The EU supports the Shoktikonna (“Power Women” - https://www.shoktikonna.org/), a grassroots-driven initiative aimed at empowering young women engineers actively contributing to the green energy transition. It will help increasing young women’s engagement in the energy and power sector in Bangladesh by supporting access to employment opportunities and decision-making roles. Other development partners supporting the initiative are the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Word Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Shoktikonna initiative serves as a dynamic space for tomorrow’s women leaders, as well as a platform for sharing knowledge on the EU’s energy and gender inclusive policies and best practices.

As part of this initiative, the EU supported the organization of the Shoktikonna Leadership and Career Summit event, held in Dhaka on 2 December 2023, addressing the need for more women leaders in the global green transition. The one-day interactive event, counted with 100 participants young women graduated in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM),           engineering professionals, decision-makers, and representatives from private companies.

The event engaged the young women participants in discussions with a wide range of speakers on various topics, such as career patterns, leadership skills, gender stereotypes, unconscious bias, access to decision making and managerial positions, financing and access to credit, gender sensitive and gender inclusive HR and institutional policies.

The EU Ambassador to Bangladesh, Mr. Charles Whiteley, addressed the audience, stating that “under the EU Global Gateway Strategy, and through a Team Europe approach, the EU is committed to supporting gender equality in the energy sector, and more generally, to making energy and power more inclusive. To this end, we need everybody on board, we need all the ideas.”

In a recorded video message, the European Commission’s Director-General for Energy (DG ENER), Ms. Ditte Juul Jørgensen,  highlighted: “We believe that the green energy transition, in Europe, but also in South Asia, is the future and that we should stop investing in the old economy, but instead double our energy efficiency and triple our renewable energy by 2030.”

Moreover, a series of online training sessions are taking place under the Shoktikonna initiative, with the active participation of DG INTPA representatives, Director Just Energy Transition, Paula Pinho, DG ENER, the Head of South Asia Regional Office from the European Investment Bank (EIB), Nina Fenton, experts from the EU GTAF for Sustainable Energy, and the Florence School of Regulation, among others, directly interacting online with the Shoktikonna participants.

Press coverage: https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/eu-committed-to-supporting-gender-equality-in-energy-sector-ambassador-charles-whiteley/126836