How Afghanistan's national power utility is helping women thrive in the workplace

In November 2018, Afghanistan’s power utility Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) launched a new internship program to provide better opportunities for recent graduates, especially women, to gain professional experience and skills, including engineering. 

The internship program helped increase the share of women professionals at DABS by more than 16 percent in less than two years. 

Since launching the program, DABS added 141 paid women interns and hired 146 full-time female employees. 

That is a significant accomplishment in Afghanistan, which has among the world’s lowest rates of female literacy and labor participation: only about 22 percent of Afghan women participate in the labor force, compared to 73 percent of Afghan men. 

Women in Afghanistan remain severely underrepresented in all walks of life–economically, socially, and politically, a product of traditional cultural and social norms and the legacy of sharp restrictions– under the Taliban regime. 

The [Afghan ] government is committed to reducing the gender gap ... President Ghani has instructed all the government institutions to appoint women in leadership roles

The government is committed to reducing the gender gap and is taking active steps to do so. Among others, President Ghani has instructed all the government institutions to appoint women in leadership roles.

DABS’ impressive increase in female employees occurred alongside DABS’ joining the South Asia WePOWER Network as an institutional partner.

WePOWER is a women practitioners’ network that encourages women to pursue careers with utilities, energy companies, and energy regulatory bodies throughout the region. 

In addition to aggressively recruiting female engineering students for paid internships, DABS scheduled more training sessions for female employees to develop professional skills and encourage internal promotions for successful women seeking new challenges.  

A World Bank-funded project, the DABS Planning and Capacity Support Project, which is funded by the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), complemented DABS efforts in implementing its gender activities. 

At DABS, the transformative changes were spearheaded by two women employed in DABS’ human resources department. Both are DABS’ enthusiastic focal points of WePOWER.

The utility was among several companies and institutions that set specific targets to increase the number of female employees in order to promote gender equality. 

The targets were announced in February 2019 when WePOWER was launched. WePOWER monitors institutional members’ actions to promote gender equality and shares achievements and progress on a quarterly basis. 

DABS’ internships

DABS set an ambitious target of providing internship programs for 100 female college students in 2019 and 50 in 2020.

DABS hired 106 female interns in 2019 and 35 female interns in 2020. It exceeded its target in 2019 and fell just short of it during the pandemic-affected hiring cycle of 2020.  Altogether, 141 women benefited from challenging, high-quality internships.

To increase the number of interns in Kabul and other provinces, DABS set targets for internships in each province. These targets helped DABS consider female rights in internship programs, not only at DABS headquarter in Kabul but also in provincial offices.

DABS promoted its internship program at the Technical Institute and the Polytechnic (Engineering) University, both in Kabul and during job fairs at other universities.

Altogether, 141 women benefited from challenging, high-quality internships

Students were selected for 3 to 6 months’ internships in various technical or administrative departments. The women interns included engineering students. Each intern’s work was monitored by a DABS supervisor and by a university professor.

After the internship, some students returned to university to complete their studies while others were hired by DABS or found a job elsewhere.

29 DABS interns (in the 2019-20 period), who did or could not get DABS jobs but, obtained full-time jobs in government agencies (such as the Ministry of Finance), other utilities, and private companies based on the DABS Internship experience.

“My internship journey at DABS was awesome.” One of the female interns said.  “I had the opportunity to meet the team, practice the theories, and gave me good experience that really helped me in having my dream job.” 

DABS offers various kinds of training to all its employees, with a special focus on women employees 

High-quality technical training

DABS offers various kinds of training to all its employees, with a special focus on women employees based on a training needs assessment and annual skills development plans.  

Technical training for engineers is offered in Afghanistan when DABS can find qualified instructors. However, training and field-based seminars are also often held in Dubai, India, or other countries where trainers are available to teach on more complex topics.  

For example, in January 2020, DABS sent 10 female engineers to a seminar at the Tata Power DDL Learning Center in New Delhi to learn about demand-side management and response, renewable energy, local peak management, and related issues.

 “Joining the international training was a good way of exchanging our knowledge, experiences, and skills,” a participating female engineer said. “It helped me to learn the new technical concepts, improve my work process, and have good accomplishments that were yesterday’s impossibilities.”

In 2019-20, the utility constructed kindergartens in two provinces, separate toilets for women in all provincial offices, and separate mosques for women in 6 provinces

Promoting and retaining female staff

DABS has internal job announcements for all staff, including for female staff who are seeking promotions or leadership positions. The power utility uses annual performance appraisals to help objectively determine yearly pay increases, including for women.

DABS trains and encourages women to aspire to leadership roles and decision-making positions.  This system will help fulfill DABS’ commitment to gender equality on the job. 

Afghan Women engineers and technical staff typically disrupt their careers for several years due to marriage or child-rearing responsibilities. 

However, DABS has a relatively low turnover of only four percent for women employees, and most women work until they retire at age 65.

DABS has improved the work environment for women by providing three months of maternity leave and flexible working hours.  

In 2019-20, the utility constructed kindergartens in two provinces, separate toilets for women in all provincial offices, and separate mosques for women in 6 provinces. DABS regularly publishes success stories about women employee role models and offers awards to its best employee.

DABS has made significant changes in its plants and offices to promote gender equality. The utility is shifting from a male-dominated workplace to one where women regularly attend management meetings and are encouraged to make proposals that are taken seriously. 

One of the enthusiastic DABS focal points of the WePOWER urges Afghan women to pursue their dreams and not be discouraged by setbacks. “You should not give up whatever you desire. You can make it happen when you believe in the words and yourself,” she said. Her words are good advice for all of us.

WePOWER is supported by the World Bank’s South Asia Gender and Energy Facility (SAGE) with funding from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and South Asia Regional Trade Facilitation Program (SARTFP). Follow WePOWER by subscribing to its quarterly newsletter.