Attachment_J.2_-_Illustrative_Work_Order.pdf

Attachment J.2 Illustrative Work Order “Engendering Utilities 2.0” for Smart Utilities and Sector

Reform Task Order

1. Background

In support of the Agency’s Gender Policy, USAID has pursued a variety of approaches to promote women’s participation in the energy sector, including: increasing women’s participation in the energy sector workforce, increasing awareness and acceptance of gender equity issues in energy sector actors and decision making processes, gathering data/evidence on the impacts of gender equity and women’s economic empowerment activities in the energy sector.

In support of the Agency’s goals in the energy sector to strengthen utility performance and sustainably provide clean, reliable energy at the least cost, USAID is applying global best practices that demonstrate the business case for gender-equity in the energy sector. Globally, women comprise only 5 percent of executive board members in power and utility companies, along with only 14 percent of senior management leadership teams. Increasing the number of women working in the energy sector represents a significant opportunity to not only improve gender outcomes within developing economies but also to strengthen the utilities’ effectiveness via improved employee retention rates, increased productivity, and enhanced financial returns.

With these goals in mind, USAID launched Engendering Utilities (EU) in 2015. In its first incarnation, Engendering Utilities aimed to improve our information and knowledge of gender inequalities in power sector utilities at the distribution level. To date, EU has worked with seven electric power distribution companies (DISCOs) in five countries: Jordan, Georgia, Macedonia, Nigeria, and Kenya.

As an initial step, the program conducted baseline research to ascertain how many women were employed in each utility, and which jobs they held. The research revealed that while women are represented in all job categories and at all levels across the seven utilities, they tend to be concentrated in certain positions. Specifically, women tended to be concentrated in Finance and Customer Service, whereas men were concentrated in technical field operations and field maintenance. As a result, women generally were not benefitting from training, mentoring, or internship opportunities within the utilities, as these often are technically focused.

Based on these results, Engendering Utilities designed customized interventions in conjunction with the utilities to break these patterns and strengthen women’s career prospects. These included:

● Conducting and acting on gender gap analyses: Building the appropriate staff capacity to undertake and interpret a gender gap analysis.

● Designing and improving recruitment strategies: Developing recruitment strategies that encourage qualified women to apply for positions.

● Improving professional career development programs: Supporting mentoring and leadership training to strengthen women’s career aspirations.

● Building the next generation workforce: Conducting outreach to schools to increase girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) fields.

To address gaps more systematically, Engendering Utilities has most recently focused on enhancing human resources (HR) policies and best practice for recruiting and maintaining women in utility companies. EU developed an HR Best Practice framework to help partner utilities conduct a gap analysis of their current HR policies and practices. To implement changes suggested by the gap analysis, the program partnered with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business to design a customized 10 month Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program, which identifies 2 or 3 change-makers within each of the 7 utilities to drive change.

The curriculum includes in-person and online action learning on topics such as benchmark review, implementation planning, draft policies and procedures through the HR cycle, and HR analytics. The program culminates in a capstone project that is designed and implemented by participants throughout the duration of the program. In addition to the course work, participants receive 10 hours of tailored technical assistance to design and implement their project. Upon completion of the 10-month Gender Equity Executive Leadership program, participants receive an Executive Education certificate from the McDonough School of Business.

It is important to note that in recent years, programs focused on promoting gender-equity in the energy sector have also been developed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Malawi and Ghana as well as similar effort by one utility in Iceland. Moving forward, Engendering Utilities 2.0 should draw on lessons learned from parallel programs and develop a community of practice to share global lessons learned and catalog and connect similar initiatives.

2. Objectives & Tasks

The Engendering Utilities 2.0 seeks to build upon these successes by deepening the impact of the existing model and expanding it geographically. The Contractor must implement the following tasks:

1. Roll out an expanded and updated HR certification program to a new cohort of 7-10 utilities.

These new utilities could include those that have expressed interest in the Engendering Utilities program (such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Kosovo and Nigeria) as well as others from Latin

America and the Caribbean, and/or Europe and Eurasia that will be identified in collaboration with USAID. This task includes conducting a review of the existing HR certification program, enhancement of the current curriculum and implementation model, establishing partnerships with the new utilities and a program roll out to the utilities identified. This expanded program must build on lessons learned from global programs with similar goals to that of Engendering

Utilities.

2. Provide tailored technical support to alumni of the first cohort of 7 utilities from Jordan, Macedonia, Georgia, Nigeria and Kenya towards continued implementation of their capstone projects as well as support in ensuring that utilities are able to capture the impact of their investments. Capstone projects focus on the core tenets of USAID’s HR Framework which highlights global best practices in HR. These best practices include:

a. Community Outreach for Equitable Recruitment

b. Gender-equitable participation in internship programs

c. Gender-equitable internal and external communication

d. Establish a corporate level commitment to gender equity

e. Companies support gender equity policy/ legislation, especially around economic empowerment through their own supply chains

f. Functional HR policies and processes (e.g., job descriptions, health and safety, etc.) are gender equitable

g. Work environment policies and processes (e.g., lactation, flex time, sexual harassment, job restoration, equal pay, and workplace violence) exist

h. Benefits policies exist regarding practices such as paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, childcare facilities or assistance with childcare arrangements, family care leave, and work from home options (when feasible)

i. Payroll and administrative structures for achieving pay equity exist, including salary equity analysis and tools for implementing these structures

j. Equity and impact analysis of benefits usage for all employees (disaggregated by sex) is conducted and evidence of inequitable use of benefits is used to inform activities that promote a more equitable work culture

k. Professional development opportunities (e.g., job rotation, conferences, job shadowing, training, and mentoring) and career advancement opportunities are equitable

l. Gender-equitable succession plans are developed and used

m. Equitable access to leadership development opportunities Leadership development content and process is equitable and includes equal access to business, strategy, negotiation, and financial acumen training for women

n. Gender equity and awareness training for key leaders and management within companies is offered

3. Develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework to measure the longer term results of the Engendering Utilities interventions, beginning with the cohort of the 7 current utilities participating in the existing program. This will include a set of indicators as well as a data collection methodology to capture downstream results of the program, particularly those that could quantify benefits to the utilities of participation in Engendering Utilities. Examples of such types of indicators might include retention rates for female staff, financial benefits to the utility of increased recruiting/retention of female staff, etc. This effort must build on lessons learned from global programs with similar goals to that of Engendering Utilities.

4. Expand Engendering Utilities programmatically to address another systematic gender gap in the energy sector. This effort should focus on utilities and provide a deeper understanding of how to achieve gender equity within utilities or this effort could adapt the Engendering Utilities model to other energy sector actors (i.e. regulators, etc.)

5. Build a community of practice across utilities to facilitate learning and share global lessons learned in promoting gender-equity in the energy sector. This community must build on lessons learned from global programs with similar goals to that of Engendering Utilities.