North Africa Coffee Talk / Action Lab 1 • Monday 14 September 2026, 14:00–15:00 CEST (Brussels time), online.

Green hydrogen will not scale on molecules alone. It will scale through the people who build projects, run operations and unlock finance, and it needs women in those core roles and decision spaces.

On 14 September, MED-GEM Network and Women in Green Hydrogen (WiGH) North Africa open the first activation of a wider regional pathway: a one-hour interactive Coffee Talk that moves from connection to structured action. Bringing together women active in green hydrogen and renewable energy across Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, the session is designed to produce something concrete: a shared mapping of women's expertise across the region, and a regional challenge matrix identifying the barriers that hold women back from technical, financial and leadership roles.

This is not another panel. Working in country breakout rooms, participants will answer three simple questions, where the women and the expertise already are, what is holding women back, and what the network can realistically activate next, and turn their answers into a common set of priorities.

The Coffee Talk is the first of three connected Action Labs. It opens a regional advocacy and mobilisation pathway that continues with a WiGH Middle East / GCC Action Lab, a joint MENA–GCC campaign, and a public activation with UNIDO at European Hydrogen Week in Brussels. From visibility to measurable outputs; from evidence to action.

Register and contribute to the mapping

Seats are limited. Registration also includes a short questionnaire that feeds directly into the regional mapping and helps prepare the breakout discussions, participation and inclusion in the mapping are entirely opt-in.

👉 Register here: https://mailchi.mp/med-gem.eu/wigh_action-lab1 

👉 Preliminary form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmaIq3zd8Nr4ibZ1Nj7q_6mEtcSEBOs0-3_iUATRBm-P5qoA/viewform

Provisional agenda

• 14:00-14:03 Opening perspective
  Gauri Singh – IRENA (TBC)
• 14:03-14:10 Welcome & framing
  Nihal Mansouri – WiGH North Africa
Raya Ben Guiza Verniers – MED-GEM Network
• 14:10-14:18 Meet the Network
  Introduction of the WiGH country coordinators for Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
• 14:18-14:38 Country Breakout Rooms / Challenge Lab
  Interactive discussions around expertise, barriers and priorities for action.
• 14:38-14:50 What did we learn?
  Short restitution from the five country rooms.
• 14:50-14:55 Regional perspective
  Nadia Chioukh – RCREEE
• 14:55-15:00 Call to Action & next steps
  Mapping, challenge matrix, mentoring and future Women in Green Hydrogen actions.

MED-GEM Network is funded by the European Union. In partnership with Women in Green Hydrogen North Africa, with the contribution of RCREEE.