RuRal ElEctRification agEncy

Second from left is the lady technician participating in the construction of Moroto - Nakapiripirit 33KV line in February, 2019. Nanjing Daji Steel Tower Manufacturing Co. Ltd was contracted by REA to build the 203.4 Km-MV electricity line in March 2017.

Dr. Patricia Litho of REA exhibiting the electricity distribution model during the Jinja Agricultural Expo in

2018.

REa is an Equal oppoRtunity EmployER

In a male dominated sector like the energy sector, an organization like the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) that has 42% of its staff as female is considered to be doing quite well in gender mainstreaming.

With a total of 150 staff members, 63 of them are females and to Dr. Patricia Litho, the Agency’s Principal Corporate & Community Affairs Officer, this is relatively balanced gender employment.

While champions of women empowerment push for more numbers for women in employment, Litho reasons that it is important to go beyond the numbers and consider the relationship between males and female when it comes to equity in accessing resources and opportunities since that is were the inequality manifests itself.

In REA for instance, it would be important to review the various decision making positions males and females hold.

At the top of REA’s structure is the Rural Electrification Board (REB) which is a 7-member team as the highest decision making level.

The board is comprised of representation of ministries of energy, finance and local government as well as private sector, financial sector and civil society organisations and the executive director as the board secretary.

Of these, four are men while the three are women. The women board members are Aida Wanendeya, Olivia Kabaale and Annet Mulindwa representing the private sector, civil society organisations and financial sector respectively.

For example, of the organisation’s eight departments and seven units, six are headed by females. The Agency has several technical females officers; thirteen of who are engineers; while the rest hold the positions of officers and Administrative Assistants.

gEndER mainstREaming at REa

In its effort the ensure gender considerations and mainstreaming in its work REA has a gender working group which feeds into the bigger sector gender working group. The gender sector working group consists of representatives from the various energy sector institutions who are working together to ensure gender mainstreaming both at their various agencies and in their project area.

The REA gender working group ensures all projects pay attention to gender issues. The Agency also targets services centres that benefit women especially health centres and water sources.

As an infrastructure development institution; the majority of the workforce is male because of their numbers as far as technical training in engineering is concerned. We however ensure gender mainstreaming in these projects by employoing both males and females if these are competent. We ensure the communities we work in also benefit from employment opportunities regardless of their gender. We give sensitization on a range of topics including; HIV/AIDs, health and safety, energy efficiency and productive uses of energy. We deliberately ensure that women also attend these meetings since they are a big consumer of energy.

Litho noted that there is also a sensitisation gap as most of the meetings called to address gender issues are majorly attended by men instead unless it is a deliberate call for women.

To address this, Litho explained that they have paid special attention to women’s schedules and set the sensitisation meetings at times that are convenient for women.

“We schedule these meetings for evenings just to ensure that women shall have time to attend,” Litho said.

International Women’s Day 2019

Cynthia Kamukama of REA during the Energy week exhibition at KCCA grounds Lugogo.

REA female staff matching during the annual Energy week in Kampala

RuRal ElEctRification agEncy

paying attEntion to all

Litho further explained that though special attention has been paid to women, men should not be forgotten because there are communities where women are more empowered than men making men the vulnerable ones.

She singled out communities like Myanzi and Kiganda towns in Mubende district and parts of northern Uganda were she said majority of the local leaders are women.

“We went with our usual stereotype that women are disadvantaged but we were disproved when we found a good number of the women were the community leaders. We were just wondering where the men were,” Litho said.

She added that their several attempts to separate men from women to advance gender agenda have proved futile as the latter demand to remain together during sensitisations.

In such communities, she explained that they deliberately reach out to men who need more of the empowerment in comparison to their female counterparts; when we do this we ensure that both genders are part of the process.

She further explained that some of our key criteria for rural electrification are initiatives that target women. Some of these are health centers and water sources that are directly used by women in rural areas.

“When we are undertaking feasibility studies to choose project sites, we always look out for water bodies and health centers, things that are majorly associated with women.

People provide such services as interventions for gender mainstreaming interventions,” Litho said.

“Women in rural areas travel long distances looking for water. To reduce that distance and free up some time for women and girls to engage in other activities, we target water bodies as a direct benefit,” she added. When we target water bodies women now move shorter distances and are not only safe but also free to engage in other income generating activities and also time for girls to go to school in time like their male counterparts.

She also added that most of the kitchens and bathroom room facilities in rural areas are standalone structures independent of the main houses, by virtue of which compromises the safety of women at night. We therefore encourage wiring of these places including having security lights to ensure women’s safety.

“It is the women who are always out in the kitchens. When we bring light to an area, there is safety for women,” she said.

Eng. Deborah Nantume inspecting a burnt electric pole in Karamoja Sub-region.

International Women’s Day 2019