustained up until now, but not all communities have done that.  And only Indigenous communities have that; others should learn from them.

What challenges have you faced as a woman practitioner? How did you overcome these obstacles? 
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​Of course, men dominate this field, but I am intrinsically strong and I have to keep showing that strength in order for other women to be strong.  So, I have built small women’s groups in the city and while in the rural areas.  And I have tried to show by example that you can speak, that you can act, that you can contribute to the discussion and take the lead where you are needed to take lead. I think mobilizing women is my strength.  When I go to a rural community, the first people I engage are the older women.  

You have to keep yourself strong and not be intimidated, by organizing more women to add to their number in the field.  And I've seen my former students really take strides in leadership in community work.  So reflecting back, I think it’s about leading by example.  I am also a member of the national women's organization here; I was part of building it during my younger days.  So the importance of the role of women is very strong in me.  

What do women leaders have to offer in energy access efforts? 

Access to energy has an impact within households on women and children.  Women are really impacted by everything that energy is used for inside the home, because of the care work that they do.  So, I have seen rural women speaking very strongly for the sustaining of the micro hydro, and even taking a strong role in the physical maintenance of the hillsides, keeping the water channels clean.  They're quite strong in that because it has an impact on their life.  Electricity reduces their work in the household, it allows the children to study longer hours, and they can go to the fields with less risk because there is light outside the homes.  

Traditionally, women are often not present at community meetings and instead stay home to care for the kinds.  But when it comes to rural electrification, we’ve seen that women are quite strong in community meetings.  The mothers come even together with the children and that provides insight into the importance of energy access to women, and the important role of women within these innovations.
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What solutions could we employ to address gender challenges in the sector?

Well, the livelihood opportunities that energy access enables should be more accessible to women.  And during my time in SIBAT we worked on innovating on some machines so that women can handle them easier, with less physical strength required.  And when it comes to maintenance of the powerhouse, women can do that.  So first help develop a fair opportunity for them to be part of what is supposedly a men’s domain, especially in livelihood matters.  You can develop a specific approach to address that; maybe a women’s committee can be formed among other committees in the community, in order to address women’s particular needs.  It’s important to look at technical matters, as well as the broader impacts.  Always consider how women are affected and strengthen these aspects. 

Within SIBAT, I have advocated for technical training for women and, although we have more men, we do have women engineers.  But renewable energy development is not just technology and from the start of designing a program you have to look at the projected impact.  So, you should not leave out the participation of women, especially in designing their livelihood paths.  For example, sugar cane pressing, which is traditional in the mountain areas – with electricity they can develop the sugar industry, beyond just pressing.

Food is important to rural women, it is important to households.  So agriculture can also be strengthened by micro hydro, for instance by enabling electric machines and equipment.  Such activities have always concerned women in particular because of their role in sustaining the household.   

​What brings you hope for the future?

Again, that there will always be change.  And I know if people can really work together then they can encourage the authorities to involve them.  Right now during the pandemic, when the roles of local people are being addressed, there should be room made for community-based initiatives to build the change. I know that in my more than 30 years in this, when I began as a student activist in a small corridor of the university doing science, there had been great changes already.  But not very structurally.  But you could see the people’s minds do change. 

And our efforts in micro hydropower development should – at least up to the municipality level – make them realize that community-based efforts should be a big, big part of the Philippines national program for development.  In the mountains of Abra in Kalinga, there are 30 micro hydropower systems, not resulting from the initiative of the government, but from the initiative of the people. And there are those coming to a realization that this is something that they should study and perhaps multiply.  My hopes for that are high.​

Is there anything we have missed about your journey that you would like to share with our readers?

I look forward to seeing what big collective efforts will come about through the work of RESILIENCE, looking at all aspects, from water, to energy, economics, agriculture.  That’s something that I hope to be a part of.  

Our Hidden No More series features women micro hydro practitioners who have transformed gender barriers to generate energy access for marginalized communities.

But you really cannot ignore the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction. I got to witness firsthand how damaging drilling is to the environment. Even though I appreciated the opportunity to travel and work with a diverse group of people, I realized pretty quickly that oil and gas wasn’t for me.​

I then found myself in Somaliland in the Horn of Africa where I  was a volunteer teacher at a school. The school was putting up a 20kW wind turbine, the first one in the country. I supported the first phase of the project - putting in the foundation for the turbine- my first experience with renewable energy. ​

​I realized that I could still utilize my engineering background and work in international development. That was really how I came to learn about the energy access world. Wanting to get more experience with renewable energy systems, I spent a summer with my first micro-hydro project in Malaysia - supported by a then professor at the Masdar Institute (now my co-founder and colleague). When my time in Somaliland ended, I joined the Masdar Institute as a graduate researcher to continue working on community energy systems. 

What was your research focused on at Masdar Institute?

My work at the Institute was focused on understanding the links between community development and mini-grid systems, and how you could design engineering systems differently to incorporate community development objectives. I felt like I had spent enough time studying the engineering side of things, I wanted to get creative and merge all these learnings from other non-engineering fields into engineering systems. Using the tools that we know in engineering systems and architecture, and incorporating methodologies from social sciences and anthropology. The idea was simple and definitely not new, if you looked at a system and expanded the boundaries to include all the non-engineering aspects of it, you would get a much more comprehensive system. The challenge was translating those aspects into engineering requirements that don’t dismiss the people factor.

