Energy experts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) validated and adopted the ECOWAS Directive on Gender Assessments in Energy Projects, during a 3-day workshop held from 26 – 28 June 2017 in Accra, Ghana.
A groundbreaking achievement for the advancement of women’s human rights in energy development, the Directive aims to ensure that vulnerable and marginalized persons are not excluded as participants in and beneficiaries of energy infrastructure development by: ensuring that the specific interests of women and men, as stakeholders, are taken into account in the development of projects; ensuring that any potential adverse and discriminatory impacts on women or men deriving from projects are recognized and avoided or mitigated to the extent feasible; improving transparency in planning and implementation processes to promote and increase the participation and capacity of women and men, including but not limited to customers, employees, managers, investors, officials and other stakeholders; and encouraging the development of harmonized policy, legal regulatory frameworks and operational strategies in each Member State and for ECOWAS institutions that are consistent with the principles of, and achieve the objectives of, the Directive, whilst imposing the least financial and administrative barriers possible on Developers, Competent Authorities and other stakeholders.
