Reimagining Diverse Care Infrastructures for Just and Feminist Futures

This session brings together researchers and practitioners to examine how care infrastructures can be rethought and strengthened in the context of clean energy transitions. It draws on evidence from the Clean Energy for Development: A Call to Action (CEDCA) initiative and the Africa Cares Together Community of Practice, highlighting how social and physical systems of care shape the lives and livelihoods of women and girls.

Care infrastructures include both the social systems that sustain everyday life, such as norms, practices and community networks, and the physical systems that enable care, including energy, water, transport, housing and health services. These systems are deeply interconnected. Social infrastructures sustain physical systems, while physical infrastructures shape the conditions under which care is provided, experienced and shared.

Evidence from the CEDCA Research for Policy and Practice report shows that clean energy interventions can reduce the time and physical burden of unpaid care work, particularly for women and girls, while also creating new opportunities for income generation and participation in economic life. At the same time, without deliberate attention to care, energy transitions risk reinforcing existing inequalities in the distribution of labour and decision-making.

The session explores how these dynamics are playing out across different contexts. It highlights innovations that reduce drudgery, shift time use and support more equitable outcomes, while also examining the structural barriers that continue to shape access to energy, finance and decision-making power. Speakers draw on research and practice across Africa and other regions to reflect on how care can be recognised, reduced and more equitably redistributed.

By bringing together insights across projects, the discussion focuses on what is required to move beyond isolated interventions towards systems change. This includes aligning policy, infrastructure and financing with the realities of care, and ensuring that women and girls are not only beneficiaries of clean energy transitions but active participants in shaping them.

Panelists

• Peninah Ndegwa, Managing Director, WOWMom, Kenya
• Karungari Wachira, Population Research Council and Tiny Totos, Kenya
• Dr Jane Kamau, Caregivers Empowerment Network-Africa (CENetA), Kenya
• Sitabile Dewa, Executive Director, Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), Zimbabwe
• Natalia Saba Fricke, Project Coordinator, Desjardins International Development (DID)
• Jane Mariara, Executive Director, Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), Kenya

Facilitators and speakers

• Deepta Chopra, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
• Ruhil Iyer, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
• Wangari Kinoti, ActionAid International

Event details

This session will take place at the Women Deliver Conference from 27th – 30th April 2026. It is open to conference participants attending in person.

Side Event 2J
Tuesday, Apr 28, 2026
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM (AEST)
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center, Meeting Room 211, Level 2