Tell us about why you established Energy Action Partners (ENACT). 
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By the end of my time at Masdar, I was committed to the work that I was doing with community energy and wanted to take The Minigrid Game further and build it out. In 2014, with my graduate advisor and another colleague who has since left, we co-founded Energy Action Partners. In Energy Action Partners’ early days, we continued with the work we had been doing around community energy systems with The Minigrid Game, and short field-based courses for students and young professionals on energy access, community development, and social entrepreneurship. These early programs gave us the opportunity to partner with other organizations, while building up The Minigrid Game. Fast forward 6 years later, The Minigrid Game is now COMET - Community Energy Toolkit, and is very much our core program. COMET is a software tool that simulates a mini-grid system. It’s used in field-based mini-grid planning workshops to inform and engage communities through meaningful collaboration. Among other things, COMET helps communities and developers make better decisions around system sizing, tariff-setting, and demand-side management.

After receiving funding from Wuppertal Institute’s WISIONS, which enabled us to conduct our first Minigrid Game (now COMET) community deployments in 2017, we started seeing interest in COMET from other organizations. Last year, we received funding from Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst, which gave us the support we needed to take the software tool to the next level and turn it into COMET, a robust community-driven demand exploration tool for mini-grids. With our team working from home this past year, we’ve had the time to develop new features and rethink our plan to grow COMET. 

What's ENACT's approach to community engagement? 
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Our approach is based on our values as an organization, heavily inspired by the Human Capability Approach from Amartya Sen. To us, community development is 1) defined by the community and not by anybody else, and 2) a set of capabilities and opportunities that communities want for themselves. Development should always be defined by the communities and not by an external entity telling them what development should look like. Our values guide us to develop micro-grid systems that meet those desired opportunities. If a community, for example, says that their set of capabilities includes wanting to be more politically active and to access more education, then the micro-grid system should enable that. It should enable television, telecommunication services, internet and all that they need so they can further their intended capabilities. And everything else may become secondary - if a system doesn’t run reliably 24/7 but still fulfils the community’s objectives and goals then that to us is still a success. Essentially, we define the objective of a system slightly differently than how others may view things, where it’s about making sure that the electricity system runs the way it was designed. I mean that’s definitely a positive, but what’s more important is the community actually achieves what they wanted to in the first place. That is key to our approach and values, and what we want to achieve.

What were the gaps in community engagement 10 years ago and how have those evolved over the decade? 

Conventional methods involve finding a community and asking them about their needs. The question of trying to find out what they need is challenging, and depending on how you ask and who is asking, you can get very different results. For example, a conventional method for demand estimation is you engage with the community and conduct household energy audits, but as many of us in the sector acknowledge, this doesn’t always work. Demand estimation has been a tough nut to crack in mini-grid development. For off-grid communities, surveys and questionnaires don’t always make sense. Questions around what are you going to do with electricity and what things you want are very difficult questions to answer; they’re related to so many different things like income, who lives in the house, my kids are going to grow and what are they going to do, so all these questions are really difficult for people to answer directly. Some might think it’s overcomplicating the issue because electricity provision involves a technical question that can be answered with a technical solution, and that you are just trying to answer some questions with numbers; but when you are talking about electricity use, it’s about people’s behaviour, it’s not just about numbers. 

I think unless you have a very strong relationship with the community where you really understand what they need and what they could potentially evolve into, you are more than likely to get the wrong answers to those very technical questions. At the same time, it is really hard for organizations to spend a lot of time and build that trust and relationship with the community. So these are some of the gaps I observed and wanted to work with. 

There has to be some kind of process that would make it a meaningful exchange. That’s why I started looking at the field of anthropology and social science, and how they approach a community to obtain objective information. It also cannot be a one-way, extractive exchange because communities are going to receive this big piece of technology, so they are going to have to learn things, and change, and build their own capacities to manage and operate. So, it has to be a two-way exchange. The one-way process was part of the community engagement that practitioners or project developers conventionally do where they collect information and think in exchange, they will give the community electricity and that would be sufficient, but it’s not.

The community really has to engage with the process as well and from the very beginning. To me, it’s a no-brainer because you get a better designed system! If engaged, people are better able to tell you what they need, what they will do with the electricity, and they are more invested in it, which leads to a higher success rate. Also 10 years ago, we saw more abandoned systems because it was so easy to fall short on the design and mis-appropriately size the system. I think now because of technological advances, we’re getting better at it and there are more options available for electrification, but it is still very much through technology and not through a people-driven process.

Could you tell me a bit more about the gaps in energy access practices locally and internationally, and the shortcomings of traditional approaches?

I think the gaps and the shortcomings are the same both locally and internationally. Everybody recognizes community engagement is very important, very key, but I don’t think we invest enough in processes to do it robustly. There has been very little investment going into developing and researching new approaches to the community engagement side of mini-grid development. So far, we have seen research institutes and universities come up with frameworks or a process. But framework and processes are, while they provide useful learning and outcomes, still not easy enough to scale up and deploy. And that's why as an organization, we decided to develop a tool for community engagement, focusing on demand exploration for mini-grid developers. 

There needs to be more effort into looking at community engagement and the opportunities, and asking ourselves how do we solve problems and gaps? We need to go further than the just fulfilling project requirements for community engagement. So far, community engagement has become the catch all phrase for any kind of engagement process but we know that there are different levels and outcomes to engagement. You can have engagement that’s one way and very extractive and you can have engagement that’s two way, but perhaps there is a lack of ownership, on the community side. What you really want is community engagement where there is ownership, there is two-way exchange, and there is capacity building happening on all sides. That’s the level of engagement we really need to push for in energy access and mini-grid deployments. 

