On March 23, the launching of the Rwanda Energy Group’s (REG) Gender Mainstreaming Program took place through the important workshop « Empowering REG Women to Energize Rwanda ».

All women of REG, nationwide and from all different levels within the organization, have been invited to the workshop to meet each other, discuss gender issues in REG, give voice to their ideas and suggestions on what issues they face and what actions they recommend to accomplish change.

The launching of the REG Gender Mainstreaming Program is the first important step in the journey towards advancing gender equality and equity in REG – to ensuring women’s full participation in the success of REG and the development of Rwanda.

Due to historical, cultural, social and educational reasons, REG, just as many other organizations in the energy sector, have low participant rates of women on their staff. With this program, REG aims not only to develop the capability of present men and women, but also to actively attract and recruit more women into the organization at all levels and in all categories of jobs. Today, REG women make up approximately 18% of the total staff and very few women are in decision making roles. As a first goal, REG hopes to reach the Government of Rwanda’s target and have 30% women in all levels in the organization in the next three years.

After this workshop, the next step is a first meeting with the REG’s gender focal points and the Advisory Committee Members elected during the workshop to review the proceedings of the meeting and to decide on the way forward, to then prepare the presentation to the senior management of REG.

Reactions of participants: “This is the first time for me to meet colleagues from other provinces in Rwanda. We don’t know each other, but still we find out we face the same challenges.” “I really encourage the development of a policy on gender equality and equity. I hope it will also include a strategy of retaining women in the organization, which will better enable the appointment of women in management positions aswell.”

Enabel in Rwanda funds two interventions in partnership with REG: the three Belgian contributions to the Electricity Access Roll-Out Programme (BE-EARP) and Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development (CDEU). At Enabel we recognize the importance of developing and harnessing the capability of all people to increase the performance not just of organizations, but also as a key contributor to the development of the country. That is why at Enabel we include Gender as a component in all interventions.