Background of Shoktikonna
Bangladesh is one of the most possible victims of climate change due to its physical location. Although, the world is going towards an uncertain future, yet we could take least steps to fight that. Thus, 8th March 2024, a bunch of young women celebrated International Women’s Day differently. This was held at Hotel Sheraton, Banani. They are women engineers and got the title ‘Shoktikonna’. They met with their mentors as a stand against climate change.
To begin with, Devtale Partners with WePOWER Network, The WB, GIZ, USAID and EU organized the second Shoktikonna Leadership Cohort 2023. They arranged a graduation ceremony for the women engineers. Experts trained the engineers for more than three months. The experts provided sessions from all over the world. The expert pool includes masters of green energy, use of land for solar and farming and carbon market. They believe in the idea of Shoktikonna, ‘Holding a Torch for Skills for all-in Green Move’. And they also believe in the necessity of taking part of women in this challenging journey.
Solve-a-thon by Shoktikonna
On that very day, young women leaders of Bangladesh in energy, nature and relevant sectors gave their idea. The engineers focused on ideas that can combat climate change. Arrangers gave problems to the engineers to present green solutions. They name this event Solve-a-thon. Their firm ideas covered green transportation like green energy for Dhaka metro. Use of land for solar and farming for inclusive farming sector was also a solution. It also covered green city and many more. In short, they drew the later of Bangladesh with climate resilience and gender equity.
The viability of the ideas was judged by judges who are concerned about the energy state of Bangladesh. Shirin Lira, Programme Manager, Governance, Climate Change and Nature, Swiss Embassy in Bangladesh was present to guide the young enthusiast and judge the ideas. Nasrul Hamid, State Minister, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Assets was the chief guest of the graduation ceremony. He gave the prizes to the top teams. Best five teams were awarded BDT 50,000 each for the testing of their ideas as well as the top three sole performers will be getting the call to join WePower Seminar, 2024 in Sri Lanka.
Why women
The story of Shoktikonna started with a group of people from many organizations. They are genuinely concerned about the fact that women leadership is not up to the mark in energy sector and green move. To cope up with the world, it is high time to bring the half of the mind of the people to the plate. Shotkikonna organized the launching in November 2023.
National and Global Energy and climate experts held panel talk and open sessions to guide the mind of the engineers and to clarify the aim of being updated with future skills. Officers of Solaric and Grameen Shokti were their to motivate engineers.
Study plan
Also, energy experts from the partner firm and professors from reputed schools had interaction time about energy, energy sources and usage all over the period. Also, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offered courses for free through Coursera about leadership and team culture to prepare the trainees for the future. World Bank Group’s online study platform training was on power system design and transmission which is a burning concern while planning a green-energy relied country. Trainees got the global exposures related to the current issues in Bangladesh.
Shoktikonna summed up this year’s women’s day with EU’s ‘SheisWe’ campaign to hail the power of women. A cultural program was held with women band group to support and celebrate feminism.
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