​Once I could actually put language to it, I started realizing more and more that it happens more often than it should. I think I have been really lucky because I was so ignorant of it for so long and it didn’t stop me nor occur to me that it was happening to me because I was female. Although I think I was lucky; I definitely realize that isn’t the case for other women and with some women, it stops them from continuing and that’s what need to prevent from happening. I think now that I am aware of it, I can’t go back to how it was before. I see it now and can recognize when it happens to me, when somebody treats me differently just because I am female and they think I am less capable or technically incompetent. But being in the position that I am now, I am better placed to deal with it and hopefully I can do something about it too.

What we don’t do is we don’t enforce gender perspectives on the community because we recognize that all the communities are at different points when talking about gender equality and equity, and we have to be sensitive to that. If communities recognize themselves as gender unequal, then we will support them wanting to find ways to make things more gender equal. But if communities don’t recognize it despite our workshops and process, then we believe it’s not our place to do anything about. That has been our approach so far. ​

​For instance, we don’t promise that there will be an equal gender ratio when we form a Village Electrification Committee, because in some cases women may not want to be involved in that capacity.  However, if we find in our workshops that women want to be involved but they don’t have an opportunity, then it is important to us that we try and do something about that. If everybody is okay with the status quo, then we accept that. Yes, you can argue that acceptance is due to a lack of exposure. That may be true. But that’s why it’s also important for our team to have healthy gender balances and when communities see female teams like ours visiting them, we hope that that provides some exposure as well. But if, after this exposure and our gender workshops, they still make the decision to not do anything about things, we should respect that.

What motivates you to keep on doing the work you are doing?

I really like working with communities. I think communities, and especially rural communities, have such a special role to play in the world. First of all, regardless of what governments or anybody else tells you, rural communities are on the front line of renewable energy and the transition. Unlike urban communities, rural communities don’t have much of a choice. They use decentralized renewable energy systems because they have to, and remember, off-grid communities have been using these systems way longer than urban users. I feel like that’s something that people forget, or they don’t think of. That rural communities are on the frontlines of climate change issues and the transition. And the transition to renewable energy for them is a live or die situation for survival. I learn a lot from these communities and being able to work with them is what motivates me.

They also provided technical support to our utility company, e.g. train operators and connect households to the company. They continue to assist in locating investors for the sustainable development of other mini hydro in the valley. So basically AKRSP is providing support to communities in terms of skills building and finance for the long-term sustainability of electricity in the valley. 

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​How did the local community become involved in the mini hydro project?

We underwent the usual protocol of AKRSP, which consisted of dialogues, in which the communities established the need for electricity and the willingness to engage in a micro hydro project.  The communities contributed in the construction, and eventually they became shareholders and now they are the owners in this venture. The project started around 2012, but due to financial constraints, it was delayed till 2015. It was a hybrid model of financing. Initially, it entailed a grant, followed by obtaining a loan, and ultimately it was sustained by investment from the community, who eventually became the shareholders in the project. 

The money that is usually collected through community mobilization for the formation of a maintenance fund, was later on transformed into equity. The initial minimum contribution per household was fixed around PKR 6000 to contribute to maintenance funds. The minimum contributions were set by AKRSP at PKR 10 Million for the community as a maintenance fund or community contribution for the project, which is an equivalent of approximately 5% of the project cost. With the transformation of the unit into public limited companies, the initial investments/contribution of the community members were converted into shares and transferred to individual persons as share capital. The value of 1 share was set at PKR 100. Furthermore, the minimum investments were reduced to PKR 1500 for women, so that the women members of the community could also participate as shareholders/members of the company. 

How many women are involved in this project and what is their background?

More than 400 women are shareholders in this mini hydro project. A small portion of the women are educated and most of them are housewives, but many of them have started their own businesses at household level. In this mini hydro project, we have obtained a loan and our sales are not high enough to meet the loan repayment, given the high operational and maintenance costs. But we are moving in the right direction and by 2023, we will hopefully repay the entire loan and then the company will receive profits, and we will receive shareholder dividends.  

What was it like for the women in the area before the mini hydro project? 

We had everything in terms of natural resources, but we didn't have electricity to ensure basic facilities and sustainable development in the valley. There were no diesel generators and everyone used kerosene lamps. 

For more insights on AKRSP's work, be sure to check out our program case study Evolution to Inclusive Social Enterprise.
 
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What inspired you to get involved in community development, energy access, and micro hydro work?

​I started my career in the early 2000’s, when I joined Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in 2001. My inspiration to get involved was mainly due to the disparity I saw between the rural and urban populations. I had observed a huge disparity, mainly in terms of basic amenities; urban people were enjoying many facilities including better electricity, education and health facilities, while the rural poor were deprived of all these basic assets, even energy services. I had seen that rural people were compelled to use kerosene and Jharro  (a common plant in Nepal) for household lighting needs.

Being an electrical engineer, I decided it was best to work in the rural energy sector where I could best contribute my knowledge. With my background in electrical engineering, I understand that electricity is the foundation to any and all development activities, which can drive economic activities in rural areas. I believe that rural people have a right to energy services, as do urban people, and energy services can really improve rural quality of life and address the challenges they are facing.

