44067-012: Awareness-Raising and Training (Especially of Women) In

Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report

Project Number: RETA 7563 November 2014

TAJ: Needs Assessment Report

on the General level of awareness and knowledge of energy issues, green energy and efficiency measures among target groups

An output from the Pilot Project: TAJ: Awareness-Raising and Training (especially of women) in support of the Access to Green Finance Project

Prepared by:

Habitat for Humanity - Tajikistan

For

ADB RETA 7563: Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in CWRD DMCs (44067-012)

This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BACKGROUND

3. METHODOLOGY

4. SURVEY FINDINGS

4.1 Demographic, Socio-economic and housing profile of the Study Households

4.2 Energy poverty affecting overcrowding living condition

4.3 Energy efficiency in home design and construction

4.4 Knowledge on energy efficient electric appliances

4.5 Average monthly expenses on electricity in winter and summer season

4.6 Means of household lighting

4.7 Cooking solutions

4.8 Wintertime heating

4.9 Water heating

4.10 Knowledge on energy efficiency

4.11 Barriers to deploy energy efficiency and SGE (sustainable green energy) solutions.

4.12 Access to credit

a) The microfinance landscape and women access to financial services b) Barriers to access formal financial services

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Table of contents: Tables and Figures

Tables Table 1: Area Covered by the Household Survey Table 2: Gender segregated data on access to credit Figures Figure 1: Number of rooms available in the households Figure 2: Number of rooms heated in winter Figure 3: Type of materials used for house walls Figure 4: Types of windows installed Figure 5: Respondent’s knowledge re energy efficiency in house design, construction and retrofitting Figure 6: Materials used for insulation of wooden windows Figure 7: Respondent’s knowledge on energy efficient electric appliances Figure 8-9: Monthly expenses on electricity in winter and summer time Figure 10: Means of household lighting Figure 11: Cooking solutions Figure 12: Means of wintertime heating Figure 13: Means of water heating Figure 14: Number of respondents ever heard about energy efficiency Figure 15: Perception of energy efficiency Figure 16: Barriers to deploy energy efficiency Figure 17: Access to credit

Annexes:

Annex A: Survey questionnaire Annex B: Data base (Excel sheet) (available upon request, contact [email protected])

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report reveals the interconnection of energy and housing poverty resulting substandard living conditions. The combination of harsh winters, widespread power outages and inability to afford sufficient amount of biomass resources (coal, wood, etc), makes majority of households to have only one room heated for entire family. The survey shows that only 31% of available living space is heated forcing 4-5 people sharing one room for living. Women and children are among most vulnerable as traditionally they spend most of their time at home caring the burden of everyday household duties (collecting fire wood, heating, cooking, collecting water, etc.) on their shoulder.

Households have only some knowledge in regard to energy efficient construction and home improvement and how energy efficiency in the house can be achieved through house design, construction and retrofitting. In addition the same limitation of awareness is noted in everyday utilization of energy consuming appliances.

It has been also identified that the combination of knowledge and availability of products and services does not necessarily mean their application. Almost 75% of respondents considered unaffordability and lack of knowledge as main barrier for them to purchase and benefit from improved energy saving products and solutions.

Positive tendency revealed is a growing women’ awareness of energy efficiency and energy saving, especially in housing design and construction which is traditionally is considered to be men’s area. It is reasoned by absence of men for the most period of the year due to labor migration and inevitable involvement of women in home improvement activities.

In order to fill that significant knowledge gap and promote energy efficiency, particularly for rural households and women, innovative, gender sensitive, locally applicable promotion and delivery mechanisms should be developed and used. Gender and other experts like energy and training experts should work closely to develop promotion materials, training manuals and programs ensuring relevance of each data and information to local context and real situation. Findings from this survey should be feed backed to households and communities surveyed and green energy and energy efficiency solutions should be presented to increase insufficient awareness of green energy solutions and demand among population.

