Kleinman Fellowship at ENERGIA

Position Details

---

This opportunity is only available to Penn graduate students. This fellowship involves international travel—please refer to PennGlobal International Travel Guidance.

---

Company Description

ENERGIA is an international network of like-minded organisations and professionals, active in Africa and Asia. The network strives to establish a future where “women and men have equal and equitable access to and control over sustainable energy services as an essential right to development” by supporting women-led micro and small energy service businesses, providing technical support to energy policies and programs, advocating for gender equality and energy investment through evidence-based research, and raising awareness of issues related to energy and gender. To achieve its vision, ENERGIA collaborates with esteemed partners in Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Senegal.

In 2025, the Kleinman ENERGIA Fellowship program aims to provide aspiring energy professionals with practical field-based experience in Kenya, facilitated by ENERGIA’s valued partner, Practical Action: a global innovator, inspiring people to discover and adopt ingenious, practical ways to free themselves from poverty and disadvantage. In partnership, they have been implementing the Women in Energy Enterprises in Kenya (WEEK) project since 2014. WEEK is now in phase 3, a 4-year project (October 2022 – 30th June 2026) funded by ENERGIA as part of the larger program dubbed: Women Driving Energy Transition and Climate Justice. The program’s main goal is to ensure that women have an equal opportunity to lead, participate in, and benefit from energy access and a just and inclusive energy transition, as an essential right to development. To achieve the program’s goal, the WEEK 3 project is undertaking interventions under four key outcome areas, namely:

• Women’s economic empowerment and Resilience,
• Enabling energy markets and policy environment,
• Gender-transformative approaches in energy policies and programs, and
• Thought leadership.

Context

Under the supervision of the WEEK 3 project Manager, the fellow will assist with day-to-day coordination; attend field visits; support monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) processes; assist with data collection and analysis; and offer additional support to the implementation of activities targeted at Productive Use of Energy (PUE) entrepreneurs. The fellow will also contribute constructive feedback and observations about their experience. Practical Action/ENERGIA will offer the fellow a stimulating and versatile opportunity in an international environment with contact to various development partners across the country and globally. The dynamic and warm team in Kenya will complement the academic life experience of the fellow by bridging the gap between textbook learning and real-time local field experience. They will become a vital member of the team and will be given tasks and opportunities that have a direct impact on the project stakeholders, empowering them to become socially responsible, innovative, and environmentally conscious leaders of tomorrow.

Background and Skills Required

• Demonstrate awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues
• Comfortable with independent international travel to developing countries.
• Strong written and oral communications skills in English.
• Self-starter and organized, ability to multitask and balance multiple responsibilities, comfortable working virtually and in a team
• A strong background in business training, economics, statistics and/or sociology, gender studies, international development would be advantageous.

Stipend

$15,000 (including travel and accommodations)

Application Instructions

Submit your application using this form. Please select “International Energy Development and Gender Equity Research Assistant” from the dropdown menu in the form.