Initially, I started my career promoting solar home systems in rural areas in my work with AEPC, and later shifted toward focusing on sustainable small-scale hydropower. I realized that only installing the energy infrastructure itself -- providing access to electricity -- is not sufficient, because there is a need to make energy systems more reliable and sustainable. This is very important because if the system stops functioning, this creates a burden to rural communities. This is what I found in the field and it is what inspired me to focus on the micro hydro sector, and specifically micro hydropower (MH) sustainability.  ​

Have you faced particular challenges as a woman, in the work that you do? If so, how have you overcome these challenges?

I wouldn’t say I’ve faced any major challenges being a woman, in the work that I’ve done. However, sometimes people ask me “being a woman, don’t you face difficulty in doing technical things?”, or, “don't you feel discomfort in travelling alone to remote areas?”. But, I don’t see this as a major challenge; it’s people’s perception and thinking about women. They think that it’s difficult for women to do these things.

Sometimes, because of the nature of what I’m doing, I have to dedicate a lot of time to my work and it can be difficult to achieve a good work-life balance. I am lucky though, because my family totally supports me and encourages me, therefore I can concentrate on my work. However, it’s not the same situation for all women in Nepal.

It does also remain a male dominated sector. Previously, when my work focused on solar, I would frequently be the only woman in a meeting of 50 people. You can therefore imagine what women’s representation looks like in the sector as a whole. It is slowly changing, compared to the earlier days. Now there are women coming into decision making positions, but their representation is still very low.

What roles have you seen women play in micro hydro projects -- both in implementation and also sustainability?  What greater role can they play?  How can we encourage them?

Women’s representation in MH is still very minimal in Nepal. There are hardly 1 or 2 companies that are really run or managed by women and not more than 20 female engineers in the sector as a whole.

Within the development of an MHP project there is a compulsory quota for women to be represented in the users committee, but women’s participation and voice in the committee remains insignificant. From the program side, when we organize capacity building workshops, we specifically say that at least 1 or 2 women participants per MHP is compulsory, but in reality, very few women participate.

I don’t think there is any doubt that women can play a crucial role both in the implementation and sustainability of MHPs. Women can do all the work that men can do related to the MHP; they can develop enabling policies, carry out feasibility studies, design systems, construct and install the plant, manage and operate the system, and start enterprises using the generated electricity. Women’s involvement can occur throughout, from planning, to installation, to use of electricity.

I believe that if women are looked upon as equal members as men in society, that can increase participation in the MHP sector. We need to break the traditional thinking and perception that women are not capable of doing technical work as well as men. Besides that, I think we have to design working environments in such a way that women can participate. For example, the number of women MHP operators is basically negligible compared to the number of men. Why? Because operators have to stay alone day and night at the powerhouse, which poses security threats for women. But, if we could provide an enabling environment -- for instance, allowing families to live at the MH site -- participation of women could increase. Security and safety need to be given high priority.

For more insights on MHP sustainability, be sure to check out the third edition of our 2019 webinar series, featuring Resha Piya and other experts: Mini-Grid Sustainability: Transitioning to Social Enterprise for Energy and Economic Development.
 
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The Hidden No More feature series was designed to spotlight women change-makers who have transformed gender barriers, and made impactful contributions to energy access for marginalized communities.

For this 4th edition, we reached out to Koto Kishida, former Malaysia Program Manager at Green Empowerment and strong advocate for sustainable rural development. Through this conversation, we gained insight into Koto’s experience as a female leader working at the intersection of energy access and natural resource management. 

Our conversation shed light on watershed protection and enhancement -- an important, yet undervalued, area of micro hydropower (MH), which Koto has been tirelessly working to promote. Koto recognizes that MH incentivizes communities to protect the catchment area ecosystem; by motivating watershed strengthening, micro hydro projects (MHPs) can play a key role in building climate resilience in rural communities. 
​
Read on to learn why Koto is committed to promoting environmental conservation in community energy projects, and to gain insight into her journey as a woman energy practitioner.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Koto Kishida. I am a Japanese citizen but have spent the majority of my life in the United States. In the last few years I lived in Malaysian Borneo, first as a volunteer in 2016, and then as the Malaysia Program Manager for Green Empowerment (GE) from 2017-2019. As some of the readers may know, GE is an HPNET Member, a US based NGO that works on rural sustainable development in Latin America and SE Asia. Most of the work GE has done in Malaysian Borneo has been in the area of rural sustainable development focused around energy access. GE has been supporting local NGOs such as PACOS Trust and TONIBUNG to install community based micro-hydro and solar mini-grid projects.
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​How did you start your career?

For most of my professional career, I worked for Oregon State's environmental protection agency, first analysing environmental samples and later working to minimize loss of forest cover and reduce polluted runoff from agricultural and forest land uses to protect water quality through policy and regulations. A large part of my work involved analyzing how much vegetation/forest cover was needed to sufficiently protect the aquatic environment. Having worked on both regulatory and voluntary programs to comply with environmental regulations, I came to understand the critical roles the local communities play in protecting the environment. 

