Gender Assessment of the Ghana Energy Sector

In 2010 ENERGIA supported a gender audit of the Ghana ministry of energy in cooperation with GRATIS and the Ghana Gender and Energy Network. The gender audit sought to assist the Ghana Ministry of Energy and other agencies in the energy sector to address concerns regarding how low emphasis on implementing policies on renewable energy and energy efficiency in Ghana negatively affect the majority of Ghanaian women. The general purpose of the audit was to strengthen the Ministry of Energy’s commitment to gender equality goals and processes. In order to do this, gender assessments of the energy policy, organizational policies, procedures, systems and practices were made. The general level of understanding and knowledge on gender and development, as well as the existing gender expertise, competence and the required capacity building were also assessed.

The key areas for analysis were:

  • The gender and energy situation in Ghana 
  • The national energy policy
  • Organizational, management and program/project level gender issues
  • Senior women staff and female staff associations in the energy sector
  • Roles of energy and gender in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

The main recommendations were:

  • Review and implement the National Energy Policy and other corporate Plans to include gender responsiveness, gender objectives and gender sensitive indicators for monitoring and evaluation.
  • As there are best practices in Ghana of gender integration in programs, organisations within the sector should link and learn better, to enable them to share best practices.
  • Review Ghana’s regional and international commitments (United Nations, AU, etc.) and identify sources of support/funding for gender mainstreaming in energy.
  • As the energy sector moves towards more people-centred approaches, more staff with social science backgrounds may be needed to augment the energy skills of current technical staff.
  • Policies of recruiting and promoting staff should encourage more women to enter the sector and stay employed in it.
  • Representation of women in decision-making positions on boards and committees should be promoted as per the Government’s promise of Affirmative Action of 40 percent.
  • Gender training should be integrated within in-service training programs.
  • The formation and strengthening of women’s associations should be encouraged as part of gender mainstreaming initiatives in the energy sector, to give women a stronger voice.

Ghana Audit final report - Download