To join via Zoom, register here: bit.ly/IWDwebinar2025 

In the lead up to March 8, International Women’s Day, the FFA Regional Team in collaboration with Oxfam in Asia, will facilitate a dialogue highlighting how initiatives like the ETM that aim to finance developing countries’ transition from coal-based operations to low-emission energy systems can also bring a shift towards inclusive, sustainable, and gender transformative energy structures. In addition, the webinar will:  

• Highlight gendered risks and opportunities specifically for women in line with the ETM implementation;  

• Facilitate discussion on the core tenets of ‘just’ transition that can inform needed structural changes to avoid perpetuating gender gaps i.e., care economy, upskilling women in the labor force, planning and mitigation of gendered risks associated with migration;  

• Reflect on the role that stakeholders such as CSOs and the youth play in supporting a more localized and sustainable approach to energy transition;  

• Highlight ways in which financial institutions and project sponsors/donors can leverage their position to partner with communities for an equitable transition and shared prosperity.  

Background 

In November 2024, FFA, together with Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (CANSEA), Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Reclaim Finance, Recourse, Reality of Aid Asia-Pacific (RoA-AP), and Fair Finance International (FFI), launched a new report, Towards a Gender-Transformative Energy Transition in Asia which reveals critical gaps in the consideration of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the early retirement of Cirebon 1 coal-fired power plant (CFPP) in Indonesia. The early retirement of Cirebon 1 is the first transaction under the Asian Development Bank’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ADB ETM).    

Based on the assessment of the publicly available project documents such as ADB’s Preliminary Just Transition Assessment (PJTA) and Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment’s (SESA), the report shows insufficient gender-disaggregated data collection, assessment, and inclusive and meaningful participation of women, other marginalized groups, and local women’s rights organizations (WROs).  A stand-alone, participatory gender impact assessment would have been more useful to assess gender risks and opportunities arising from the energy transition and implementation of the ETM at the country level.   

In this context, the report makes further recommendations for ADB’s just transition plan in Indonesia’s Cirebon 1 and other pilot countries to be guided by a strong commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment through the design and delivery of gender-transformative interventions.   

Speakers

The webinar will be moderated by Myrah Nerine, Gender Justice Advocacy Manager Asia, Oxfam in Asia.

Panelists will include:

• Mouna Wasef, Head of Research and Advocacy, Publish What You Pay, Indonesia 
• Rika Safrina, Senior Analyst, Energy Modelling and Policy Planning, ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE)
• Bernadette Victorio, Program Lead, Fair Finance Asia (FFA)