Kleinman Energia Fellowship

Details

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Description

This opportunity is only available to Penn graduate students.

The Kleinman-Energia fellowship places one graduate student each summer at Energia, International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy, hosted by Hivos, a Netherlands-based INGO. Energia works to establish a future in which “women have an equal opportunity to lead, participate in and benefit from universal energy access and a climate-just and inclusive energy transition, as an essential right to development.” The network does this 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 by raising awareness of issues related to energy and gender.

Applicants for the 2023 Kleinman-Energia Fellowship should be highly motivated individuals enrolled in a master’s, post-master’s, or doctorate program, with experience working on energy and/or economic issues, especially as they relate to social development, equity, and justice. Applicants should respect Energia’s vision and core values to live and act with Integrity; show professionalism, and respect diversity.

Applicants should select one of the following fellowship areas to apply. Only one fellow will be selected. This fellow will be chosen based on who is the strongest fit for one of the three potential fellowship areas so please apply to the role that best aligns with your interests and experience. The selection process will include two rounds of interviews, one with the Kleinman Center and one with Energia. In addition to your summer responsibilities, you will be expected to write a policy digest for the Kleinman Center outlining your research findings from the summer. Examples of policy digests can be found here.

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Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy

SUPERVISING OFFICE: Women’s Economic Empowerment Program

Since 2014, Energia’s women economic empowerment program has empowered 8000 women entrepreneurs to be change agents in the provision of clean energy products and services to last-mile communities and in the adoption of the “productive use of energy” (PUE) for existing enterprises. Energia’s approach and support to women entrepreneurs includes:

• Carefully identifying and onboard existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs, whether organized individually, in family businesses, or in collectives;
• Training and mentoring in business, entrepreneurial, managerial, agency, and technical skills;
• Enabling access to finance by enhancing the respective capacities of both financing institutions (in terms of understanding the needs of and opportunities of women-run businesses) and women entrepreneurs (by enhancing their capacity to approach and handle financial procedures);
• Providing market assessment and market access support, with enhanced marketing, branding and labeling capacity;
• Facilitating access to and linkages with stakeholders at the local level, including input buyers/sellers and technology providers, so as to reduce the costly dependency on intermediaries and facilitate access to cleaner energy products; and
• Support in bringing access to clean energy to last-mile consumers.

Equally important, women entrepreneurs have been supported to become leaders and decision-makers in their homes and businesses, with impact thus going beyond economic empowerment alone and planting seeds for farther-reaching social and leadership growth, while also contributing to different social narratives and perceptions of women, including as new role models.

Scope of Work

This fellowship assignment will assist Energia to document, consolidate, and analyze the impacts of all the tools that have been used to foster and support business development, financing, and growth of women enterprises. Specific tasks will include:

• Interviewing implementing partners as well as women entrepreneurs supported by Energia;
• Categorizing and describing tools and strategies used (i) in micro and small business development by Energia’s implementing partners, to foster and support women entrepreneurship in clean energy;
• Leading the production of an analysis report that:
  • captures the types of tools and strategies that have been used by (i) women entrepreneurs and (ii) Energia’s implementing partners,
  • measures and compares the impacts those strategies and tools have had on women-owned businesses and the local ecosystem, and
  • identifies lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations, especially in view of upscaling and replications.

This fellowship will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands, but fellows may be expected to travel to one partner country in Africa and Asia. Applicants should thus be comfortable with international travel and should have a visa status that makes this travel possible.

Qualifications

Preferred applicant background and skills include:

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

Gender and Energy Compact

Supervising Office: Policy Influencing and Advocacy

Energia, the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) are co-convening a Gender and Energy Compact to catalyze action towards gender equality and women’s empowerment to accelerate a just, inclusive and sustainable energy transition. The Compact brings together a coalition of governments, the private sector, academia, civil society, youth, and international organizations. The signatories of the Gender and Energy Compact jointly, and individually, work on individual commitments to bring this Multi-Stakeholder Compact to life and create an impact on the ground.

Scope of Work

This fellowship assignment will support the convenors of the Compact:

• To continue to grow the community of signatories of the Gender and Energy Compact;
• Provide support to signatories to develop and monitor their individual commitments;
• Creat knowledge and evidence on how to transform individual commitments into actions on the ground; and
• Monitor and evaluate the impact of the Compact and the signatories’ efforts.

