Ccia Building, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire — The African Development Bank, in partnership with the Association of Power Utility of Africa and the French Development Agency will host a seminar on "How to Promote Gender Equality in the African Power Sector" from October 16 to 18, 2018 at the CCIA building in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.

The seminar will bring together 50 Human Resource Directors from 50 power utilities, eight Directors of the African Network of Centers of Excellence in Electricity and other participants from more than 25 African countries.

This event provides an opportunity to engage stakeholders from across Africa in the promotion of gender equality as a strategic stake for the development of the sector.

Women represent only 20 percent of employees in the African power sector and less than ten percent of engineers. Participants will share experiences and best practices for better representation of women in power utilities. The seminar will explore tools for the design and implementation of strategies for gender equality in power generation, transmission and distribution utilities.

These strategies aim to attract more women to the power sector, improve their career prospects, as well as improve access to management positions within utilities. In a context of strong competition between economic sectors for the recruitment of talents, promoting the recruitment of women and professional equality will contribute to improved economic performance of African power utilities.

At the end of the seminar, power utilities and training centers of excellence will showcase their roadmaps outlining support needs for better and effective promotion of gender equality in power sector workplaces.