Progressing the UN SDGs: Focusing on Women and Diversity in Resource Management Brings Benefits to All
Authors: Capello Maria Angela , Robinson-Marras Cristina , Dubay Kankana , Tulsidas Harikrishnan , Griffiths Charlotte 
Published: September 2021

Gender equality in the energy sector is still a challenge for the timely attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on empowering women. To enable solutions roadmaps, the UN Expert Group on Resource Management launched "Women in Resource Management" in April 2019. This paper summarizes the initiative's progress to date and how it maneuvered through the pandemic, delivering several quick wins benefitting women in oil and gas, geothermal, and mining.

The initiative focuses on the energy sector (Oil & Gas, Renewables, Mining). As per the UNECE - Gender 2020 annual report, "The Women in Resource Management aims to determine achievable, global outreach goals to explore how resource management can help attain SDG 5, recognizing the importance to provide women and girls with, inter alia, equal access to education and decent work, and that their representation in economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies".

Work done till May 2021 includes:Review of a series of resource management projects to evaluate challenges and opportunities in enhancing performance from the perspective of gender.Selection of cases and country-specific study cases that exemplify how SDG 5 aims could be applied in resource management.

The initiative deliverables and timeline for the future include:Dialogues on policy, aimed to boost gender participation in resource managementA network of women engaged in resource management projectsWebinars with global outreachIssue recommendations for the consideration and incrementing the participation of gender in resource management

A comparison of critical elements considered diagnostic for women's empowerment such as female workforce percentages, participation of women in leadership and technical roles across several segments of resource management will be assessed per region with a global outlook.

Other indicators valuable for the proposed assessment will be shared in this paper covering communication programmes and tools, empowerment and knowledge-sharing workshops, strategies and frameworks to increase active participation and awareness of women and men on the importance of gender equality for the sustainability of the energy sector.

The initiative's roadmap was shared to collectively join efforts in an initiative that needs to compel the related organizations and stakeholders to generate step-changing actions to attain SDG 5 by 2030 and fully benefit from the impacts of diversity and inclusion in resource management, which benefit the sector.

The participation of women in technical, organizational and leadership roles in resource management is imperative to ensure the sustainability of the energy sector in actionable paths. The roadmap and quick wins shared in this paper will inspire governmental, private, not-for-profit, multilateral, and other organizations dealing with the complex objective of incrementing the participation of women in resource management. The pursuit of gender equality strategies enables the success of SDG 5, especially if done with a collaborative effort that creates social and economic value at a global scale. Immediate objectives of the future activities of this initiative are to shape teams to address and advance research, communication of best practices and opportunities in mining (minerals and U/To resources), Oil and Gas, Renewables (including groundwater) and Public Sector and Talent Development.