Energy interventions have differentiated impacts on women and men, a fact that is rarely addressed, recorded or assessed by programs and projects. Empirical research suggests that household access to electricity can increase girls’ school enrolment in particular, but generally there is a lack of indicators to identify which type of interventions have the highest, positive impact on the lives of girls and boys, and women and men.

Moreover, the demand and use of energy services is not evenly distributed between males and females. While males typically benefit more from large-scale electricity supply either through employment in electricity intensive manufacturing or from involvement in the establishment of the infrastructure, females are relatively highly represented in remote locations, where highest energy demands are for irrigation and cooking.

Indicators can be used for different purposes- the above topics are relevant for assessment of benefits. A different set of indicators is needed for evaluation of project or policy design- such as in gender sensitivity to avoiding risks of potential negative consequences of interventions.

At a moment when the international community has agreed to work towards achieving new development pathways through the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals–with the goal of achieving universal access to modern energy sources and achieving gender equality by 2030-and the generation of co-benefits from mitigation initiatives, it becomes imperative to understand how progress in the energy sector can be measured in a manner that it captures the social, and specifically the gender, impacts of its interventions.