Energy Use Behaviors in Ghana’s Coastal Zone: Does Women’s Empowerment and Its Dimensions Matter?

Abstract

The traditional energy usage behaviors of households in sub-Saharan Africa contribute to the deterioration of the coastal ecosystem. Given the significance of coastal ecosystems to Africa’s blue economy agenda, this study explores how alleviating women’s undue subordination in gender control relations (women empowerment) affects the transition towards environmentally sustainable energy use behaviors on Ghana’s coast. Multidimensional measures of energy use behavior and women empowerment were analyzed using data from the latest two series (2014 and 2022) of Ghana’s Demographic and Health Surveys, employing Ordinary Least Squares and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition techniques. Preliminary findings indicated a 5% increase in eco-friendly energy use behaviors but a 10% decrease in women’s empowerment between 2014 and 2022. Baseline results with robustness checks confirmed the significance of women’s empowerment in promoting environmentally sustainable household energy use behaviors during the respective 2014 and 2022 periods, as well as in the pooled scenario. However, the decomposition analysis illustrated how the decline in women’s empowerment between 2014 and 2022 hindered the observed growth rate in eco-friendly household energy use behaviors. These findings underscore the need to intensify efforts to address gender control imbalances to promote environmentally friendly energy behaviors and sustain the coastal ecosystem in support of the blue economy.