Business & Professional Women International and its representatives, Lesha Witmer and Rita Assogna stood for election for the new Board of govenors of World water Council during the General Assembly in October 2009. Our candidature was  in college 4 (Civil Society and Water Users Associations).

BPW international in standing for election considered the following:
1. More women should be represented in the water sector in general and the WWC in particular.
2. Women being so pivitol and central to water supply and sanitation is not yet reflected in their "numbers" in decision making positions.
3. Active participation of major groups, diversity and gender balance are recognized to benefit any organisationin terms of strategy and succes.
4. Water and sanitation and women’s participation, are all cross cutting issues and go hand-in-hand when it comes to sustainable development in the broadest sense of the word.

BPW members were involved in the World Water Forum since 2000 in the Hague. In 2004 BPW became a member of the WWC also on behalf of the Women for Water partnership of which we are a founding member .

Lesha Witmer, the BPW International Chair of the Standing Committee on Environment, Sustainable Development & Water and Chair of the Water Taskforce has especially worked closely in collaboration with Women for Water Partnership and has been involved in the activities of the Council. To mention a few: the political process for World Water Forum 5, equity mainstreaming activities for the Forum, activities surrounding the right to water, enhancing women and women's organisation participation in the Forum e.g. by establishing the women coalition and co-organsing the pre-conference, etc.

In addition, BPW members have also been involved in international lobby and advocacy on water & sanitation in the UN system e.g. during the WWSD in Johannesburg and CSD 12 and 13. 

BPW  has very strong ties with the UN system and regional multilateral bodies and is able and willing to advocate for, and work with policy makers on the subject of water-sanitation-gender-poverty eradication; so that the WWC can benefit from our knowledge, expertise and network. BPW members worldwide are also involved in different types of water-related projects in their own communities and in developing countries (namely: Canada, Sri lanka, Moldavia, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa).

Within the BPW International membership are professional, technical, legal environmental and water specialists. Numerous women of BPW clubs are (local) government officials and elected officers, trying to enhance the attention for water issues, and this places BPW International in a unique position between professionals and users, global and local interests thereby having the ability of bridging the gap.

We were not elected this time, but our lobby certainly contributed to the fact that this time 7 women got elected to the Board of Govenors and for the first time a women is a member of the Bureau.

BPW will continue to be a member of the Council ofcourse and will look into how being being actively involved again - together with our friends from the Women for Water Partnership - in the World Water Forum taking place in 2012 in Marseille.

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