To succeed in increasing the level of interest of households in energy efficiency solutions and products it is highly recommended to focus both in product types and affordability, as well as promotion strategy and mechanisms which should be innovate, gender sensitive and locally applicable. The financial products and solutions offered should be affordable and different from what is available in the market. Technical assistance and consultations, client support should be integrated part of the service pack.

1. INTRODUCTION

This Needs Assessment Study was funded by the Asian Development Bank under Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) 7563 – Promoting Gender Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia DMCs. This report is one of the outputs of the pilot project “TAJ: Awareness-Raising and Training (especially of women) in support of the Access to Green Finance Project, which was implemented by consultant firm Habitat for Humanity – Tajikistan.

The Access to Green Finance (AGF) is a five year project financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB). Its aim is to leverage Tajikistan's sound microfinance system to provide credit for households and microenterprises for energy efficient and environment-friendly homes. The project is expected to build the capacity of selected microfinance institutions (MFIs) and its project management unit (PMU) in facilitating efficient green finance intermediation and promoting energy efficiency, while ensuring participation and benefits to rural households and women.

The main purpose of need assessment was to determine the general level of awareness and knowledge of energy issues, green energy and efficiency measures within target communities, women groups and women CBOs, and partners MFI clients. The results from this study will serve as basis for AGF program planning as well as a baseline for future project evaluation and impact studies.

2. BACKGROUND

Background to country energy poverty and opportunities

After the end of the Soviet Union, electricity subsidies were terminated and the following energy demand gap was predominantly filled by local biomass resources, such as coal and wood, resulting in increased deforestation and pollution. Over 73% of the population lives in rural areas and spends much of the winter with limited electricity (the average electricity available amounts to less than 4 hours daily), with lighting and heating in short supply. More than half of the country's housing units were built in soviet era back in 1950-1970s. Rural homes are most vulnerable and their residents include a large number of more than 40 % of families who live below the poverty line. Thus, in order to reduce household spending in fossil and solid fuel there is a vital need for home improvement to increase its energy efficiency. There is heavy dependence of rural households on fossil and solid fuels such as firewood, coal, manure/dung, kerosene and gasoline. Women in rural households spend a significant amount of time gathering firewood. In addition, use of these fuels exposes inhabitants to health hazards caused by indoor air pollution.

Tajikistan has enormous hydro power potential as it possesses 4% of the world's hydro power resources and 53% of Central Asia's resources and. Most of the projects now planned are of a large-scale which by default will not provide immediate or medium-term solutions. Large-scale projects do have perspective, and could in the long-term provide basis for significant progress,

but alone they are not sufficient without solutions for immediate relief.

Besides hydro potential, Tajikistan has also abundant solar availability, yet practically none is utilized. There is a good correlation between the most vulnerable areas and the good resource availability. The mountainous areas possess the largest potential of solar energy. There are 280- 330 sunny days and the insulation varies from 3.5 to 4.5 kWh/m2/day in the worst month and up to 5.3 kWh/m2/day on the year average. The experience gained so far has shown that usage of off-grid small photovoltaic can be more cost-effective than traditional usage of kerosene for lightning and some other minor electrical consumption. It provides the households with light after the night fall which is essential for families with children. However these solar applications have limited usage due to small batteries and small capacity and larger installations are too expensive for individuals to afford. Nevertheless, there is increasing interest, especially among the rural population to install solar power in order to decrease energy dependence. A household survey commissioned by (ADB) also indicated potential demand for solar smart green energy solution (SGES), with 48% of households expressing interest in acquiring a solar SGES.

3. METHODOLOGY

Broadly speaking, data and information collection methods that will be employed in this study can be grouped in to two broad 2 categories; these are secondary and primary data.

