Replicating the Energy Sector Women's Leadership Initiative in Jordan

In 2022, the USAID/Jordan Energy Sector Support Activity (ESSA) conducted a gender equity and social inclusion assessment which identified a gender gap in participation and leadership in Jordan’s energy sector. The assessment found that women lacked access to professional development, mentorship, and networking opportunities, and that public and private workplace policies did not adequately address gender issues. To address these challenges, ESSA identified the Energy Sector Women’s Leadership Initiative (ESWLI), a leading professional skills development program first implemented in Nigeria, as an initiative with a strong track record that could be adapted to suit the Jordanian energy context. ESSA’s approach was to localize ESWLI, by contracting a Jordanian company to contextualize the curriculum, translate the course materials into Arabic, and pilot the training in Jordan. ESSA created an environment of continuous learning and improvement that influenced decisions on contextualization. ESSA also built collaboration, learning, and adaptation into the approach from the earliest design stages, using the results to fine-tune the courses and materials. ESWLI’s graduates showed a 100 percent rate of improvement in pre- and post-tests in the pilot stage and 92 percent of participants expressed overall satisfaction with the course. ESSA will train Jordanian energy institutions in multiple regions of the country to sustain the fully contextualized and Arabized ESWLI, as well as disseminate the approach to similar sectors within Jordan and across the Middle East and North Africa region.