Women in training

Latin American women are the target of a renewables training conference and exhibit next month in Ecuador. About 400 people from at least eight countries are expected at "Women in Energy and Sustainable Development" in the Ecuadoran capital Quito on November 6-7. It is sponsored by the Washington-based Renewable Energy and Training (REETI) Institute and Organizacion LatinoAmericana de Energia. Wind will be a major focus of three panels, says Eliana Parker of REETI. "We thought so many women in energy haven't been able to get a forum to express their ideas," she adds.

Key decision-makers who have confirmed their attendance as speakers include: Nitza Villareal, the Energy Minister of Panama; Isabel Gonzalez, Executive Secretary of National Commercial Energy in Chile; Suyapa Zelaya, President of the Association of Mechanical Engineers in Honduras; Nita Coimbra, Secretary of Energy in the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Brazil; Lorena Lanza, General Director of the General Direction of Oils and the National Institute of Energy in Nicaragua; Diana Solis, Project Coordinator of Enersol Associates in Honduras; and Jane Somers, Manager of Renewable Energy for the USAID.

Areas to be covered include renewables, project development and finance, energy efficiency, health issues and reform, policy and regulation, and education and training. Three additional conferences focusing on women in renewables and sustainable energy will be held in the US next May, in Africa in August, and in Asia or the Philippines in November 1997.