The primary data was gathered through qualitative and quantitative methods that included household baseline survey and interviews and discussions with key stakeholders (women CBO members, partners MFI staff, and relevant others). The household baseline survey was conducted in a sample of 1043 respondents (993 rural and 50 urban households) in eight districts, namely Istaravshan, J.Rasulov, Spitamen, Asht and B.Gafurov of Sugd region in the north and Kurgantube, Kumsangir and Panj districts of Khatlon region in the south-west of the country, as well as in capital city of Dushanbe.

The secondary data were mainly gathered by reviewing relevant literature such as government reports, local and international NGO reports, HFHT and its’ partners study documents on respective subject.

Team Composition and training of surveyors

Questionnaire for the needs assessment and baseline survey was developed by the team of experts, including Gender Specialist, Green Energy Specialist and other technical experts. In order to carry our baseline survey 18 surveyors were recruited from respected project target area. A training and orientation for all surveyors was held prior to start of baseline survey. The training covered best practices, proper behavior, and the questionnaire instrument. Training included a field test of questionnaires and a final revision of the instrument based on the surveyors’ field experience.

Sample Methodology

For baseline survey two-three communities were selected per eight project target districts (Istaravshan, J. Rasulov, Spitamen, Asht, B.Gafurov, Kurgantube, Kumsangir and Panj). Main criteria for area selection were relevant accessibility of transport to/from area and availability of financial institutions (MFIs and banks’ service points) in the area. In addition to original plan it was decided to include small sample of respondents from urban area, Dushanbe city. The purpose of this inclusion was to capture and analyze the difference between rural and urban area respondents’ level of awareness and factors influencing that difference if there would be any.

The target group for baseline survey included general households in project target communities and partner MFI clients.

Data Collection Methods and Tools Used

Survey data was gathered using a 1 page household questionnaire (Annex A) that was developed by project team of experts. The questionnaire contains 20 questions designed to gather information about household energy needs and consumptions, energy sources, energy efficiency/saving measures, barriers/challenges to deploy energy efficiency solutions, etc.

4. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

2.1 Demographic, Socio-economic and housing profile of the Study Households

The survey collected information on 1043 households mainly from 2 biggest regions of Tajikistan, Khatlon and Sugd. There are slightly more female respondents (53 %) than males (47%) interviewed during the survey. Table below indicates sample coverage by location and gender:

Table 1: Survey locations and number of respondents

# region district sample # women men 1 Sugd Asht 145 65 80 2 Sugd Istaravshan 147 77 70 3 Sugd Spitamen 100 75 25 4 Sugd J.Rasulov 193 121 72 5 Sugd B.Gafurov 55 21 34 6 Khatlon Panj 51 26 25 7 Khatlon Kumsangir 157 71 86 8 Khatlon Kurgantube 145 78 67 9 Capital Dushanbe 50 15 35 1043 549 494

Tajikistan’s Khatlon province, located in the country’s southwest, is an impoverished region that continues to suffer from the impact of Tajikistan’s bitter civil war. A legacy of physical displacement and inter-community tension, combined with an economy that remains reliant on drought-prone agriculture, has conspired to make conditions in Khatlon incompatible with the creation of sustainable livelihoods. The Government of Tajikistan’s own statistical records indicate that 78% of Khatlon’s population subsists below US$1 per day. The World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS), meanwhile, describes households in Khatlon has having among the lowest wages, lowest levels of aggregate educational attainment, and the highest levels of infant and maternal mortality, in Tajikistan. Considering these factors, it is hardly surprising that material living conditions in Khatlon – and particularly those related to the quality of local housing – are often extremely low. In rural communities, local materials such as stone and clay are frequently used in construction. These materials have poor features for withstanding tremors or floods unless stabilized/fortified with seismically resistant reinforcement, which is rarely done due to the absence of building control and/or qualified supervision. Poor knowledge of proper construction techniques and lack of financial resources further compound the levels of risk: the combination of poverty and a poor culture of disaster risk reduction (DRR) make the population more vulnerable to common hazards. Two project target districts, Kumsangir and Panj were severely damaged on July 29th 2006 by an earthquake measuring between 5 – 5.5 on the Richter scale. According to official statistics from Committee of Emergency Situation at least 1,484 homes were damaged and over 15,000 people made homeless. Although years passed most of the homes rebuilt after the earthquake are still only half completed and many lack doors, windows and basic insulation. To survive cold season in most of the cases 2-3 families end up living together in overcrowded housing condition with negative effect in health, education opportunities of children, privacy and dignity.

