GENS

GENS Team Publishes a Paper Setting the Scene!

by jmusango | Aug 17, 2020 | News

Two questions the GENS Team frequently get asked when we mention the name of the Africa-UK Trilateral Research Chair, Mainstreaming Gender for Energy Security In Poor Urban Environments are:

(i) What do you mean by “mainstreaming gender”?

(ii) What do you mean by “energy security” OR “energy insecurity”?

As such, the GENS Team has published its first co-authored paper, which highlights what we mean by three keywords in the Trilateral Chair, namely: mainstreaming gender, energy security, and poor urban environments.

The paper was published in the Energy Research & Social Science, and international Journal with an impact factor of 4.771.

The GENS Team aim to communicate and clarify these keywords to the diverse stakeholders who we are engaging in the research process.

Data Collection in Trying Times: The Mathare Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya

by jmusango | Aug 17, 2020 | News

Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown that has slowed down activities around the world, Researchers under the Africa-UK Trilateral Research Chair on Mainstreaming Gender for Energy Security in Poor Urban Environments (GENS) are finding novel and exciting ways of carrying out ethnographic research. During our monthly GENS working session, the GENS Nairobi team carrying out pilot research in the Mathare informal settlement, Kenya, Peris Njoroge and Douglas Logedi, led by Dr Amollo Ambole, shared their experience.

This is their story.

“In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we set to adjust the nature of our ethnographic research in households in Mathare. The Nairobi team carried out the pilot study on 28 to 31 July 2020 in Mathare, aimed at testing the survey to get a response and insights from the participants. We had 34 respondents, wherein the study comprised of face-to-face interviews, do-it-yourself (DIY) survey, phone calls and ethnographic study. The events, feedbacks and collections of the pilot activity of this research was in real situations, locations and a prototype of the next round of data collection in the community. It is our aim that even as the world adjusts to new ways of doing and living, the Mainstreaming Gender for Energy Security in Poor Urban Environments (GENS) contribution to the society is emphatic as we continue to investigate realistic ways of achieving our objectives to our stakeholders and the community at large”.