Linking women's economic empowerment to effective energy use will allow alleviation of women's time burden in food processing and transformation activities and increase profitability by providing more appropriate and adapted sources energy whilst increasing awareness on the environmental impact of their activities.

The project will contribute to the implementation of Mali's National Gender Policy, and in particular to the priority related to 'women's access to appropriate technology that is more cost/beneficial and less depend on the use of wood.

The project aims to optimize energy use and improve women's usage of energy services tailored to their needs in order to increase household incomes and improve the social welfare in two pilot communities. Following a thorough gender needs assessment in the pilot communities, action plans have been developed in each community that will focus on (i) strengthening the technical, maintenance and reparation skills of a pool of peer educators (men and women) in each village and train them to deliver public awareness raising modules. This pool will sensitize communities on the productive uses of energy sources and the risks of pollution from combustion; (ii) the reparation of existing equipment/provision of technological energy equipment and processing units tailored to the needs of women and men, (iii) the promotion of income generating activities for women through the rational use of energy sources and technologies. Women will also be supported for the development of business plans tailored to the productive use of energy, on marketing production strategies consulting and facilitating access to funding sources. A community peer educator has been appointed in each community to oversee the implementation of the action plan and engage with partners locally.

UN Women, Malian Agency for Domestic Energy and Rural Electrification (AMADER), Ministry of Water and Energy, World Bank