Summary: Roderick de Castro, Program Manager, MIRANT Foundation, the Philippines
· The main barriers experienced by the Philippines in bringing energy to rural areas include financial concerns, technological impediments and policy composition efficacy.
· Fundamentally, the crux lies not in the pursuit of political goals but how a big picture can be formed so that a route-map can be charted and progress made.
Jyoti Parikh, Exec Dir. Integrated Res. And Action (IRADe)
· It is imperative that long-term goals and blueprints be cut up into more manageable goals within shorter time frames (a point that the Chairman repeatedly returned to and expressed favor in)
· Local communities must be prepared for and briefed on the strategies of providing energy because their participation and cooperation are cardinal to the propagation of energy and hence success of the projects in question (a point that many government delegates raised and expressed solidarity for)
Olav Kjorven, Dir. Energy and Env. Group, UNDP
· There is a burning need to promulgate a political commitment to equality in energy access, especially since if current trends continue, the proportion of the world population that does not have electricity would be greater than those who do, by 2030.
· Echoing Parikh’s point of view of localizing strategies, Kjorven called for greater sensitivities towards rural communities and practices and for authorities to design their strategies around the latter.
Elizabeth Cecelski, Energy, Env. And Dev. (EED), Germany
· Fuel collection in rural areas is unequal in gender terms; women remain subjugated by men and to that extent, gender relations in the domain of energy issues must be changed.
Rose Mensah-Kutin, Regional Program Manager, ABANTU for Development, Regional Office for West Africa (ROWA), Ghana
· There is a need to include a gender dimension to our language articulating energy issues; in legal documents and official releases pertaining to these concerns, the subject is almost always gender neutral (‘the user’, ‘the resident’ etc), but in fact, men and women face very different circumstances with regards to energy in the face of the law and state.
WHO: There is a need to focus on the health argument (which is to emphasize the importance of promoting health and healthy workers) – a wining argument amongst industries – in order for more attention to be paid to promoting cleaner energy technologies.

At the same time, women and children in rural areas are unjustly exposed to higher risks of developing lung and respiratory ailments simply because of the unchecked uses of less-than-clean fuel. Such a flagrant oversight of many governments will cost us dearly if we continue to be oblivious to it and allow it to remain rampant (this point was echoed by the Women’s Group)

Several groups (especially those in Africa) also called on the following:
· On Policy and Governance: Design sound policies that allow for the dissemination of good governance
· On Technology: Localize the use of technology to meet the specific and unique demands of the communities in question
· On Market Strategies: Markets should be developed effectively, not just for the countries’ own development but also to facilitate the entry of international bodies into these countries to serve as ancillaries quickly and effectively.
Summarized by Wilson Ang (Singapore).