A lot has happened since our first General Assembly in June 2018.
In just three years, we have managed to forge numerous institutional partnerships, have increased our network to over 1,900 members from 100+ countries, have created several GWNET flagship products such as our various mentoring programmes and studies and have organised various networking events back to back with major energy conferences.
With that in mind, we held our second General Assembly earlier this month, focused on:
- Reviewing our activities between 2018 and 2021 with a particular focus on last year’s activities
- Approvingour 2020 annual accounts
- Outlining our activities in 2021 & beyond
- Electing a new GWNET Governing Board and President
Attended by our board and our members, this was the perfect opportunity for us to invite questions, ideas, and suggestions from our members. Furthermore, it was a great time to reflect on and celebrate our achievements over the last few years, which go beyond what we imagined when we first started GWNET.
Changes to Our Board
After three years as GWNET President, Irene Giner-Reichl will be taking a role as Senior Advisor within the GWNET International Secretariat.
We are proud to share that Rabia Ferroukhi, Director Knowledge, Policy and Finance Center at IRENA, will head up the role of GWNET President.
We are also happy to welcome Brigitte Oeppinger-Walchshofer, Austrian Ambassador to India, to the GWNET board.
Looking Forward
The future is bright for GWNET and we look forward to leading various activities centred around advancing women’s participation in the energy sector. Here’s a sneak peek of what is planned:
Advocacy
- Dissemination of the case study on “Empowering Women in Nigeria with Solar Energy” as part of an IRENA paper on community energy.
- Contribution to the ESMAP study “Getting to Gender Equality in Hydropower: Baseline Assessment on Women’s Employment”.
- Contribution to the IRENA assessment of women in solar energy & contribution to the technical paper on women entrepreneurship.
- Development of women empowerment activities for UNIDO’s Global Network of Sustainable Energy Centers.
- Contribution of a gender chapter to the World Small Hydropower Development Report 2022.
Networking
- Hosting quarterly virtual exchanges for GWNET members.
- Hosting networking events back-to-back with major international energy events.
- Quarterly GWNET newsletters & exclusive Members’ digests.
- Forging of new institutional partnerships.
Mentoring
- Development of an online course for Women in Energy.
- 2021 Women in Wind Global Leadership Program in cooperation with the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
- Women in Clean Cooking Mentorship Program with Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the Clean Cooking Alliance.
- Bilateral mentoring programmes with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and GIZ as part of Bilateral Energy Partnerships with Chile, China, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia
- SICA women in energy Mentoring Programme in partnership with GIZ
- The upcoming “Women in Energy Empowerment” programme for women in Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine, on behalf of the German Energy Agency (dena) and BMWi.
- Launch of the GWNET Mentoring programme 2021/22 (possibly in September 2021).
We are excited about the journey ahead and hope you can join us. To keep up to date with our work, we encourage you to sign up for our newsletter and/or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
