The African Union has declared 2010-2020 as the African Women’s Decade and this include amongst others: fighting for poverty and promoting economic empowerment of women entrepreneurship; education; women and decision making and mentoring of youth. During the Clean Energy Ministerial on 20 July 2010, eleven initiatives were launched to accelerate the global transition to clean energy which amongst them included the C-3E Women Education and Empowerment. The Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C-3E) women’s initiative was launched with the initial support of eight (8) governments at the first Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) in July 2010 with the goal to take cooperative steps towards a world where women across societies are in a position to actively contribute to the clean energy revolution.

South Africa as committed to women empowerment in various levels and sectors have already women representatives of women in key positions but still a lot need to be done. The participating governments include: Australia; Denmark; Mexico; Norway; South Africa; Sweden; the United Arab Emirates; the United Kingdom and the United States. Now to achieve this vision it requires closing the gender gap in science; technology; engineering and mathematics education-the “STEM fields-as advanced training in these disciples is often a critical step towards careers in clean energy innovation.

1.3 On the 20th of August 2011, the Department of Energy held the Energy dinner to launch the South African Chapter of the C-3E initiative. One hundred and twenty one distinguished women leaders in public, private, nonprofit and academia fields gathered to act on a shared passion for women and energy issues. The dinner sponsored by NERSA, was an opportunity to declare how each attendee can contribute to this important initiative.

The Programme Manager – Ms Phindile Nzimande: CEO of NERSA and the host opened the proceedings and the Director General of DOE presented the opening remarks and laying the foundation for the deliberations and expectation of the Department through its partnerships and delivering on its regional and international commitments and obligations.