The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Hon Dr Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu has launched the Uganda Women in Energy Extractives Network Initiative.
This comes at a time when Uganda is implementing initiatives to enhance women’s access to clean energy in the form of energy-efficient cooking stoves and home lighting solutions, which will accelerate progress toward gender equality and increase women’s participation in the economy.
The Women in Energy and Extractivies Initiative wants to stragetically place gender equality at the centre of government policy, reforms and implementation.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has already instituted a committee on Energy Equality as part of efforts to carry out the task of monitoring gender-based violence, affecting women, girls and children during the implementation of energy development projects in Uganda.
Minister Nankabirwa noted that the energy and extractive sector is fundamental in economic development and also importantly, women are the ones who are most vulnerable and impacted as they need to access energy at household level, to the workplace, to the quality of jobs and to opportunities in decision making.
The Ugandan gender and energy sector country brief is intended to track these efforts to ensure that women and girls are able to access energy at reasonable prices and that opportunities in the sector are accessible to women.
The Women in Energy Network (WEEN) is an energy industry initiative founded to promote the advancement of women in the energy industry through a range of networking, knowledge sharing and leadership opportunities for industry participants.
The Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) has been at the forefront and leading efforts to establish the Women in Energy and Extractives Network (WEEN) an initiative that aims at promoting the participation of women in the oil and gas, mining and energy sectors.
Women in Energy and Extractives Network run as a non-governmental organization and its objectives include advancing female leadership, elevating the profile of women and removing barriers to their advancement in the energy and extractives sectors.
The initiative also encourage mentorship, trainings, networking and capacity building for women while inspiring girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through scholarships.
UNOC’s Chief Executive officer Ms Proscovia Nabbanja said that Women in Energy and Extractives Network has inspired a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan that was started in 2021 to help address various challenges that mainly stifle women’s growth in the energy workspace.
