By Celestine Okorie

DMWA Resources, a pan-African energy marketing & investment holding, has endorsed the gender equity campaign, Equal by 30, which aims to encourage women in the clean energy sector to access equal pay, equal leadership and equal opportunities. Alongside 6 partner organisations, DMWA increases the total of signatories to 144, including 118 organisations, 13 partners and 13 governments.

By having a limited workforce, companies are not drawing upon the full range of talent at their disposal. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, increasing the number of women in leadership positions from 0 to 30 per cent translates to a 15 per cent boost in profits. Another study, conducted in 2015 by the McKinsey Global Institute, estimates that by taking steps to advance greater equality for women, such as employing more women in technology and boosting women’s participation in the workforce, the world could add US$12 trillion to its economy by 2026. As they add: “The public, private, and social sectors will need to act to close gender gaps in work and society.”

DMWA is in a unique position to be able to bring women on board decisively, as investors or creators of opportunities to invest in. “We’re really proud to become signatory today and firmly believe that any sound investment must be one that has women on board. For us, having skin in the game is important and our core focus is on creating long-term value to benefit ourselves, our partners, host countries and their citizens. We are certain that this cannot be achieved without women’s participation.” states Managing Partner at DMWA Resources, Sebastian Wagner.

DMWA Resources endorses the Equal by 30 Campaign principles on gender equality, and commits to the below actions:

• We believe in offering a safe, transparent, respectful and inclusive work environment and attractive opportunities for development for all our staff
• We are committed to providing training opportunities to all employees to avoid toxic or misogynistic working environments, so that our workplaces are free of harassment, violence and bullying behaviours for all
• We are committed to attracting women in all departments
• We will aim for approximately 50% representation of women across all levels, including in the leadership team and at board level, by the year 2030
• We are committed to providing fair compensation and equal pay for work of equal value. We also commit to providing career progression opportunities
• Importantly, we commit to backing investments led by women and which will encourage women’s participation in the energy industry
• Finally, we commit to encouraging our clients and partners to have a strong inclusive agenda, which will facilitate women’s involvement in the energy industry

The Equal by 30 campaign is a joint initiative of the Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment Initiative (C3E), which works to advance the participation of women in the clean energy transition and close the gender gap, and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Equal by 30 is led and based at Natural Resources Canada, a division of the Government of Canada.