ACWA Power, a water desalination and power generation firm, recently collaborated with a key player in energy sector, ECOHZ, which offers global renewable energy solutions to businesses, organizations and electricity providers, to empower local women and support communities in Morocco.
“Stemming from its commitment to communities it operates in, and following its development of the world’s largest concentrated solar power plan project, Noor Power Plant in Morocco, ACWA Power concludes the year by empowering women around the planet through increasing income and employability and improving education,” a press release said.
ACWA Power works closely with WOCAN, the international membership network working toward gender equality, and creator of W+ Standard (W+), which measures the impact of projects on women’s empowerment and increases their access to resources and capital, scaling up solutions to climate change, food security and poverty.
The CSR project increases income and improves livelihoods of the local female population. It recognizes the social capital created by women, rewards women’s contributions to sustainable environment communities, provides access to women in local communities to basic needs including education and health care, and increases the income and employability of women to help ensure gender equality.
Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of ACWA Power, said: “We are passionate about our model of developing plants in remote areas and actively collaborating with the local communities. This results in empowerment of local communities, creation of employment opportunities, and generation of economic activity — which we consider our long-term commitment.”
We are proud to be working with W+ to contribute toward increasing income and employability.”
Tom Lindberg, managing director at ECOHZ, added: “We work to change corporations’ energy behavior and are enthusiastic to be able to empower women at the same time — contribute to both SDG 7 (clean energy) and SDG 5 (gender equality).”
In coordination with WOCAN’s pursuit of sustainable development, it has been reported that W+ is the first instrument that offers the possibility to measure, verify, and report the fifth and seventh critical sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are part of the larger 17 SDGs set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
The collaboration between ACWA Power, ECOHZ and WOCAN has been able to heavily contribute to these SDG’s and consequently amplify the welfare of women in Morocco.
