USAID Power Sector Improvement Project
January 2022 – NUMARK Associates and Energy and Security Group (ESG) have been selected by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Pakistan Power Sector Improvement Activity (PSIA) task order as a result of a competitive solicitation.
PSIA is a four-year, $23.5M Activity aiming to increase the financial viability, reliability, and affordability of Pakistan’s power system. PSIA supports USAID’s focus on facilitating long-term solutions to energy issues through increased engagement with the private sector. This will be achieved by leveraging private investment and providing technical assistance to improve governance, implement necessary reforms, and promote fair and open competition in the market.
Women In Energy Pakistan (WIE) will support gender inclusion activities across all objectives of PSIA. The work will include introducing innovative approaches to target women throughout the lifetime of the activity, assessing the impact of policy and programmatic interventions on gender roles, and female empowerment in the energy sector.
Working together with Pakistan-based subcontractors, NUMARK and ESG will support Pakistani government efforts to transition to a competitive power market; improve energy transmission and distribution system operations; optimize the use of grid electricity; and increase the share of renewable energy production and energy efficiency utilization in the country’s energy mix. Key considerations for the PSIA Activity include more fully engaging the private sector, coordinating with Pakistani and regionally based stakeholders, ensuring environmental compliance and climate risk management, and promoting gender equality.
Workshop on Gender Equity & Energy Access
2 August 2021, Islamabad –
The workshop gave the stage to Dr. Rihab Khalid, a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, to share a policy brief co-written by Hira Wajahat, our WIE Co-Chair, which helped us to identify the key areas of improvement, mainly: lack of gender disaggregated data and absence of women in decisional areas of policy making and fieldwork in the energy sector. This was followed by Ms. Rihab sharing key interventions and recommendations on gender responsive energy policy and practice.
We invited a panel of experts to share important insights on the policy brief including: Mr. Shahjahan Mirza (CEO, AEDB), Ms. Saadia Qayyum (Energy Specialist, World Bank), Mr. Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi (Chairman, Naya Pakistan Housing authority), Mr. Mehroze Rafique (NEPRA), and Mr. Saad Latif (K-Electric). This was concluded by a Q&A session from the audience.
To read the brief report: click here
Circular Economy Fellow placed at WAPDA
2021 – We are thrilled to collaborate with Green Box to place their first Circular Economy Pathfinder, Anum Irfan, for a two-months long fellowship at WAPDA in collaboration with Women in Energy Pakistan. She will be working on gender mainstreaming into technical projects at WAPDA.
Anum Irfan has recently completed her MS in Development Studies: Technology & Policy from Information Technology University (ITU). During this role, she co-authored a paper ‘Mapping Sustainable Development Goal Indicators for Pakistan: Way Forward’ with Dr. Aftab & Ms. Kamal, that was accepted for the 2nd Annual Sustainability and Development Conference (2019) in Michigan. Anum, believes her extensive research on energy enables her to challenge the glass-ceilings in this sector where only 4 percent of women contribute.
This opportunity has been made possible by Green Box under the grant received by Youth Co:Lab through SEED.
