Ghana’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Mamle Morrison has expressed confidence that the Affirmative Action Bill, which is before the country’s parliament, will soon be passed into law.
The Bill, when passed, will increase women’s representation and active participation in decision making at all levels to advance, change and create a stronger action in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Speaking at the opening of a two- day Women in Energy Conference organised by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Cynthia Morrison revealed that she and other officials of the Ministry met the country’s Speaker of Parliament and the leadership at a breakfast, where the Affirmative Bill was discussed.
The Minister, who described the meeting as fruitful, said the leadership assured them that they are in support of the Bill and would soon be passed into law.
“My ministry is working assiduously to get the Affirmative Action Bill passed,” she assured.
The conference, which is under the them: ‘Women in Energy: Positioning for the future’, brought together female associations in the country’s power utilities and heads of some power sector agencies.
The conference is to provide additional opportunities to members of all female employee associations, particularly those in the energy sector to network, exchange knowledge and harness experiences in best practices and, thereby, strategise towards worthwhile ideas for the advancement of gender equality and social inclusion in Ghana’s Power Utilities industry.
She noted that achieving gender equality in the energy sector remains a shared goal and a national priority.
“As we gather here today, it is paramount we propel and give birth to innovations and tactics that will strategically position us as women to meaningfully contribute to the provision of reliable renewable energy.
“Our discussion here should also focus on pure rural women who are at the detriment of climate change due to their reliance and use of unsustainable non renewable energy,” she urged.
She further urged the participants to take it upon themselves to mentor younger women and girls in order to add to the number of women of substance.
Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Martin Eson-Benjamin, in a speech, noted that an organisation can improve its performance and maximise the social impact of its investments if gender and social inclusion issues are mainstreamed in the organisation’s policies, systems and practices.
This, he said, is the reason MiDA, which is the implementing agency for the Ghana Power Compact, is organising the conference in a bid to show leadership in institutionalising gender inclusion in power utilities.
He noted that the Power Compact makes it imperative for MiDA to institutionalise gender responsiveness to support gender auditing, development of a gender policy at ECG and supporting activities for strengthening the institutional capacity of ECG to implement a Gender Policy and also enhance the capacity of female employees associations, through knowledge sharing, networking and the development of internship and mentoring to university students in science, technology, particularly women.
According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, “We have started with the Gender Auditing and the development of a Gender Policy in ECG. We hope other institutions in the power sector associated with the Ghana Power Compact and eventually the entire energy sector will follow ECG’s footsteps.
“We are also hopeful that institutions that do not have female employees’ associations will establish such associations to advocate for equal opportunities and an enabling work environment for both women and men and promote women’s leadership in order to improve overall performance and productivity, ” he said.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com