Access to affordable low-cost solar water heating solutions as a basis for the first gender-sensitive Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) in Georgia

This publication is based on the assessments and evaluation of the lessons learned by WECF and its project partners, as well as the users and technicians involved in the solar water heater activities in Georgia. The publication gives a detailed analysis of the lessons learned from the development of the appropriate low- cost solar heating technology, its implementation, the monitoring of the effectiveness and the added social and gender equality impacts. These findings and lessons learned have been used to formulate recommendations for how to scale up the results from 400 to 10,000 installed units, ensuring the same social and gender equality benefits.

In Georgia’s rural areas, women and children make up the majority of the economically poor and are most severely affected by “energy poverty”. Factors contributing to energy poverty are a poorly maintained infrastructure, rising fuel costs, extreme weather con- ditions, and the increasing unpredictability of the climate. The lack of access to safe and affordable energy has meant that poor families have increasingly started to use unsafe fuel, such as plastic waste, biomass and wood. This has led to respiratory diseases created by exposure to dangerous substances and indoor air pollution. As women and children spend more of their time indoors, they are most affected by indoor air pollution. Alternative safe energy systems were developed by civil society organisations including WECF International including energy efficient stoves and solar water heaters.