Resilience key for women to compete in energy sector - Stakeholders

Stakeholders have advised women in the energy sector to be resilient and to develop their competencies to compete for a level-playing field and contribute to decision making processes.

Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), said global trends suggested that improving organisational performances hinged to a large extent on enhanced gender diversity.

For it to be well achieved, he said, women needed to be resilient enough to take up challenging tasks and to make bold decisions in the energy sector.

The CEO gave the advice at the Second ‘Women in Energy Conference’, organised by MiDA in Accra on the theme: “Building Resilience and Growing Our Strengths.”

The two-day conference was to provide opportunities to women employees in the energy sector and allied groups to network and exchange knowledge while harnessing their experiences and best practices.

It was to enable participants to leverage strengths for advancing gender equality and social inclusion for improvement in organizational performance within the sector.

Mr Eson-Benjamin said an organisation could improve its performance and maximise the social impact of its investments if gender and social inclusion became an integral part of its policies, systems and practices.

As a result, he said, MiDA worked on the Gender Audit and Gender Policy with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and continued the process with all Energy Sector Organisations during the first Women in Energy Conference held last year.

MiDA at the end of the conference promised to develop a strategy to guide and strengthen female Employee Associations and developed a strategy to steer their actions to make progress.

The CEO expressed optimism that this would advocate equal opportunities and an enabling environment for women and promote their leadership to improve employee performance and productivity.

Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in a speech read on her behalf, said women could not position themselves for the future if they were not actively involved in decision-making processes.

Hence, her Ministry was working assiduously to get the Affirmative Action Bill passed into Law to 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.

She entreated participants of the conference to also focus on rural women, who were at the detriment of climate change due to their reliance and use of unsustainable and nonrenewable energy.

On his part, Mr Oscar Amonoo-Neizer, the Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission, said women in the energy sector had many setbacks due to the dynamics on the field.

In a statement read on his behalf, Mr Amonoo-Neizer said research had shown that resilient women brought social inclusion and increased productivity in organisations.

The biggest drain on resilience among employees, he explained, was the management of difficult people at the workplace and poor personal relationships with others.

Mr Amonoo-Neizer, therefore, advised women to accept and confront the reality on the ground and to adopt strong values to build resilience.

“Women, especially in the energy sector, should bounce back each time there is a challenge with work because the ability to make meanings out of hardships is the most important quality,” he added.