Gender Equality Initiative

The publication of Secretariat's declaration on gender equality officially endorsed the initiative in March 2021. It spells out three commitments:

Raising awareness on mainstreaming gender in all aspects of energy policies and interventions when providing support and assistance to the institutions of the Energy Community and the Contracting Parties.
Endorsing gender-responsive procurement, intended as the inclusion of the impact on gender equality and women’s empowerment in its procedures for the procurement of services and works.
Aiming for equal representation of women and men in all events, in-person or online, and that no gender is restricted to the moderator or facilitator role.

A year later, an additional commitment was taken by the Secretariat, namely raising awareness on the importance of collecting gender-disaggregated data in the energy sector to inform energy analysis and develop appropriate, evidence-based responses, policies and legislation.

The information below shows how the Secretariat translates these commitments into concrete actions and activities.

Gender Equality Declaration

Secretariat's Statement (06/2023)

About Energy Community's Gender Activities

Awareness raising

actions, events and achievements so far

Mar 2024

Webinar on Women Entrepreneurs in Energy

The webinar aims to present data insights on the current situation for women starting their own business in the energy sector and in the Energy Community Contracting Parties. It also seeks to address the challenges faced by women launching businesses in this sector, offering expert insights and tangible solutions to common barriers. These include access to financing, networking and partnerships opportunities, and supportive policies.

Mar 2023

Webinar on (How) Can energy transition be gender-just?

Opened by Artur Lorkowski (Director of the Energy Community), the webinar centered around a presentation by Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (Australian National University) and contributions of Paula Abreu Marques (European Commission) and Marta Babicz (National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management). It addressed the importance for policymakers and other relevant stakeholders to ensure gender equality in their energy transition affords and in particular the coal phase-out.

Jun 2022

Member of EU Equality platform for the energy sector

Established by the European Commission in August 2021, the 'Equality platform for the energy sector’ aims at offering a space for discussion of issues relating to equality, facilitating exchanges of experiences and highlighting best practices. The Secretriat is a full member since June 2022.

Jun 2022

Webinar on gender disaggregated data in the energy sector

European Commission, International Energy Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency, Engie Impact, E-Control, European Institute of Energy Equality and Energy Community Secretariat gathered to raise awareness of the importance of gender disaggregated data in the energy sector. The data is needed to advance gender equality and diversity in the energy sector in order to produce a swifter and more inclusive energy transition, boosting innovation and accelerating the attainment of multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

Dec 2023

Study on energy poverty

The nexus between gender and energy poverty is an important aspects we are currently investigating at Energy Community level, also within a newly published study which includes a specific chapter on gender. It is important to apply a gender perspective to energy poverty, since women and men experience energy poverty in different ways and the physiological, health, economic and social situation of women put them and their households at higher risk of energy poverty.

Nov 2021

Partner of Gender and Energy Compact

At the COP26 side-event of UNFCCC SDG7, the Energy Community Secretariat joined as official partner the Gender and Energy Compact. Launched initially at the UN High level dialogue on energy, the coalition of 45 organisations brings together governments, private sector, academia, civil society, youth, and international organizations to promote a just, inclusive, and gender responsive energy transition.

Sep 2021

Training on gender parity pledge for events

In order to understand and implement gender parity pledge for events and conferences, the entire Energy Community Secretariat staff had a training on the topic. The training was carried out by Nicolas Schmidt, Gender Associate and International Gender Champions Focal Point at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO/Gender).

Apr 2021

First Conference on Gender Equality

To raise awareness on gender, the Secretariat hosted a conference “Energy Transition through the Lens of Gender Equality”, bringing together over 130 decision-makers, energy professionals and academics. The conference identified the different impacts that the use of energy has on women and men, but also provided examples of integrating a gender perspective in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, regulatory measures and spending.

Mar 2021

International Gender Champions

To mark the international women’s day on 8 March, and to affirm the commitment to gender equality, Mr Janez Kopač, the Secretariat's former Director, joined the “International Gender Champions”, a leadership network that brings together decision-makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence.

Gender-disaggregated data

policy paper, data collection

Policy Paper

Policy Paper on collecting gender-disaggregated data in the energy sector

This policy brief aims to identify data gaps in terms of gender-disaggregated data in the energy sector and to raise awareness within the EnC on the need for a future, comprehensive study of women's participation in the energy labour market and corresponding data collection in Contracting Parties. It provides recommendations for possible standardization of data collection processes related to gender data in the energy sector across the region. For doing so, relevant European Commission datasets are used as a baseline to discuss two things. First, where data is generally not collected, and second, what additional indicators should be included in the datasets.

The relevant datasets are defined in accordance with the recently published ECAsset Study (Ouziaux, et al., 2021), which specifically targets the need for gender-specific data collection in the energy job market in EU Member States.

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Document Name	Published on
Secretariat, Policy Paper PP-01/2022 on collecting gender-disaggregated data in the energy sector	26.04.2022

Step-by-step guide

Collecting gender-disaggregated data and step-by-step guide

Step-by-step guide to the questionnaire for collecting gender-disaggregated data in energy ministries,
companies, regulators, and TSOs (Energy Community, based on (Ouziaux, et al., 2021)).

Event management and procurement

gender parity at events, gender-responsive procurement

Gender parity at events

As part of the Gender Equality Initiative, the Secretariat monitors and complies data on the gender parity of its speakers' invited to the Energy Community events. It circulated its staff members two short guides on how to further improve gender parity at events in May 2023. The guides were updated in January 2024.

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Document Name	Published on
Gender Parity Guidelines: When organising an event	24.01.2024
Gender Parity Guidelines: When invited to speak at an event	24.01.2024

Gender-responsive procurement

Gender-responsive procurement

The Energy Community Secretariat enforces gender equality through gender-responsive procurement. When the subject of the contract allows, the Secretariat seeks to collaborate with suppliers who give importance to gender equality in their work and put in place relevant policies. To the extent possible, it also requests gender balanced teams for the execution of contracts. Moreover, gender equality is considered when it comes to evaluations of offers.

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Secretariat's policy on documents

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Gender Equality Initiative

Gender Equality Declaration

About Energy Community's Gender Activities

Awareness raising

Webinar on Women Entrepreneurs in Energy

Webinar on (How) Can energy transition be gender-just?

Member of EU Equality platform for the energy sector

Webinar on gender disaggregated data in the energy sector

Study on energy poverty

Partner of Gender and Energy Compact

Training on gender parity pledge for events

First Conference on Gender Equality

International Gender Champions

Gender-disaggregated data

Policy Paper on collecting gender-disaggregated data in the energy sector

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Collecting gender-disaggregated data and step-by-step guide

Event management and procurement

Gender parity at events

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Gender-responsive procurement