The sponsor of the 5th Promotion of Experts (es) in Gender Engineering of the UNESCO EFPOD Chair (Water, Women and Decision-Making Power), Mr. Hien Yacouba SIÉ, Director General of the Autonomous Port of Abidjan, had on Wednesday 03 May 2023, an information session with a delegation from the said Chair, led by Ms. Valérie N'TAKPE SERY, in charge of Business Development.
This exchange meeting was an opportunity for the Chair to present the gender and development approach, as well as the importance of its implementation in business, to the port authority.
Directed by the Minister Euphrasie KOUASSI YAO, Holder of the UNESCO EFPOD Chair, works for the creation of an environment favorable to the consideration of Gender, an analysis and diagnostic tool for coherent and effective interventions.
Mr. Alexis TCHIAKPE, General Administrator of the said Chair opened the series of interventions by showing the importance of the Gender approach, and of the CUEFPOD reference structure which provides a varied range of qualifying and academic training for the benefit of decision-makers, executives business, administration and youth.
Ms. BAKAYOKO Véronique from the training team, drew up the catalog of the various training courses, namely the training seminar for decision-makers (3 or 5 days), gender engineering (9 months of training), and the Saturdays of the Chair (about 4 hours every weekend) and à la carte training as a novelty, a master's degree in Gender, Economy and Sustainable Water Management is offered by the said Chair.
Mr. ATTOUNBRE presented the GECE certification (Gender And Competitiveness of Companies) which makes it possible to correct inequalities and disparities related to gender, in order to allow the company which commits to it, to have this label. Like any certification, this one is subject to steps that each company wishing to obtain it must meet. This labeling aims to bring credibility to the certified company, which will thus be able to benefit from it with international organizations.
The representatives of the UNESCO EFPODD Chair ended their presentation by indicating that the culmination of their training is to set up a gender unit in companies in order to reduce the gaps between men and women, while keeping the hope that the PAA continues the process until obtaining the label.
The Director General of the Autonomous Port of Abidjan, following this presentation, indicated that he wanted to take advantage of the knowledge that his employees will acquire through the gender engineering training they follow in order to arrive at a gender framework for the PAA. .
He hopes that learners will come back with enough knowledge and mastery to engage the PAA in the perspective of GECE certification.
It should be recalled that ten (10) PAA workers, 6 women including the Commercial, Marketing and Communication Director, Dr. Titi PALÉ and 4 men, are registered auditors of the 6th promotion of the Gender Engineering training of the Chair UNESCO “Water, Women and Decision-making Power”.