The situation was extremely difficult during the winter of 2007-2008 when Tajikistan suffered from its worst winter in three decades, with temperatures dipping in minus twenty five (Celsius degrees), heavy snowfall and disruptions in electricity, gas and water supplies. This resulted in a humanitarian crisis, affecting over two million people in the country (UNICEF Humanitarian action report 2008). The impact of this on the families living in earthquake damaged homes was particularly acute; the earthquake had left them with inadequate protection from the cold. To survive many families had to spend a greater proportion of their meager incomes on heat and also to burn some home building materials when they ran out of money.

Women and children are among most vulnerable as traditionally they most of the time at home and all the burden of everyday household duties (collecting fire wood, heating, cooking, collecting water, etc.) on their shoulder. When women experience energy poverty and their energy needs are not met, the consequences are severe. As a result of time-consuming and physically draining collection of biomass fuels, women and girls’ health conditions are poor, their options to earn additional income are minimal, the opportunities to improve their labor productivity are low, the options for social and political interaction outside the household are restrained, the chances of benefitting from training and extension are limited, and schooling carries high opportunity costs often making it inaccessible (especially for girls). Moreover these conditions create further barriers to women’s ability to voice their concerns and claim rights, reinforcing women’s exclusion and exacerbating the problems.

2.2 Energy poverty affecting overcrowding living condition

Tajikistan has a housing stock of 1.23 million units (2011, HFH Housing Review 2013). This is only 163 dwellings per 1,000 inhabitants, which is the lowest level of all countries in the ECA region and 58% below CIS average. Quantitative housing provision in Tajikistan worsened over the years, due to very dynamic demographic development of the country and at the same time insignificant new construction. The average useable floor space per capita is only 8.7m², compared to 21m² in the average of the CIS countries and 38m² in EU 27 average (HFH Housing Review 2013).

The situation gets even worse during the winter season, especially in the rural area where more than 70% of population lives. Due to severe electricity supply limitation (the average electricity available amounts to less than 4 hours daily) and unaffordability to purchase sufficient amount of biomass resources such as coal and wood, in majority of households only one or two rooms are heated during the cold season (usually 5 months, Oct - Feb).

The survey covered 1043 households which according to the Figure1 below consist of 5263 rooms. Of 5263 rooms only 1633 are heated during the winter season which is 31% of available living space. Basic calculation of 1043 families with an average family size of 7-8 persons give average estimation of 5 person living in one room (of an average room size of 12m2) during the cold season.

Number of rooms heated during 1200 800 1056 674 winter 700 1000 882 600 785 800 500 600 398 400 600 512 333 469 300 400 320 168 236 220 200 162 200 100 60 21 0 0

Figure 1: Number of rooms available in the households Figure 2: Number of rooms heated in winter

2.3 Energy efficiency in home design and construction

As it was noted in the document most of the housing stock was built during the soviet era which causes two main problems for its inhabitants: 1) houses are old, unsafe and require major improvement 2) houses were built without following any energy efficiency measures due to availability of subsidized/cheap electricity and biomass such as coal for heating, and lack of knowledge of energy efficient construction, materials and technologies.

As Figure 3 suggests majority of houses (56%) in rural area are built using mud as main walling material as those 36% indicated using bricks are also predominantly mud bricks. In general, well prepared mud in proper proportion has good insulation capacity and logically houses built, although might be seismically vulnerable, but should have proper insulation.

