event details - Role of Women in Energy and Climate Talks of Pakistan

event details - Role of Women in Energy and Climate Talks of Pakistan-SDPI

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Role of Women in Energy and Climate Talks of Pakistan


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Concept Note:

February 11 marks the International Day for Women and Girls in Science. Declared by United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the day raises awareness on the long-standing implicit biases and gender stereotypes faced by girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related disciplines. Women are now claiming their space in innovative roles all across the world. Despite the fact that women have made enormous progress in increasing their participation in their professional fields, there is still a noticeable gender gap and under-representation when it comes to science and energy. Energy is a politically charged and sensitive industry that is closely tied to a country’s economy and development in Pakistan. Being dominated by a single gender for years, the gender equality and women’s leadership issues are not adequately addressed in the industry. Therefore, in order to advance the role of women as agents of change in the energy sector in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 5 i.e. achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls and SDG 7 i.e. ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, it is important to bring consciousness and seek a way forward to address the gaps and challenges. The energy value chain is also greatly gender insensitive. Where these issues persist in organizational setup, on other side of the picture, the discussion and efforts to address gender considerations in energy at the household and community levels are mostly targeted at women’s access to clean energy sources, improving women’s economic conditions, or their access to markets. Whereas the equal gender participation and women inclusion is not addressed at the policy level, leading to exclusion of the energy access needs from the policies and decisions.

Efforts to expand clean energy with a development lens should also adopt a gender lens. Creating an enabling renewable energy investment policy which is targeted at expansion of renewable energy lacks the understanding of local cultural and political differences that could impact the participation of women. Moreover, energy companies usually do not see women fit for technical roles. This calls for talent-driven diversification of the workforce in the renewable energy sector. It is crucial to create meaningful opportunities to bridge the existing gaps that constraint the women participation and adoption of renewable technologies. Another marker of the limited attention to gender issues in the energy sector is the absence of measuring and monitoring of gender-related data. According to a baseline study conducted by Women in Energy (Pakistan) in 2018, women make 4% of the workforce in 9 power utilities of the country. Additionally, the average share of women working in technical positions as engineers is only 4%. The panel is designed to share the knowledge on existing best practices and discuss the way forward to address critical issues that need urgent attention for creating enabling environment for women participation in energy sector of Pakistan.

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