Energy deeply influences the life of rural communities. It is fundamental to all aspects of human welfare, including access to clean water, health care and education and increasing agricultural productivity.

Still, 2.7 billion people lack access to efficient and clean energy for cooking and heating, and 1.3 billion lack access to electricity; about 84% of this deprived population lives in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia. In many African countries, for example, women make up 70% of the agricultural workforce, are responsible for managing 90% of all household water and fuel-wood needs and undertake 60% of all harvesting and market work. Although they predominate in world food production (50 - 80 %), women own less than 10 percent of land. They are poorer than men (in terms of resources and time).

It is in that framework that the Pan African Parliament, in collaboration with Climate Parliament and UNDP, organized a one day workshop on “Mainstreaming Sustainable Energy Access in Africa”, which took place at Midrand, South Africa, on 4 August 2014. At the close of the workshop, the attending MPs adopted a set of policy recommendations for renewable energy development among Pan-African Parliament states.  These recommendations were signed by the respective committee chairs and will be put to the Pan-African Parliament’s plenary session.