However, in most of rural houses walls don’t have external plastering and foundation is either absent or improper which make the wall open to external and underground moisture. Another considerable heat loss area is window and door frames. According to data in Figure 4 the sample of 84% of houses have single glazed wooden window frames while only 15% are equipped with energy efficient plastic and double glazed wooden windows.

74 10 85 12 1% mud wall 7% 1% wooden single 8% glazed 375 concrete wooden double 36% glazed 582 brick plastic 56% 872 Airated block, 84% aluminium 76 stone 7%

Figure 3: Type of materials used for house walls Figure 4: Type of windows installed

The Figure 5 below contains gender disaggregated data that reveals the level of awareness of both man and women respondents in regards to energy efficient construction and home improvement. Around half of the respondents (507 - 49%) have no knowledge how energy efficiency in the house can be achieved through house design, construction and retrofitting. Plastic windows seem to be most well-known energy saving material among both women and men.

300 281 42 120 4% 250 226 12% 200 161 14 cotton 150 1% 100 plastic film 61 51 men 32 30 44 50 2825 17 34 19 scotch tape 20 24 3 women 867 0 83% other

Figure6: Materials used for insulation of wooden windows Figure 5: Respondent’s knowledge re energy efficiency in house design, construction and retrofitting

However, it is remarkable to note that while 222 households (Figure 5) claimed to know about advantages of plastic windows only 15% (Figure 4) have installed them in their houses. In addition Figure 6 proves the fact that households do acknowledge the heat loss from improper windows as more than 80% do take measures to insulate them during winter season using plastic film and other available materials.

Surprisingly in the culture where construction related issues is deemed to be purely men’s job and interest the survey results reveal women possessing knowledge and are aware about energy efficiency in home design and construction almost at the rate as men do. This tendency can be reasoned by labor migration of men and inevitable involvement of women in building management processes.

To summarize this section we can conclude that the awareness of population re energy efficiency in house design, construction and retrofitting is limited, and even where that knowledge exist and products and services available in the local market, population cannot afford to purchase and benefit from improved energy saving products and solutions.

2.4 Knowledge on energy efficient electric appliances

While almost half (424) of the respondents 250 233 (45% female and 55% male) had difficulty to 193 say what energy efficient appliances meant, a 200 191 distinctive number of both women and men 160 150 related this to energy saving lamps (353 107 97 respondents, or 33 per cent), 116 respondents 100 70 57 Men (or almost 10 per cent of respondents) 40 50 19 Women indicated they had some information or ever 13 6 4 4 heard something about energy efficient 0 electric appliances, but could not go further beyond that to provide any examples of their say. A significant portion of 113 respondents have even related efficiency to the use of the regular glow lamps, which may be a display Figure 7: Respondent’s knowledge on energy efficient of low-level of information among rural electric appliances residents about the use of energy efficient appliances. Not surprisingly women are aware more than men on energy saving features of household electric appliances (57 female response against 13 male) as they use them for everyday households needs. A portion of 4% respondents have referred to the use of appliances with solar power feed, thus indicating that majority of population in rural areas still do not know much about energy efficiency and its utilization at household level.

2.5 Average monthly expenses on electricity in winter and summer season

Even at a general visual observation and comparison of the two charts it becomes obvious there is a very slight difference in average monthly expenditure on the use of electric energy during winter time and summer time. While 50.62% of respondents said they paid up to 30 TJS for

electricity usage in summer time, the same amount is paid by 46.88% of respondents in winter time. This shows that only 3.74 % of respondents have more than 30 TJS average monthly expense in winter time. The number of respondents who said they paid more than 150 TJS on monthly average, increased by only 29 persons (or 2.78%) in winter time.

Figure 8-9: Monthly expenses on electricity in winter and summer time

Winter time Summer time

This comparative data reveals that there is no drastic difference in people’s monthly average expenses on electricity, which may only be attributed to the electric power supply limitation/shortage during winter period.