I had traveled to SE Asia in the early 2010's and was drawn to rural communities where people lived traditionally. While traveling I saw rapid development as well as emerging environmental issues. This is when I began having the desire to support local communities who had a more sustainable vision for development in their communities. I reached out to a number of NGOs that worked on environmental issues, with my desire to volunteer during my sabbatical planned in 2016. One of the NGOs I contacted was Green Empowerment. At the time, GE was working with its main partner organization, TONIBUNG, to explore opportunities to access funds for conservation. In 2016 I traveled to Sabah in Malaysian Borneo to develop TONIBUNG's monitoring program as GE's volunteer. 
​
During my stay in Malaysian Borneo working with rural communities, I saw the day-to-day as well as long term struggles indigenous people faced there. My main take-away from the experience in Malaysian Borneo was the same as I had learned in Oregon — the success of conservation efforts depended on the local people's desire and ability to continue living in their community in a sustainable manner. There is a need to create a space for the community members to figure out the future they want for themselves. Our only role as practitioners is to facilitate the discussion and provide support as requested by the community. ​

Even though there are success stories, engaging women during planning meetings and recruiting them to join committees do not always become a priority during project implementation. I attribute this to the capacity of NGOs we work with. Some of the partner organizations we worked with had a limited number of female staff, and the project managers had challenges with the construction of infrastructure alone, such that gender balance was not a major consideration. And I think our local partners value meeting the communities where they are. For cultural reasons or the particular situations that the communities are in, if they do not have female representatives in leadership positions in the MH Committee, that does not mean progress has not been made. 

I did not make a significant impact on addressing the gender issues while working with TONIBUNG, other than some isolated successes. I have tried to understand the reasons why certain jobs are filled by men only, and challenges women face at the workplace, in order to understand my priorities for how to address these challenges. For TONIBUNG, I encouraged their staff to be inclusive of women when working with communities, and questioned their sexist comments or jokes when I heard them. I also participate in groups and discussions with others who raise gender issues, and promote local and indigenous women to speak at professional conferences. ​

For more journeys of women micro hydro practitioners in our Hidden No More  series, please sign up below to receive our newsletter!  ​

Most of the population lives in the southern Union Councils where the natural conditions and the natural resources (forests, arable lands in the valleys, irrigation infrastructure) are the best. In the northern Union Councils and more mountainous valleys, natural resources are scarce and limited to vast shrub pastures and small plots in the valleys for agri-/horticulture.  In these areas, livestock including a few local sheep and goat breeds, is important for the subsistence households. But due to remote location and limited development interventions, opportunities for diversifying subsistence farming and linked livelihoods are almost negligible. This makes them extremely vulnerable to external stresses by natural hazards or socio-economic instability.

Evolution to Social Enterprise

Over time, the MH projects implemented by AKRSP have grown in size and impact. Initially,  systems were relatively small, providing electricity solely for lighting and small appliances, and often operating only for night-time use. Today, much larger systems are being implemented, with implications for community development that go beyond basic electrification. This development is the result of a decision to shift to a community enterprise approach.

The community-based mini hydropower utility companies (CBMHPUCs) can be understood as “community enterprises” with both commercial as well as social aims and objectives, i.e. “to create sustainable wealth for the community; and to create social benefit for the community”. This means to deliver fairly priced quality services in a sector that neither the public nor other private sector covers. In comparison to other models (e.g. trusts and co-operatives) the organizational functions and operating style are driven by business methods and practices. Furthermore, its regulatory and other reporting requirements are more robust. Thus they distinguish themselves from the otherwise rather informal operating patterns of community-based organizations or maintenance committees mostly applied in regard to micro and small MHPs. Nonetheless, the central feature of the CBMHPUCs set up by AKRSP remains the same as with other community-based organizations: they are basically owned and controlled by people who live in a defined locality, who constitute a community of interest and who, in this case, may share the rights over the water used for the electricity generation. 

The new approach of AKRSP for formation and regulation of the community based Utility Companies in Hydro power is to register with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) under Companies Ordinance (1984). The objective of the CBMHPUCs is “to establish a financially viable and sustainable hydro power business by providing affordable and reliable electricity with improved service quality and profitability”.

Three of the main CBMHPUCs designed with this new enterprise-based approach approach are CBMHPUC Yadgarh (800 kW), Shandur (500 kW) and Ozhor (500 kW). These plants have been operational since January 2017 and were designed to provide enterprise opportunities for small industries and to eradicate poverty. The CBMHPUC Yadgarh was initially planned to cover some 14 settlements, which by now has increased to 17, with some 1127 households or 8404 people to be serviced. The CBMHPUC Shandur covers three villages or 16 settlements and some 854 to 1161 households or around 6,043 people.12 CBMHPUC Ozhor covers some 21 settlements and 1200 households or 9208 people (see table 1). The electricity generated through the MHPs is distributed via village-scale mini-grids.

​Inclusive Ownership:  How it Works

The MHPs were established through hybrid financing, i.e. a combination of “donor model” and “cash model”. The costs for large parts (including the technology, T&D system) were covered by donor money – in the case of the CBMHPUC Yadgarh and CBMHPUC Shandur, from the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), and in case of the CBMHPUC Ozhor from the PPAF. This was complemented by equity from AKRSP and the communities. Community households contributed between PKR 6000 and 9000 and the minimum contributions per community were set at PKR 10 Mil. for each project. With the transformation of the units into public limited companies, the initial investments of the community members were converted into shares and transferred on individual persons. The value of 1 share was set at 100 rupees.

Accordingly, the CBMHPUCs still follow the “cooperative model” in the sense that the community members (partially) own the MHP.  Now each CBMHPUC has between 1000 and 1600 shareholders from the community. 

