UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:

Affiliation:	- Women

Initiative Title:	Women in Bulelavata Design and Implement their Own Micro-Hydro System

Internet links:

Scope:	National: - Solomon Islands

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: End:

Stakeholders/Partners:	Australian Green House Office, Caritas, Soloman Islands' provincial governments, Bulelavata villages, schools, and female entrepreneurs

Relevent issues:	- Capacity-building in energy policy formulation and management - Consumer education and awareness-raising - Energy and rural development - Increasing access to energy for the poor - Innovative financing solutions and technology transfer - Renewable energy including hydro power - Cleaner industrial technology development and transfer - Industrial developments impact on poverty and social development - Promoting industrial development: framework conditions

Objectives/Challenges:

• Provide sustainable energy to a small isolated island
• Provision of action-oriented training to the community, women in particular, for management and maintenance of the energy system
• Improve women’s social positioning and participation in the community

Lessons Learned:

• The project had profound social impacts, particularly with regard to improved gender relations
• Workshops were successful in exploiting “action learning” and grounding training within the context of the project
• The workshops operated within existing Melanesian social mores, hence gaining the acceptance of the whole community, and successfully challenged the boundaries of perceived gender roles to the benefit of both women and men

Summary:

The women in Bulelavata, a small, remote village in the Western Solomon Islands accessible only by sea, used to live a subsistence lifestyle typical of women in tens of thousands of other villages across the Pacific Islands. Then, in 1998, the community chose to begin the process of establishing an energy-for-development project. In 2001, the community-owned micro-hydro system, funded by the Australian International Greenhouse Partnerships, Caritas, and the Provincial Government, was officially opened by the Provincial Premier. The system produces 24kw and has 1.5 km of high voltage transmission line, enabling the community to sell power to the Provincial Secondary School.

For the women of Bulelavata, the energy project has had some significant and profound impacts, ranging from the practical, quantifiable advantages of lighting and community income to qualitative outcomes such as solidarity and empowerment. The project design of the Bulelavata community micro-hydro scheme used a women’s participatory action agenda, exploiting “action learning” (or learning-by-doing) as they were able to ground the workshops within the context of the occurring project in their lives. The workshops were comprised of policy support, female project management, female role modeling at varying levels, specific women’s awareness and training workshops, visits by women to other villages, management committee positions for women, a new village institution for women, technical team leadership by women, and logistical project support teams being given equal status to technical project teams. This affirmative agenda was designed to encourage and facilitate active and meaningful opportunities for participation by the village women. It operated within existing Melanesian cultural and village religious mores while at the same time challenging the boundaries of perceived gender roles through the medium of the new technology.

The Bulelavata village men say that the electricity project has changed their women; they are pleased that women are now more confident and outspoken and participate more in community development activities.