Publicity Programme on Electricity and Gas Safety

Bureau / Department	Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD)
Objective	To promote electrical and gas safety to members of the public.
Content	In order to promote household electrical and gas safety, EMSD conducts a series of publicity activities, including talks, carnivals, distribution and posting of advertisement and publicity materials at various public locations. Moreover, Announcement in the Public Interests (APIs) are produced and broadcast in TV channels and other public media. Members of the public can also access all the publicity materials from the EMSD homepage. EMSD noted from the Census and Statistics Department's publication "Women and Men in Hong Kong - Key Statistics" that female were responsible for performing larger share of housework and hence they had greater opportunity to use household electrical and gas appliances. As indicated in "Women and Men in Hong Kong - Key Statistics" (2004 Edition), some 38.3% of women aged 15 and over indicated that they were responsible for performing a larger share (60% and more) of housework in their households. The corresponding percentage for men aged 15 and over who took up such a large share of housework was 8.8%. EMSD's publicity materials and messages, as well as the publicity programme, are produced based on a gender-neutral principle. Famous cartoon characters, like Snoopy and Doraemon, which are gender-neutral, were used in the publicity posters and pamphlets in recent years. In the production of APIs, characters of both genders were adopted in a balanced manner to reflect the real life situations and to attract the attention of the public. Moreover, balanced coverage had been duly considered. Other than delivering messages to target groups which were traditionally male-dominant, EMSD had devised more channels in their publicity programme which could be accessed by women more effectively. They had conducted talks to hospitals (many audiences were nurses and female staff), public and private estates (they were usually held in the afternoon, when housewives were able to attend) and carnivals (they were held near populous districts which were attended mostly by kids and parents). EMSD also conducted an interview on electrical safety in the afternoon TV programme and in a morning radio programme. In addition, publicity materials were usually posted at and distributed through public locations and public transportation systems, where both genders had equal opportunity to assess. EMSD's surveys on household electrical and gas safety collected sex-disaggregated data and monitored the safety awareness and knowledge on household electrical and gas safety of female and male and whether the safety messages had been effectively passed on. Surveys showed that female and male had a similar level of knowledge over household electrical and gas safety.
Groups / Persons Affected	Members of the general public.
Impact	EMSD had consulted 18 women associations, which considered their publicity programme would increase women's access to and control of resources as well as increase their safety awareness. There was positive change in gender awareness / sensitivity amongst EMSD staff involved in the publicity programme. The department has established a gender unit or focal point to promote and support gender mainstreaming. Furthermore, guideline for support gender mainstreaming has been followed. When EMSD conducts surveys in future, they will continue to incorporate more gender perspectives to ensure that women's concerns will be more proactively reflected.
Success Factor / Lessons Learned	The Gender Mainstreaming Checklist is a very useful tool in enhancing EMSD's staff's gender awareness and reminding them to incorporate gender issues in the design of publicity messages and choice of target receiver groups. Collection of sex-disaggregated data serves as an indicator on the areas of publicity work that EMSD should concentrate on when disseminating safety messages and can monitor the effectiveness of the publicity programme.