Specific tasks will include:

• Reach out to individual members of the coalition in framing their individual commitment;
• Map out the individual commitment made under the Gender and Energy Compact and link them to specific goals and outcomes;
• Propose a framework and process for monitoring the commitments;
• Provide support in co-creating and organizing event of the Compact at international energy policy forums; and
• Provide support in preparing the annual review meeting of the Coalition.

This fellowship will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands, but fellows may be expected to travel to one international conference at which the gender and energy compact will convene an event. Applicants should thus be comfortable with international travel, provided COVID guidelines permit such activities.

Qualifications

Preferred applicant background and skills include:

• A strong background in social studies, economics, political science, and or international development;
• Demonstrate awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues;
• Comfortable with independent international travel to developing countries;
• Strong written and oral communications skills; and
• Functional Competencies: Self-starter and organized, ability to multitask and balance multiple responsibilities, comfortable working virtually and in a team.

Communications and Awareness Building

Supervising Office: Communications

Energia’s knowledge management strategy aims to identify critical gaps in practical knowledge and understanding of gender and clean energy, lead systematic analysis, and share with decision-makers evidence on what kinds of investments, programs, and strategies are most effective to drive gender-transformative clean energy and climate action policies and programs. This is complemented by Energia’s communication strategy which aims to disseminate knowledge and learning to policy-makers and practitioners in a more compelling way by combining data and evidence with stories, case studies, and multi-media tools.

Scope of Work

This fellowship assignment will involve developing, planning, and implementing a communication and awareness-raising campaign, based on research and storytelling. The objective, topic, angle, and target group(s) will be defined in coordination and with the guidance of the Communication Coordinator. Activities will include research, collecting anecdotes, personal stories, and community feedback about projects or businesses that Energia has helped support as well as asset development. These insights would then be woven into inspirational or cautionary stories about the successes and challenges that women entrepreneurs and other international partners have faced. These stories, which form the basis for the campaign and are intended to highlight the achievements of Energia, should draw on the experiences of individuals but also contextualize them using the best available research, science, and international consensus on issues related to energy, climate change, gender, or development.  

Specific tasks will include:

• Developing communication and awareness-raising campaign strategy and implementation plan;
• Developing storylines, conducting interviews with international partners, entrepreneurs, and other community members;
• Visual material gathering;
• Skillfully construct narratives to tell valuable and insightful stories about Energia;
• Asset development; and
• Implementation of the campaign.

This fellowship will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands, but fellows may be expected to travel to one partner country in Africa and Asia. Applicants should thus be comfortable with international travel, provided COVID guidelines permit such activities.

Qualifications

Preferred applicant background and skills include:

• A strong background in communications and/or journalism, preferably in combination with energy science and/or international development;
• Demonstrate awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues;
• Comfortable with independent international travel to developing countries;
• Strong written and oral communications skills;
• Familiarity with/knowledge of working with designer programs and/or video-editing programs is an asset;
• Social media savvy; and
• Functional Competencies: Self-starter and organized, ability to multitask and balance multiple responsibilities, comfortable working virtually and in a team.

Stipend

• Fellows will receive $15,000 from the Kleinman Center. The selected student will be responsible for their own travel and housing.
• Start and end dates for this fellowship are not fixed, but fellows must work full-time with Energia for 12 weeks and are expected to complete their assignments within 4 months of the start date. Final start and end dates will be decided between the fellow and Energia.

Application Instructions

This application deadline has been extended.

Applications for this fellowship must be submitted to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy by February 13, 2023. Applications should be submitted using this form. Questions about the fellowship or application process should be directed to Oscar Serpell (serpello@upenn.edu), Associate Director of Academic Programming and Student Engagement at the Kleinman Center.

• Unofficial Transcript
• Resume
• Writing sample (Applicant should be the first author and the topic does not need to be related to energy, although that is always appreciated)
• A 1-page cover letter (please include which position you are applying to)

This opportunity is available only to currently enrolled Penn graduate students.

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Start and end dates for this fellowship are not fixed, but fellows must work full-time with Energia for 10-12 weeks and are expected to complete their assignments within 4 months of the start date. The final start and end dates will be decided between the fellow and Energia.

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