Ghana: Women’s Associations Discuss Women’s Advancement In Power Utilities

A two-day women in Energy Conference is scheduled to be opened in Accra, capital of Ghana, West Africa.

The programme, which will be taking place at the Labadi Beach Hotel, is being organised by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), in collaboration with the Ghana Power Compact Implementing Entities including Electricity Company of Ghana, Ministry of Energy, as well as Ghana Standards Authority.

Ghana’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Morrison, is expected to open the conference.

The purpose of the conference is to promote networking, knowledge exchange, harness the diverse experiences and best practices of Female Employee Associations, as well as leverage strategies for advancing gender equality and social inclusion in power utilities.

These are expected to contribute to improving organizational performance.

The conference will bring together over one hundred participants from public and private power utility companies and civil society organisations in and outside Ghana.

Background

Studies have shown a positive correlation between enhanced gender diversity at the utility companies and improvement in the overall, including financial, performance of the businesses.

In recognition of this linkage, MCC and MiDA consultants, during feasibility studies for Compact II Programme development, assessed the gender responsiveness of the institutional environment at ECG.

This was done through document reviews and a series of interviews with management and staff. The findings indicated a number of challenges, including slow progress with increasing women’s employment and participation in the energy sector and the inability of these companies to attract women professionals and retain them when they do.

Based on this social and gender analyses, a sub-activity titled Institutionalizing Gender Responsiveness was added to the ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Projects to address these challenges and support ECG’s institutional transformation into companies with modern utility.