Micro Hydro Success Cases

Case Study 1 - Electricity Utilization

Thirty years old Muhammad Nasir is the eldest son in his family and is a resident of Raman Laspur. He is living with his father, mother, 3 brothers, a daughter and a son. His son is a student in CBS School in a playgroup class. 

His father is pensioner in Chitral Scout.is one younger brother is in the army and the other is in Chitral Scout. His youngest brother is doing labour work. 
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Before Muhammad was going to other districts for labour work, but when AKRSP started construction of MHP in the area, his father asked him to come home. When he came home, his father sent him to Gilgit to learn some skills; Muhammad got training on stove making, tool sharpening and welding. 

When the new MHP became operational he came to the village of Raman and opened a shop where he started welding, stove making and tool sharpening. Muhammad sells his one stove at Rs. 3500 and sharpens one tool at Rs. 50. He said “I feel very satisfied and happy about my profession and what my father has decided for me”.
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With his earnings, he buys all the raw materials like welding rods, sheet teen and coal for heating up different tools in forge. In the start he was using a manual method for blowing coals in the furnace, but now he has bought an electric blower and electric wheel sharpening stone. 
With his income, he also pays his son’s school fees and helps his father in buying food and other necessities. After deducting all the expenses, he is getting net profit of Rs. 8000. Muhammad is also providing job opportunities for the unemployed in this area. He said due to electricity access, our standard of living improved and we can see that poverty is reducing gradually. 

Social Inclusion

One of the basic rationales for rural electrification is that it enables households to switch from lower quality and especially from carbon-based fuels such as fossil and bio-fuels to electricity for various energy services. This switch is expected to generate a range of social, environmental and economic benefits, not least if the electricity stems from renewable energy sources. Essentially, benefits from rural electrification through renewable energy resources are obvious. Common links between (renewable) energy use and  components of poverty are beneficial effects on health, education, the environment and income. 

For example, the use of electricity may lead to health benefits, such as reduced exposure to hazardous pollutants and reduced air pollution; eliminating drudgery associated with collecting fire wood may improve the health condition, above all of women and children who most often carry out this task; access to electricity may enable vaccination and temperature-adequate medicine storage (through refrigerators). 

The use of electricity may also involve educational benefits, by reducing drudgery and thereby freeing up time for study: enhanced lighting can enable to studying at night; furthermore, electricity may also assist to narrow the digital divide through Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). 

Environmental benefits may encompass a reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels and biomass; reduced use of wood for fuel may lead to a mitigation of deforestation; application of renewable energy promotes climate protection.

Lastly, income benefits may mean, among others, increased productivity and profitability of agricultural methods leading to better farm/household revenues; enterprise development through electrification can create jobs; mechanization in industry can lead to higher productivity and lower consumption costs; small-scale energy systems in rural areas may generate local industry or enterprises; the use of more efficient electric appliances.  

Women-Centric Approach

The typical workload of women in the Chitral region is extreme. Apart from caring for the children and the households, they look after the animals and assist their husbands in crop husbandry. If collecting firewood is substituted by an electric oven women may save 1 h/day; if washing is electrified (eventually in a village bath and washing house) they may serve 1- 2 hrs/day; and if wool weaving is outsourced to a collective unit, they may save up to 3 hrs/day. With some electrical appliances in the households for cooking, for heating/cooling (which could be facilitated by some better insulation of 1 – 2 rooms or refrigerators) and for home maintenance, as well as collective ventures for women in washing and ironing, weaving or of processing of milk and gardening products etc. the women’s workload can be considerably reduced.Moreover, saved hours in the household could be used for improved education and socio-political activities (which AKRSP investigates & supports in MH projects).

Most importantly, women will receive equal benefit from the project in terms of dividend, they will be part of the governing body and involved in decision making (i.e tariff designing, investment plan, etc). In AKRSP supported projects, women are involved as investors, shareholders and owners of the plant.​

Guest blog post written by Mr. Meherban Khan, Coordinator for Utility Companies - Hydro Power Development at Aga Khan Rural Support Program and HPNET Board of Representative member for Pakistan.

He can be reached at meherbanakrsp@gmail.com or meherban@akrsp.org.pk.

Last month, I had the opportunity to talk about the gender and energy nexus at the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2019.  My talk was based on the experiences of incorporating gender into the micro hydropower projects (MHPs) of the UNDP Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihoods (RERL) project at the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) in Nepal and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Pakistan.

Both Nepal and Pakistan have a rich history of MHPs -- with over 3000 projects in Nepal and over 1000 projects in Pakistan. Therefore, the countries make for good cases to look at how we could involve women in the MHPs to not only empower women but also to contribute towards the financial sustainability of the mini-grids.​

To celebrate International Women's Day 2019, we are launching the Hidden No More feature series!  It spotlights women change-makers who have transformed gender barriers, and made significant contributions to energy access for marginalized communities.

We are excited to feature our first change-maker -- Ms. Anita Bohara, an energy access specialist in Nepal.  Energypedia and HPNET had the opportunity to connect with her inspiring reflections as a woman micro hydro practitioner.   Read below!

I supported implementation of the Micro-hydro Program (MHP) under the Rural Energy Development Program (REDP), supported by the Government of Nepal and UNDP.

What was it like to be on the ground then?

