Gender, Communications and Energy Specialist with almost 30 years of experience.
Main areas of expertise are gender training, gender assessment and analysis, community sensitization, advocacy, promotion of women’s rights, local and international networking and gender and climate change issues.
I am an expert in communications; information sharing and awareness-creation/media campaigning/promotion, journalism. Interest and passionate about energy access; clean cookstoves, mainstreaming gender into energy projects, sharing information on platforms and space, drafting gender and energy strategies, participating in online discussions and webinars
Education:
- Masters of Professional Studies (MPS) degree in International Development from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA,
- Post graduate diploma in Communications
- A. in English from the University of Ghana
- Certificates in
- Community Development Leadership by Women, Advocacy and Citizen Engagement from the Coady International Institute in Canada
- Local Governance and Rural Decentralisation from the Centre for Development Innovations of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands,
- Networking and Photography, World Vision Ghana.
- Masters Project paper on the “Sustainability of Alternative Energy Resources for Ghanaian Women: A case of the Appolonia Biogas Project” with a communications strategy to address the problem of indoor air pollution (IAP) that affects the health and body of women and children particularly
Interests/Networks:
- Past Chairperson of the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GHACCO
- Co-Chair, ACCESS Coalition
- Member of the Working Group of the Practitioner Energy Network of Sustainable Energy for All of the UN Foundation,
- Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA),
- Working Group of the past Gender Coordinating Committee and Gender and Empowerment COP of Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
- Member, Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN), an International Network
- Member of the Women’s Major Group of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)and the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) preparation on Rio +20 Summit,
- Member of the Gender and Energy Network of Ghana (GEDA), assisting the Focal Person in training in gender mainstreaming into energy projects for individual members and organizations of GEDA.
Events/Conferences
- ECOWAS High Level Energy Forum/ECOWAS Energy Week, that saw the launch of the ECOWAS Energy Plan, the
- Ghana Country Plan for UN Sustainable Energy for All, the presentation of the Global Energy Status Report, Energy Access (Accra October 2012.
- Reviewing of the Ghana Constitutional Review on Gender, Ghana Oil and Gas Policy, Ghana Energy Plan, African Governance Report III and US National Institute of Health (NIH) conference on Indoor Air Pollution in Washington, USA
- Advocated at the 2012 High Level Advocacy Campaign on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Campaign by the World Bank and several NGOs on Capitol Hill, lobbying House Representatives and Senators in Washington.
- Chaired the gender desk of the World Bank Learning Sessions on Water and Sanitation and Health (WASH)
- Guest interviewee with Fox News on World Water Day on the theme, “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Impact on Women and Girls”.I am an international development expert in the fields of gender and communications, sustainable energy, environment, climate change and water and sanitation. For 18 years I worked in the non-governmental sector in West Africa.
From 2006, after participating in the National Workshop on Mainstreaming Gender into Energy Projects organised by the Gender and Energy Network, Ghana, my interest in renewable and clean energy and fuels led to a research paper on the “Sustainability of Alternative Energy Resources: The Case of Appolonia Biogas Project”.
The research assessed the impact of the renewable energy projects from a gender perspective, bringing out social, economic, health and other implications of the provision of biogas for cooking and lighting in the community, women food vendors, oil processors and fish smokers.
Findings from the research provided avenues for sensitization of women and men on the usefulness of clean energy solutions, such as improved charcoal stoves, LPG gas stoves, gasifiers and biogas for food preparation and processing and cooking.
In addition, being a member of the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) and now the global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), has built my capacity in the fields of gender in relation to renewable and sustainable energy, climate change and environment. As a member of the Gender Coordinating Committee of the GACC, I participated in the development of the gender and diversity strategy ensuring gender equality in the implementation of programs for better outcomes.
Through the Gender and Energy Network, Ghana, the capacity of its member organisations have been built to enable them mainstream gender into their energy projects, such as design and manufacture of stoves and other energy saving devices. Female technicians have been encouraged to participate in the clean stoves sector, while members’ capacity has been built in acquiring policy advocacy and strong networking skills. GEDA also successfully carried out and published a gender assessment of the Ghana energy sector in 2012.
Other fields of concentration have been; awareness creation on gender and gender–based violence, project management, gender assessment and analysis, organizational and community sensitization, advocacy, promotion of women’s rights, local and international networking. I have strong facilitation, networking and advocacy skills, organising advocacy campaigns water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence and involved in many international networking activities with numerous communities of practice (COPs) on sustainable energy, climate change, natural resource management, gender and advocacy.
My work as a Communications person with the World Vision Ghana Rural Water Project for 15 years afforded me the opportunity to work with the Animation and Sanitation (ANISAN) department in sensitizing and preparing communities for entry, preparation, drilling and impact. I documented all these activities in the form of stories, photos and
I hold a Master’s degree in International Development from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA, post graduate diploma in Communications and a B.A. in English from the University of Ghana, in addition to certificates in Community Development Leadership by Women, Advocacy and Citizen Engagement from the Coady International Institute in Canada and Local Governance and Rural Decentralisation from the Centre for Development Innovations of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, Networking and Photography, speak and write excellent and fluent English and have a good working knowledge of French.
As I presently hold the chair of the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and working to establish a viable alliance that would facilitate and support all categories of its members to scale up design, production and educate the targets for behavioural change towards adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in synergy with the objectives of SNV, Ghana in the renewable energy sector.
With the required expertise and experience, I will work assiduously to support SNV Ghana fulfill its objectives of facilitating provision of equitable access to affordable and efficient renewable energy solutions to households, institutions, small and medium enterprises.