2.6 Means of household lighting

Of all 1043 respondents, 764 (or ~73%) stated that they used energy-saving luminous lamps, while still almost 14 per cents of interviewees indicated the use of regular filament (incandescent) lamps (despite the alleged efforts of authorities in promoting the use of energy saving lamps). An explicit number of 65 and 61 respondents have indicated that they resort to the use of candles and kerosene lamps respectively (mostly Figure 10: Means of household lighting in winter time when power cut-offs take place in the evening and morning time). Only 10 persons said they were using LED lamps for household lighting purposes, which is most probably because LED products are comparatively higher in prices and less affordable for majority of customers.

2.7 Cooking solutions

Use of energy for cooking purposes is one of the key items in household expenditures for energy supplies and an important factor for promotion of energy efficiency and therefore could not have been neglected in the framework of our assessment. The solid majority (almost 60 %) of respondents have indicated the use of regular furnace (open fire of wood, dung or coal) for household cooking purposes. 235 persons or Figure 11: Cooking solutions

approximately 23% of all respondents said they used electric power (electric appliances) for cooking and 195 interviewees said they used liquid propane gas (LPG stoves) for daily cooking purposes. This section of our analyses displays an absolute absence of energy efficiency approaches in the household cooking routines.

2.8 Wintertime heating

Wintertime heating is a cumbersome item in a household budget expense of an average rural family, however answers of the survey have witnessed of no any efficient use of energy by population. Traditionally, people in rural areas of Tajikistan use open fire furnaces or stoves for heating purposes, and thus and absolute majority of respondents have displayed opinions in witness

Figure 12: Means of wintertime heating thereof – almost 83 per cent of respondents said they used regular stoves for heating during winter time. The remaining insignificant percentage of interviewees have told about use of electric appliances (153 answers), electric battery heaters (12 persons), and 16 persons stated the use of gas stoves and “sandal” (traditional heating using ember placed in the cavity at the center of room, and covered by special table with large blanket on top).

2.9 Water heating Survey results show that more than half of respondents (568 persons) use firewood or coal (open fire) for domestic water heating purposes, 203 and 202 respondents use homemade water- heaters and branded water-heaters respectively. Surprisingly, answers from 13 respondents indicated that people also use solar energy for water heating, for which purpose they use domestic solar plant equipment (now becoming more popular in Tajikistan). Though this was the least rated answer in this section, it may be an indicator of developing tendency in people’s choice toward use of solar energy whereas more and more Figure 13: Means of water heating related technologies becoming available at the local markets.

2.10 Knowledge on energy efficiency

Despite relevantly new subject matter, energy efficiency is known to slightly more than half of interviewed persons – 531 respondents (61% male, 39% female) said they knew or at least heard about energy efficiency and 464 persons (59% female, 41 female) answered negatively to this question, thus, the proportion of people with and without knowledge about energy

efficiency constituted the ratio of 51/49 %.

350 329 300 249 300 275 250 173 250 200 166 202 189 150 200 94 103 Men 100 78 47 48 150 30 22 32 men Women 50 11 13 4 4 3 100 0 women 34 50 20 0 Yes No not sure

Figure 14: Number of respondents ever Figure 15: perception of energy efficiency heard about energy efficiency

Of those respondents who said they knew what energy efficiency was, 172 (55% male, 45 female) said it was about saving electric power supply, 30 related it with the use of solar power and light, 51 linked it with the use of plastic doors and windows in home construction, while the majority (620 respondents: 32% female and 68% male) could not have clearly stated what they perceived under this expression.

2.11 Barriers to deploy energy efficiency and SGE (sustainable green energy) solutions.

Responding to the survey question “what 300 262 231 prevents you from using energy efficient 250 200 products?” almost half (48%, or 493 155 respondents – 47% female, 53% male) of 150 111 90 94 the respondents reasoned by financial 100 Men 4135 constraints and high costs of products. A 50 20 19 Women considerable portion of 26% (273 0 respondents) didn’t express much interest in SGES due to lack of knowledge about its advantages and/or no necessity for further improvement.