​It was a time when the country was in an intense situation because of the conflict between Government and Maoists. Many people were killed during this conflict and the situation was not favorable to carry out development work. ​I can still recall those moments when there was a massive attack in the neighboring Myadgi District, when I had just signed onto my first employment contract. Since I had never been away from my family in Kathmandu, I had quite a task to convince them to let me start my career in a district so far away from home and so close to the conflict. 

We were only three female officers out of 25 technical officers, and I was the only one to stay with the program for more than a year.  Later, I was promoted to acting Energy Development Officer and then to Energy Development Officer (EDO). I worked for about two and a half years and received an opportunity to obtain a master’s degree with a scholarship. I must give credit for this opportunity for higher education to the strong recommendation provided by my supervisor and my work experience with this organization.
 
Tell us more about your work as an Energy Development Officer.

As an EDO, my program was under the umbrella of the District Development Committee (DDC). I was working in coordination with DDC and other line agencies in the district. The program’s main objective was to provide access to electricity through the implementation of micro hydro projects in the very remote locations of the district where there was no possibility for grid extension at least for the next five years. Besides micro hydro installation, the program also supported various capacity building activities anchored on a strong community mobilization process, in order to ensure sustainability in the long run.
 
Baglung District has very good potential for micro hydropower. While other districts were working with one local NGO on four to five projects, we were working with two local NGOs implementing about ten different projects.  To work in such a conflict situation was definitely a big challenge for us.  Moreover, the road accessibility was extremely poor in those days that we had to walk for three days at most, just to reach the project area. Despite all these challenges, the local NGO and the community remained active and enthusiastic. With their support, we managed to make good progress with the implementation of the MHP projects. During this experience, I was also awarded with the Best Technical Officer recognition in the region for my work -- which motivated me so much to continue working in the district.
 
I must say, the experiences and learning I gathered while working with the micro hydro communities, local NGOs and district agencies in this project helped me greatly in all other projects and organizations that I worked for afterward in my professional journey.
 
Tell us about your work at GIZ-EnDev.
​
I worked as the Program Coordinator for GIZ-EnDev for 1.5 years. I was involved in supporting teams in managing the Micro Hydro Debt Fund (MHDF) with the Alternate Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC). After 15 years of being away, I was glad to return to a more advanced micro hydro sector.  However, I encountered very different challenges in this phase of the sector.

Besides access to electricity through installation of this technology, sustainability of micro hydro operation had become equally challenging in the sector. Lack of effective tariff collection mechanisms, project management capacity of the community, social issues due to lack of transparency during the project construction phase, project shut down due to failure of civil structures and lack of technical capacity of the community, low penetration of electricity based enterprises that generates the revenue for the project, low capacity factor and grid arrival among others -- were all challenges that resulted in defaults for repayment of banks loans provided by the MHDF.

What do you think can be done to make Nepal micro hydro projects long-lived?

Attractive risk sharing mechanisms needed to be developed to encourage the private sector and the financial institutions to invest in micro hydro projects. Intervention of innovative technology in the tariff collection mechanism and loan repayment process not only helps in the loan repayment but can also tackle various social issues that are always crucial to the sustainable operation any community-owned systems.

There is also a need to work with the community and build their capacity to manage the project, at least for some time, may be up to six months before the project is completely handed over to be managed by the community. The usual practice is to pour all the support and capacity building activities to the community before the project comes into operation, and only after is it immediately handed over to the community. Such infrastructures are very big to be managed by the community themselves - even if we are only talking about small scale hydro, we cannot expect the community to get it right, right off the bat.

This leads to major challenges and issues that come right after the project starts operation. There are also big behavioral changes among the beneficiaries that must come with the operation of the project. Therefore, sustained social mobilization and capacity building to establish proper tariff collection mechanisms, plant operation, and good governance long after the project is finished will build the community’s self-confidence and capacity for sustainable operation. While managing other projects such as community owned large size biogas projects and water pumping systems, I found out that the issue was not only exclusive for micro hydropower but also important in other renewable energy systems.
 
Were there challenges that you faced as a woman engineer?

When I was pursuing my civil engineering degree in the year 1999 to 2003, we were only eight female students out of 80 students in the class. One of the reasons why women were not choosing this field is the prevailing thought that it requires extensive field visits. Most female students were more attracted towards architecture and computer faculties. In those conflict situations in the country (before 15 years), everyone regardless of gender, was hesitant to go to work in these districts. Women engineers like me, were almost negligible in a technology sector that required one to be based away from the home and family.
 
Initially, because of my age and gender, the community did not easily believe in me and doubted my stay in the district I also noticed that some of them pitied me, which I also heard from other local colleagues. Similarly, communities were almost always surprised to see me at the start. They had a mindset that all engineers and technical persons must be male. On many occasions, I felt like they had more respect for my male subordinates than me. Nevertheless, this was not a huge problem for me; and it was interesting to show off my capacity to people with such mindsets, and oh boy, did I prove them wrong! I believe my work spoke for itself and eventually earned their respect. Hopefully they were convinced that women are just as capable as men in the engineering field.
 
While working in the district as an EDO, one challenge I faced was the social networking and informal meetings which can impact your work. I used to be very much reluctant for informal meetings because of security reason in the beginning of my professional career when I was in the district. I think compared to men, women professionals must face more challenges to attend informal meetings and networking events to balance work and family life, which to some extent have impact on their work.

Do you think that how a daughter is raised affects her professional journey? 
 
