No Woman Should Risk Her Life to Cook: Making Gender Central to Uganda’s Energy Future
In many rural communities across Uganda, women and girls bear the sole responsibility for collecting firewood a daily task that often exposes them to danger.
In Northern Uganda, they are frequently seen carrying heavy loads of firewood and thatching grass for shelter, increasing their unpaid care work burden and contributing to significant physical, social, and economic impacts.
Uganda’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP), developed in 2023, aspires to universal access to clean cooking and electricity by 2030, but it falls short in addressing how gender inequalities shape energy access.
“With 90% of households still dependent on firewood and charcoal, and female-headed households experiencing higher levels of energy deprivation, clean energy access remains a distant promise for millions of women and girls in Uganda”
Gender Gaps in the Energy Transition Plan (ETP)
The ETP insufficiently integrates gender, overlooking the daily realities of women who manage household energy, cooking, collecting firewood and water, and caring for families.
These responsibilities are labour-intensive and expose women to indoor air pollution, physical strain, and insecurity during fuel collection. Yet the ETP lacks gender-sensitive targets, does not prioritize off-grid and clean cooking solutions, and fails to incorporate GBV prevention into energy planning.
“Women remain underrepresented in decision-making spaces and face limited access to finance, information, and technologies. Without district-level renewable energy budgets, even well-intentioned national commitments remain unimplemented on the ground”
As wealthier households adopt electricity, LPG, or biogas, poorer and female-headed households remain trapped in biomass dependence, widening inequality.
Despite being critical drivers of household energy decisions, women’s economic empowerment and time burden receive little attention in the transition plan.
GBV and Energy Poverty: A Critical Crisis
Energy poverty exposes women and girls to heightened risks of gender-based violence (GBV), yet national energy planning rarely acknowledges this reality.
Energy poverty is not only about limited access to cooking fuels but also creates daily vulnerability. Women and girls, who bear primary responsibility for collecting firewood, often spend 3–5 hours walking long distances through remote and insecure areas.
These journeys expose them to harassment, exploitation, assault, and, in severe cases, rape and defilement. As nearby fuel sources diminish due to environmental degradation, they are forced to travel even farther, increasing their exposure to danger.
A group of women learning from ECOCA stall in Kerwa market,Yumbe District on how to use clean cooking stoves
Therefore, promoting and actualising clean cooking for rural communities is itself a GBV prevention strategy. Access to electricity, solar cooking, biogas, and other modern solutions eliminates the need for long fuel-collection trips, directly reducing women’s risk of violence.
Targeted measures such as subsidised tariffs for electric cooking, access to cheap credit, support for women-led clean energy enterprises, and mandatory gender and safety assessments in all energy projects can further enhance protection and promote women’s empowerment.
Expanding off-grid renewable energy, especially in rural and underserved areas, can dramatically cut the hours spent collecting biomass, improving women’s health, productivity, and dignity.
Market exhibition visitors at a stall with the clean cooking energy stove at Kerwa Market in Yumbe District
A Call to Action
It is imperative for all stakeholders, including policymakers, CSOs, and development partners, to ensure access to modern cooking solutions while addressing the structural inequalities that disproportionately expose women to risk.
A gender-responsive energy transition must make clean energy safe, accessible, and empowering for women and girls, with GBV prevention as a central, actionable pillar of the Energy Transition Plan (ETP), not a mere mention.
“Ensuring that clean cooking is affordable, accessible, and dignified particularly for women and girls is critical for reducing GBV, promoting equity, enhancing wellbeing, and advancing sustainable development.”
Uganda’s energy future will be truly gender-responsive only when every household can cook without fear, hardship, or harm.
Ensuring that clean cooking is affordable, accessible, and dignified particularly for women and girls is critical for reducing GBV, promoting equity, enhancing wellbeing, and advancing sustainable development.