Ecowas@40Podcast
– 24 February, 2015
Welcome to the 6th edition of the Ecowas@40Podcast,
where we give you insights into all that is ECOWAS.
The ECOWAS@40Podcast is divided into four parts.
We start off with an overview of what stories are trending under ECOWAS/West
Africa/the AU. We then move on to what ECOWAS and/or AU accounts are tweeting.
Third, we give listeners an ECOWAS Fact; and, finally, “What’s my ECOWAS Beef?”
where I offer candid views on a trending topic. In today’s edition, we are looking
at events the Show is involved in one may have missed.
First -- the issue of #SouthSudan has grown from
a headache to a migraine. What has now become a source of infamy – that AU
Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan report that was never disclosed to the
public is seriously denting the image of the continental organisation (as if it
didn’t have enough headaches, what with #MugabeFalls! and all!). The country
has been trending for all the wrong reasons. Let’s take a look at what some of
the tweets that have attracted the highest RTs.
On Libya, where the story is quickly developing,
let’s take a look at this tweet from CCTV Africa, which tweets:
We move from North Africa right here to the
ECOWAS sub-region, where the issue of #BokoHaram is yet to go away. No
surprises, then, why there are more tweets this week as the stories of the
fight to ouster the militant Islamic group continues in dramatic detail.
Finally, under this section, we take a look at
what has been trending on “Africa”, and “west Africa”:
3. ECOWAS
FACT
ECOWAS has a Programme
on Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access (ECOW-GEN), which is a flagship
programme of the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
(ECREEE) addressing barriers to the equal participation of women and men in
expanding energy access in West Africa.
ECOW-GEN was
established against the background that women’s potential, in the ECOWAS
region, as producers and suppliers of energy services is under-utilized and
that empowering women and men to make significant contributions to the
implementation of the regional policies on renewable energy and energy
efficiency is necessary for the achievement of the Sustainable Energy for All
(SE4ALL) goals in West Africa.
Thus, to ensure that
women, as much as men, contribute to, and benefit from, clean energy
development ECOW-GEN implements activities directed at strengthening women
economically by improving energy access for income generating activities and,
more importantly, empowering women as active actors in the sustainable energy
sector.
Launched in 2013, the
programme started its pilot phase working on the four Members States of the
Mano River Union (MRU) – Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
2. Closely related to this is the news that the African Development Bank (AfDB), the ECOWAS Centre
for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), and the United
States-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have formed a
partnership centered on linking gender and energy access.
The three have jointly organised an
inception workshop to launch a project about developing an ECOWAS Policy for
Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access and its Implementation Strategy. The
workshop will be held TODAY Tuesday, February 24, 2015, at the Bank’s headquarters
in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. “AfDB’s role is grounded in its Energy Policy, which
advocates for ‘universal access to energy,’ said Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi,
AfDB’s Special Envoy on Gender.
Participants include Côte d’Ivoire’s
Minister for Family, Women and Children, AfDB’s Special Envoy on Gender, the
ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, and the Executive Director
of ECREEE. Representatives from the respective Ministries of Energy of the
ECOWAS member states, partner institutions of ECREEE and other stakeholders
will also be present.
The project aims at establishing a
regional policy and its implementation strategy that will support the region’s
energy efficiency and renewable energy policies. It will also enhance the
Sustainable Energy for All’s (SE4ALL) initiative of achieving the goals of
universal access to modern energy services..
The ECOWAS Policy for Gender
Mainstreaming in Energy Access, the first of its kind globally, aims at
addressing barriers that hinder the participation of women in energy access. It will ensure that women make both
intellectual and business-wise contributions to ending the region’s energy
crises. Women comprise up 50 percent of the region’s population and 43 percent
of the ECOWAS labour force.
4. Past
Events
Ghana has two new networks that
“Africa in Focus” Show/ Radio XYZ is a part of. They are the West
Africa Drug Policy Network; and the WPSI Communications Network on
UNSCR1325 (that promotes gender participation in peace and security).
The West Africa Drug Policy
Network is backed by the Senegal-based West Africa Commission on Drugs, and was
established in Accra following a two-day civil society meeting that sought to
explore ways in which CSOs can play critical roles in drug policy in the
sub-region.
The WPSI Communications Network
on UNSCR1325 was established after a two-day follow-up Media strategy meeting,
which was held under the auspices of the Women Peace & Security Institute
of KAIPTC here in Accra.
The "Africa in
Focus Show"/Radio XYZ is to date one of the first programmes/radio
stations in Accra to currently serve on the steering committee of the
Communications Network. Please find below the composition of the Committee:
a. Women, Peace and
Security Institute of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training
Centre
b. FOSDA
c. West Africa Network on Peace-building
d. Ghana's Security Services Communications' people
e. Media (Finder newspaper; Africa in Focus Show - Radio XYZ 93.1FM; Gloria
Anderson, GBC; Eunice Minkah, Women in Parliament )
ENDs