Whether women get equal opportunity to study or choose a career, it remains a fact that majority of girls in a country like Nepal are not raised to be strong as compared to boys. I would like to share that though I decided to work away from my family, I always had a fear of dealing with people. I am much more confident now, but it was very difficult for me to adjust when I started my career working in the district alone, with no family in the area, especially with the constant worry regarding security.

I remember a time during my first week of work, I had to travel to one micro hydro site together with just one of my male staff. I have just started working with him and did not know him well enough. I still remember that I was very stressed travelling with him the entire day, until we reached the village. Especially when we went through very isolated places in the forest, I used to walk so fast, and I think it was clearly obvious to him that I was looking for means of escape and signs of houses or people. Later, I realized how he was consistently kind, supportive, and sensitive throughout the trip and during my work with this organization. I realized that maybe it is also a struggle for men to travel with their female supervisors in our country. We need to be taught at an early age, the essential life skills needed to be strong and handle difficult situations. For this, there needs to be a healthy dose of independence. However, the level of civilization and crime that occurs in the country makes this difficult. It is also understandable how parents would want to protect and shelter their daughters.
 
How did you think you impacted the community as a woman engineer?

While visiting project sites (including MHP but also other technologies), I was overwhelmed to see children walking long distances just to get to school and young women (who are in their late teens) already having 2-3 kids.  I particularly noticed that the girls did not study beyond the seventh or eighth grade and were married off early. Girls either they get pressured from their family for early marriage or they get lured to the fancy clothes and makeup that they could do after getting married and this is really disheartening to see.
 
So, when women engineers like me visited the site and talked to them, it gives them a positive example of what they can do in life. I always made a point, to talk to these young people and motivate them as much as I can. I also found that they were always positively surprised to see a woman engineer -- and I was glad to be this surprise for them.

Can you describe a memorable incident where you had to push for equal rights for women?
 
I remember one community that owns a biogas facility where almost all women members do not have their citizenship. Our projects required mandatory representation for equal representation of women in the executive committee, for which they needed to have citizenship as the organization had to be registered. The male members seemed reluctant to go with the process for preparing the citizenship for women.
 
We had to communicate to the community that we will bring the project elsewhere if there is no equal participation of women in the executive committee. We pressured them to process the citizenship of the women if they really wanted to bring in the project. We even had to delay the project by a couple of months just for the women representatives to prepare their citizenship and get represented in the executive committee.
 
As I mentioned, many professions are gender biased, like engineering which requires site visits and working in remote stations away from family. Families remain reluctant to give females more freedom. So maybe, engineers like us who have been successful in the field could be role models and sources of encouragement for those families. With these examples I do not mean to say that gender issues should be handled by women professionals exclusively, (especially now when there are many male gender experts and professionals at the policy level supporting and advocating for gender energy issues,) but just my thought that maybe it is more likely for women professionals to be more sensitive towards the women’s issues in those working areas.
 
What is the impact of energy access on women?

Access to energy can bring lot of changes in women’s life and livelihood especially in the rural areas. Since women are more responsible for cooking, collecting firewood, carrying water, walking long difficult distances in the hills. Access to energy services in the form of electricity, water, clean cooking fuel not only reduces the drudgery and save time for them but also improve their health situation. However, I would like to give following feedback that I think needs to be taken care while designing, planning and implementing any energy access program and projects;
 
There is higher need to consider the impact they have in their normal daily life during construction phase when they have to contribute labor, considering they already have much more workload and responsibilities in their family. In one of the community-owned projects, I was touched to see a woman who consistently wakes up earlier than normal at 4 am every day just to be able to contribute to the project. This shows the commitment women have towards such projects, but also the increased workload for them who already bear the brunt of daily chores in the household.
 
I would also like to share one of the instances, where we were doing focus group discussion separately for men and women in one village. It was interesting to see that all men prioritized electricity, but most women prioritized easy access to water as they had to walk 2-3 hours daily for water. This clearly showed that there are separate demands of men and women for which gender-sensitive energy policies are needed. Energy needs for different genders should be considered in the planning process, rather than integrating gender issues only during implementation, monitoring and evaluation process.
 
Though women have much more work load especially in the rural areas they have minimal access to the income that comes in the house and family. Access to Energy services whether in the form of water, electricity, biogas etc. it needs to be linked to income generating opportunities for women to have better impact of energy access on the women’s livelihood.
 
Awareness on the need for clean energy use is another aspect to be considered while promoting the clean energy use among the community. Sometime while visiting some community we have seen that going to forest to collect firewood with friends are considered as one source of recreation as time have no value to be used in other productive activities and that is the time for women to be away from home and spent some time with friends. So, for such group there is higher need to aware them on the negative impact the firewood burning and indoor air pollution have on their health. Until they are aware it will be difficult for them to change their behavior and switch to clean cooking even if the technology is available in their household. This is just one example from one community especially in the Terai region of the country, there are other many communities in the hills where firewood collection is very difficult. However, it is also very difficult for them to access the technology. Financing might be the opportunity for them to switch. Requirement of the activity intervention will truly differ from one community to another.
 
What is key takeaway from your experiences in the rural development sector?

It is still very challenging for women in South Asian countries like Nepal to land in decision making and leadership positions. It is also equally challenging to work in that position as compared to men. I would say that strengthening networking and support systems among women is vital to help women develop and achieve their career goals, while also encouraging other women to move forward in any sector.  We must remember that the following is also true for energy access:
 
“A bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human space flight cannot develop any further without the active participation of women.” - Valentina Tereshkova