The next few years would be crucial for African governments to mainstream gender considerations into their policies and budgets to ensure an inclusive and just energy transition in Africa.
African countries are to ensure that their initiatives reach every woman irrespective of factors such as disability, economic status, or geographical location.
This was part of recommendations made at the 4th Gender Summit Africa held in Accra.
The high-level ministerial panel brought together Scientists, gender scholars, and policymakers to foster equality and quality in research results.
The objective of the 23rd Gender Summit, which is the 4th in Africa focused on applying a gender lens to a major societal challenge for science, that is, Africa’s energy transition from dependence on oil, gas, coal, charcoal, and wood to renewable, reliable, and affordable low-carbon energy sources.
It was on the theme: “Africa’s energy transition pathways and vision of the Green New Deal through a gender lens”.
The summit was organized by the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Ghana and Portia Limited based in the United Kingdom.
The high-level Ministerial panel noted the European Green Deal envisages huge investments to meet the climate change crisis and its impacts, which must be fair and just in its benefit to low-income and marginalized communities, however, Africa’s vision of the Green New Deal (GND) and how to make the transition to sustainable energy is yet to be defined, hence the 23rd Gender Summit was the first step to ensure that women are part of the process as Researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, citizens, decision and policymakers.
Speaking to TV3, Chief Operations Officer of AIMS Ghana, Adelaide Asantewaa Asante said,”Although the UN Sustainable Development Agenda goals closely connect to the aims of the Green New Deal, they are ‘silent’ on gender with no gender targets, nor gender indicators and that is our worrying concern.”
Deliberating on the theme, It is evident that the gendered challenges and recommendations extend beyond the energy sector alone and encompass STEM fields as a whole. We acknowledged that women continue to face obstacles in accessing, participating in, and contributing to the achievement of critical SDG 7: for clean and affordable energy solutions. These challenges arise from sociocultural norms, barriers to education and professional development in STEM/energy fields, limited or no access to financing options, gendered microaggressions, and exclusion from leadership and decision making at all levels, from grassroots to high-level political arenas,” she stressed.
Call to Action and Recommendations:The summit called for conscious efforts to mainstream gender considerations into policies and budgets to ensure an inclusive and
just energy transition in Africa.
It also recommended that real impact could be achieved by co-creating solutions with women at the local level, moving
beyond mere research and recommendations from a privileged standpoint, and embracing a bottom-up approach to interventions.
The high-level ministerial meeting further emphasized on the importance of data in driving effective decision-making. African
nations, therefore, need to invest in robust monitoring and evaluation systems, as well as conduct gender
impact analyses of energy transitions. This will provide them with valuable insights and be able to track progress accurately, with a specific focus on increasing energy production across
the continent, not solely from renewable sources but also by leveraging the vast non-renewable
resources.
Furthermore, the meeting concluded that it is essential to strengthen Africa’s carbon markets to ensure competitiveness on a global scale and equitable treatment.
By Richard Bright Addo|3news.com|Ghana