Session on ‘LiFE and Relevance of Gender’, at India Smart Utility Week (ISUW) 2023
On March 3, 2023; USAID, through its South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP) program, organised a session on LiFE and Relevance of Gender, at the India Smart Utility Week (ISUW) 2023, organized by India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). The Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) Program, announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi on June 5, 2022, World Environment Day, aims to mobilize at least 1 billion people – both Indians and others – to take environmental action between 2022 and 2027.
Harry Kriz, Director, Indo Pacific Office, USAID, delivered the special address at the session stating “LiFE is as ambitious as India’s other, laudable climate goals. This movement sets its sight on mobilizing a billion people, even beyond India. It aims at creating a global community. A movement like this will obviously have to take gender into consideration,”
Reena Suri, Executive Director, ISGF delivered the welcome address. Rakesh Goyal, Chief of Party, SAREP, set the context for the session by highlighting how SAREP will further LiFE’s initiatives in all its 3 phases – demand reduction, change in supply, and policy. He emphasized on the role of women as agents of change, especially in the demand reduction phase of LiFE.
Farah Ahmed, Cross Cutting Lead, USAID’s SAREP delivered a presentation on ‘Why the Role of Women is Critical in LiFE (in Clean Energy Transition)’. She emphasized on promoting women’s leadership & empowering women to take up entrepreneurship in energy sector & increasing knowledge sharing initiatives to encourage women’s participation.
This was followed by a discussion comprising eminent women from various sectors and was moderated by Garima Garg, Senior Vice President and Head Business HR, ReNew Power.
Esteemed panellists included Vida Rozite, Policy Analyst and Project Manager, International Energy Agency; Rakesh K Goyal, COP, SAREP; Prachi Kaul, Director – India, Indo-Canadian Institute; Ritu Gupta, Financial Controller at Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd; Krithika PR, Manager Energy, RTI. Discussions revolved around challenges and opportunities for women to support LiFE and the kind of interventions needed in the program for India’s clean energy transition to make it more gender inclusive.
SAREP’s activities are geared towards the various focus areas of the LiFE initiative. Further, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion is a cross-cutting theme under the SAREP program.
Agenda and Concept Note:
