Honourable Fatou Kinteh, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare has said the government is committed to gender equality and Women empowerment.
She was speaking at the launch of a gender policy by National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) which was held at the company’s headquarters over the weekend. The policy seeks to make NAWEC a diverse, equitable and engendered work place for all.
“The Government of The Gambia is committed to gender equality and Women empowerment which led to the creation of a Ministry mandated to coordinate all Gender issues in the country,” Ms Kinteh said.
According to her, the policy will contribute to address the unequal gender disparity in the energy sector by increasing the per cent of women in technical areas as well as compliment the work of the ministry.
“I am indeed impressed and amazed by the gender sensitive spirit of your institution in encouraging women in STEM to take up high technical positions such as Chemical Process Engineers,” she added.
She commended NAWEC board of directors for adopting this new gender policy as it signifies their ongoing commitment to workplace equity and the integration of gender balance into NAWEC’s institutional structure.
She said the policy also seeks to address the unequal gender disparity in the energy sector by increasing the percentage the women in technical areas complements.
“Our gender or equality policy is simplified to be both reader and user friendly but rich in content and scope. The policy formulation exercise commenced in early 2021 through a tripartite combination of NAWEC’ s HR and legal department as well as World Bank Gender Consultant template of other NAWEC polices were used as reference for purposes of harmony and consistency,” Momodou Dampha, said as chairperson of gender committee said.