This study “Gender Review of DMC Energy Policies” sought to find out how selected five Asia Pacific countries – Bangladesh, Fiji, Mongolia, Pakistan, and the Philippines – understand and incorporate the gender-energy nexus into their national frameworks. The aim was to see whether their energy policies integrate gender equality considerations and whether their gender policies mention energy as an area where women’s advancement needs to take place.

A total of 61 documents were reviewed. 46 of them were national frameworks covering energy and gender – the countries’ short-term or long-term development plans that include strategies on energy and gender equality, national energy development frameworks, climate change policies that contain action plans on clean and renewable energy, and national gender equality policies. 15 documents were documents of international commitments such as Nationally Determined Contributions, periodic reports to CEDAW, and the latest BPfA implementation reports.

The study also proposes a framework of what makes and characterizes a gender-mainstreamed energy policy. This was done by compiling literatures on practical methodologies offered by international institutions, 5 characteristics of a gender-aware energy policy put forth by Mariëlle Feenstra, and good features or rooms for improvement that were spotted through the study’s analyses on national frameworks.