How can cooling solutions be made gender-responsive?

Goal

• Raising awareness on the need for gender responsive cooling solutions to build a climate-resilient society while leaving no one behind.
• Discuss best practices to represent women and gender-diverse individuals in data, and empower them to harness data to drive social impact.
• Share use-cases on how cooling interventions and finance can acknowledge gender-differentiated impacts and tailor projects to maximise equitable and just access.

In case you missed the webinar, you can now watch it here:

Access the presentation here.

Agenda

• Welcome remarks and objectives (Simran Singh, Capacity Building Specialist, BASE)
• Setting the scene: Key insights of the Chilling Prospects Special on Cooling and Gender (Giorgia Pasqualetto, Cooling Specialist, SEforALL)
• Understanding the challenge and promoting gender-responsive solutions (Efficiency for Access)
• Practices for better representing women in data (Perry Hewitt, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, Data.org)
• Use case for gender responsive cooling solutions (Roberta Evangelista, Data-science and Digitalisation Specialist, BASE)
• Closing remarks (Simran Singh, BASE)

Context

Current global temperatures are 1.1°C higher than pre-industrial levels, causing increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Record-breaking temperatures have triggered public health emergencies, raised heat-related mortality rates, damaged forests and crops, and heightened infrastructure risks. The lack of affordable and accessible cooling solutions further compounds these challenges, especially for vulnerable groups. The Chilling Prospects Special: Gender and Access to Cooling reveals that women are 1.6 times more at risk than men of lacking access to cooling.

Gaps in disaggregated data on gender-differentiated needs impede the development of policies for equitable access to cooling. While efforts to improve sustainable access to cooling have increased across sectors, few adequately address women’s unique adaptation needs and leverage their knowledge to enhance the effectiveness of the interventions. BASE has been developing a toolkit, mainly through the Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant project, to mainstream gender in climate finance projects. The project aims to increase smallholder access to cooling, reduce postharvest losses, and enhance incomes.

BASE and SEforALL invite cooling companies, practitioners, and policymakers in cooling, climate change, adaptation, and equitable energy transition to join this webinar. By exploring data gaps and needs from diverse perspectives, the discussion aims to identify the necessary data collection methods and types to advance our shared objective of universal access to cooling.

Speaker Biographies

• Giorgia Pasqualetto: An Energy Efficiency and Cooling Specialist at SEforALL. She has contributed to the analysis and production in this year’s Chilling Prospects Special report on Cooling and Gender. Giorgia is a sustainable energy and international development professional, with over 6 years of experience. Prior to joining SEforALL, she worked in strategic planning and engagement with the G20 at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and consulted in programmes promoting industrial energy efficiency in Latin American and Eastern European countries. Giorgia has a background in energy engineering and energy policy.

• Martha Wakoli: A Senior Associate at CLASP, utilizes her Engineering background to support research, policy, and modeling for the Clean Energy Access team. She co-leads the research workstream in the Efficiency for Access – Low Energy Inclusive Appliances program. With previous experience coordinating utility-scale renewable energy projects in private companies and working as an engineer at Kenya Power, Martha has over 8 years of versatile expertise in the energy sector. She is also dedicated to mentoring girls in STEM and founded the highly regarded online publication, Queengineers, which has garnered over 7,500 views. The platform showcases female engineers, inspiring African girls pursuing STEM subjects.

• Perry Hewitt: data.org’s Chief Marketing and Product Officer, leading the platform’s marketing, communications, and digital product development. With extensive experience at organizations like Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Ithaka/Jstor, and Harvard University, Perry is passionate about leading high-performing teams to drive sustainable change and impact. She also holds leadership positions at Glasswing AI Venture Capital, Stimson Center Loomis Innovation Council, and Solar Sister. Perry’s expertise extends to advising startups and cultural institutions and being a writer and speaker on topics including digital transformation, product management, marketing strategy, and women in leadership.

• Roberta Evangelista: A Sustainability Data Science & Digitalisation Specialist at the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE) with a background in mathematics, neuroscience, and machine learning. She leads the development of Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant, a project that aims to reduce food loss, increase farmers’ income, and promote sustainable cooling through a pay-per-use business model and a data science-based mobile application. Roberta’s responsibilities include data collection and analysis, coordinating the development of the Coldtivate app, and overseeing activities at the pilot locations. She has implemented data science solutions in education, health, and sustainability, driven by her passion for positive change.

• Simran Singh: A Gender and Capacity Building Specialist at BASE, with a background in international development and migration studies. She leads farmer training efforts for Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant, helping raise awareness on the benefits of postharvest cooling. Simran supports cooling companies with developing context-specific gender strategies to address barriers faced by marginalised farmer groups to access livelihood opportunities. Her previous research work focuses on women’s labour market situations, specifically in the context of informality and climate change.