Figure 16: Barriers to deploy energy efficiency

2.12 Access to credit

As one of the key objective of the wider project is to increase awareness and interest of target population in green energy solutions and promote access to affordable financing through provision of green loans, it was decided to learn in the course of study factors affecting access to credit and other financial services by target population. Information used in this section

compiled both from baseline survey results, literature review (The Role of Microfinance in Women's Economic Empowerment in Tajikistan, 2011) and interview/resources from partner MFIs.

As it was noted earlier in the report one of the Figure 17: Access to credit selection criteria for study target communities was the availability of financial institution office or 354 service point in the area. This at least excludes the 34% factor of physical access to financial institution in took loan the respective area. didn't take loan 689 66% Of all 1043 respondents participated in the survey, 360 (44% female, 56% male - or ~35%) stated that they at least once took loan from formal financial institution, either MFI or banks. As Table 2 shows sample of men taking loan is relatively higher with 40% against 29% of women. Majority of loans taken are small consumer or business loans.

Table 2: Gender segregated data on access to credit

women men sample took took # region district # women men loan loan 1 Sugd Asht 145 65 80 17 35 2 Sugd Istaravshan 147 77 70 29 29

3 Sugd Spitamen 100 75 25 17 6

35 36 4 Sugd J.Rasulov 193 121 72 5 Sugd B.Gafurov 55 21 34 14 18 6 Khatlon Panj 51 26 25 9 6 7 Khatlon Kumsangir 157 71 86 16 38 8 Khatlon Kurgantube 145 78 67 11 14 9 Capital Dushanbe 50 15 35 11 19 1043 549 494 159 201

The microfinance landscape and women access to financial services

According to NBT (National Bank of Tajikistan) as of January 2014, there were 17 commercial banks 118 microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in Tajikistan.

Microfinance has played a vital role in shaping Tajikistan’s economic landscape by providing access to finance and increased job opportunities through loan and savings programs. The range and scope of Tajikistan’s MFIs as well as their penetration into various locations throughout the country suggests that MFIs are well-positioned to be a leader in promoting women’s economic empowerment and may have the greatest ability to impact women on an individual or household level.

Microfinance institutions in Tajikistan are committed to increasing women’s economic empowerment and most of them included their commitment in their vision and/or mission. It is clear that targeting women has the potential to improve MFI social indicators as well as profitability, as women represent both a vulnerable population and an untapped market opportunity. However, not all organizations have always been able to carry out this goal on the ground. Despite development achieved there are still barriers for women especially in rural area to keeping women from attaining economic empowerment through engaging in formal financial activity.

If to categorize we can divide the primary barriers keeping women from attaining economic empowerment into cultural and educational.

Cultural barriers:

- Cultural barriers include values, traditions, and/or societal norms that may impact the desire or ability of Tajik women to gain economic empowerment. - Due to historical and religious constraints, women are discouraged from taking initiative in fields that are traditionally considered “male,” such as household finance and business. - One of the biggest barriers is that women themselves have internalized what is considered to be their proper role in society. In other words, women’s concepts of themselves and proper roles are some of the biggest predictors of whether or not they will strive for economic empowerment. This manifests itself in four primary ways: a general lack of desire, lack of confidence, fear of consequences, and fear of interaction with formal entities.

Educational barriers:

- Women in Tajikistan are generally less educated than their male counterparts, a trend that is more pronounced among poor rural families. According to the International Labour Organisation the level of primary school gender gap is small, at the later stages of education especially in the senior grades of secondary schools and tertiary education it is significant. This can be explained by the fact that compulsory education is free from grades 1-9, after which families must shoulder the burden of paying for education and many families “cannot afford to educate all of their children and many send only their sons to school. Overall, a lack of basic education in some areas leaves women less equipped and less confident than men to process complex information and make decisions accordingly. This trend is much more evident in rural areas, where women often discontinue their education early due to marriage and cultural expectations

- Many Tajik women struggle to understand basic household finances, such as budgeting and savings. There is little communication between husbands and wives about income, consumption, and savings; as a result many women do not know how much income their husbands bring home.

