Gender and ethnic disparities in energy poverty: The case of South Africa

Saul Ngarava, Leocadia Zhou, Thulani Ningi, Martin M. Chari and Lwandiso Mdiya

Energy Policy, 2022, vol. 161, issue C

Abstract: The study ascertained the differentiated energy poverty of female-headed households based on their race/ethnicity in South Africa. The study made use of the 2016 General Household Survey (GHS). A sample of 7322 male-headed households and 6170 female-headed households was utilised. An Energy Vulnerability Index (EVI), Independent t-test and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) were used to analyse the data. The results show that male-headed households had more exposure, adaptive capacity and sensitivity to energy poverty compared to female-headed households. Overall, female-headed households were more vulnerable to energy poverty. Compared to White, Indian/Asian and Coloured female-headed households, Black/African female-headed households exhibited more vulnerability to energy poverty. The study concludes that gender of the household head and race/ethnicity of the female-headed households had impact on the energy poverty in South Africa. The study recommends the need to identify relevant gender and race/ethnic issues concerning energy. Furthermore, there is need to counter gendered-ethnic disparities in renewable energy programmes for poorer households, to avail alternative energy sources. Energy policy such as the Free Basic Electricity, besides being pro-poor, should also consider gender and the ethnic divide. Economic opportunities for low income female-headed households should also be promoted to reduce vulnerability to energy poverty.

Keywords: Energy security; Energy poverty; Energy vulnerability index; Ethnicity; Gender; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421521006212
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:161:y:2022:i:c:s0301421521006212

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112755

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().