- While an understanding of formal financial mechanisms is quite low among the Tajik population in general, it is particularly low among women. Majority of women in rural

area can hardly name financial institutions in the area and have never been inside a bank, indicating a lack of familiarity with banking norms.

- IMON lending data shows that most active female clients are women between 31 and 50years old; with 80% of female clients having a high school diploma and some form of higher education.

Other major barriers:

- Documentation one of the biggest barriers women face is difficulty acquiring the documentation necessary for the processing of loans, permits, and deposits. Government documents are often expensive, and most documents, such as passports verifying identity and notarized documents authenticating ownership of possessions for collateral, are difficult to acquire. Citizenry registry services have not issued proper identification documents to the entire population of Tajikistan since its independence. For this reason, many women do not have the most basic of documents that accurately state their age and birthplace required to obtain other documents that are necessary for taking out loans.

- Collateral: the majority of women in Tajikistan have difficulties acquiring the collateral required by most banks. Land is the most commonly accepted form of collateral; however most Tajik women are unlikely to own land or the fixed capital required by formal financial lending institutions. Traditionally, men are the holders of houses and household plots, which are listed in their names only. Women may have access to smaller forms of collateral, such as jewelry or a dowry of clothing, bedding, carpets, and appliances. Many organizations have become increasingly aware of this barrier for women, and have begun to allow women to use smaller items as collateral or to obtain collateral through alternative mechanisms such as group lending models.

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Households surveyed suffer from acute case of energy poverty caused by both lack of access to energy and the ability to afford it. As the winters are harsh and cold, people search for alternatives to conventional sources of energy resulting in land degradation, deforestation, air pollution and bad health condition. Most of the housing stock was built during the soviet era which causes two main problems for its inhabitants: 1) houses are old, unsafe and require major improvement 2) houses were built without following any energy efficiency measures due to availability of subsidized/cheap electricity and biomass such as coal for heating, and lack of knowledge of energy efficient construction, materials and technologies.

Report indicates direct interrelation of energy poverty and housing poverty causing substandard living conditions. During the winter season due to severe electricity supply limitation and inability to afford sufficient amount of biomass resources such as coal and wood, in majority of households only one or two rooms are heated. The survey reviled that of 5263 rooms only 1633 are heated during the winter season (31% of available living space) forcing 4-5 people sharing

one room for living. Women and children are among most vulnerable as traditionally they spend most of their time at home caring the burden of everyday household duties (collecting fire wood, heating, cooking, collecting water, etc.) on their shoulder.

The level of awareness of target population in regard to energy efficient construction and home improvement is considerably low. More than half of the respondents have no knowledge how energy efficiency in the house can be achieved through house design, construction and retrofitting. The only energy efficient/saving material relatively better known by population is plastic windows and doors. In general the awareness of population in relation to energy efficiency both in house design, construction/retrofitting and in everyday utilization of energy consuming appliances is limited, and even where that knowledge exist and products and services available in the local market, population cannot afford to purchase and benefit from improved energy saving products and solutions.

However, as positive note, the survey results show the growing tendency of women’ awareness of energy efficiency in housing which is the area that traditionally is considered solely men’s. The primary reason suggested for this change is the absence of men for the most of time due to the labor migration. Indeed, today women are involved in all aspects of household management, including their involvement in home improvement activities. Usually husband and other able bodied male family members send remittances and manage remotely any major activities back at home and inevitably their wives play a significant role in implementation of planned activities. As the monitoring results of HFHT and MFI s housing finance projects show women highly value the construction technical assistance provided by engineers along with housing loan. It is clear that, women can play a significant role in the design and implementation of household level energy saving and energy efficient interventions including home improvement and thus their capacity should be further improved and they should be involved in as decision makers and implementers.

ANNEX A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE