Women are Agents of Change, the Honourable Melanne Verveer advocates
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW56) will convene in New York from 27 February to 9 March 2012. The theme “Empowerment of Rural Women and their role in the eradication of poverty and hunger” is very much at the heart of the work of Women for Water Partnership and its member organisations. And the review theme “financing for women’s development” is a major area of concern.
Symposium
In honour of Alice Bouman-Dentener, parting Secretary General of the NVR and President of the Women for Water Partnership, the Netherlands Council of Women organized a symposium on the above subjects. The symposium and Alice's farewell reception were kindly hosted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. On February 3rd, representatives from the broad field of gender equality and women’s empowerment gathered in a snowy The Hague to pay respect to Alice Bouman for her valuable contributions, nationally and internationally, over the past 15 years. UN Water Secretary, Kenza Kaouakib-Robinson had come over from New York and the U.S. Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer addressed the participants by video (the video message is included at the bottom of this webpage).
“Women have a critical leadership role to play in sustainable development, particularly in regards to access to clean water and sanitation”, the Honourable Melanne Verveer said. “As you know so well, in much of the developing world, women spend several hours a day collecting, transporting and managing water for domestic use as well as promoting sanitation in their families and communities. As the primary agricultural producers in much of the developing world, women also use water resources to provide food for their families and communities and to grow incomes. Factors such as climate change and a rapidly growing global population pose a challenge to ensuring access to clean and reliable sources of water now and in the years to come." Ms Verveer carried the message home by saying: "The decisions that are made today on water will continue to impact global food security, community health and economic wellbeing."
"Women as half the world’s population and Agents of Change, leaders in water resource management must be engaged in developing local and global solutions to ensuring clean water access for everyone", Ms Verveer advocated. "Unlocking the potential of women now will ensure that water resources are managed effectively into the future. Of course the critical leadership role of women in sustainable development is not limited to water resource management, as critically important as that is", Ms Verveer noted. "In the development of stronger, greener economies, it will be critical also to bring women to the table on issues related to climate change, agriculture, clean energy, forests and so many other areas."
Ms Verveer stressed the importance of the engagement of rural women: "I would like to note that it is particularly important that we reach out to engage rural women in these important conversations and implementing solutions with them. Rural women, many of whom are local environmental stewards across the world, bring significant local knowledge and innovative solutions to the table. The work that you are doing is so important to informing and shaping the global agenda and for ensuring that women’s role in protecting the environment it given the attention that it deserves."
Recommendations
Anke Vervoord, women’s representative of the Netherland to UNGA 2012 and Director of the largest Rural Women’s organization of the Netherlands spoke on the development of rural women. Partipants discussed matters and clear and concise recommendations were formulated with respect to women’s empowerment and (financial) support for the Women’s Major Group. The recommendations were favorably received by the Minister for Emancipation and Gender Equality during the formal CSW56 briefing on February 7th. Minster Marja van Bijsterveldt expressed her commitment to women’s empowerment and to taking the issues forward as Head of the Netherlands Delegation to CSW56.
Links and downloads
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW56) will convene in New York from 27 February to 9 March 2012. The theme “Empowerment of Rural Women and their role in the eradication of poverty and hunger” is very much at the heart of the work of Women for Water Partnership and its member organisations. And the review theme “financing for women’s development” is a major area of concern.
Symposium
In honour of Alice Bouman-Dentener, parting Secretary General of the NVR and President of the Women for Water Partnership, the Netherlands Council of Women organized a symposium on the above subjects. The symposium and Alice's farewell reception were kindly hosted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. On February 3rd, representatives from the broad field of gender equality and women’s empowerment gathered in a snowy The Hague to pay respect to Alice Bouman for her valuable contributions, nationally and internationally, over the past 15 years. UN Water Secretary, Kenza Kaouakib-Robinson had come over from New York and the U.S. Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer addressed the participants by video (the video message is included at the bottom of this webpage).
“Women have a critical leadership role to play in sustainable development, particularly in regards to access to clean water and sanitation”, the Honourable Melanne Verveer said. “As you know so well, in much of the developing world, women spend several hours a day collecting, transporting and managing water for domestic use as well as promoting sanitation in their families and communities. As the primary agricultural producers in much of the developing world, women also use water resources to provide food for their families and communities and to grow incomes. Factors such as climate change and a rapidly growing global population pose a challenge to ensuring access to clean and reliable sources of water now and in the years to come." Ms Verveer carried the message home by saying: "The decisions that are made today on water will continue to impact global food security, community health and economic wellbeing."
"Women as half the world’s population and Agents of Change, leaders in water resource management must be engaged in developing local and global solutions to ensuring clean water access for everyone", Ms Verveer advocated. "Unlocking the potential of women now will ensure that water resources are managed effectively into the future. Of course the critical leadership role of women in sustainable development is not limited to water resource management, as critically important as that is", Ms Verveer noted. "In the development of stronger, greener economies, it will be critical also to bring women to the table on issues related to climate change, agriculture, clean energy, forests and so many other areas."
Ms Verveer stressed the importance of the engagement of rural women: "I would like to note that it is particularly important that we reach out to engage rural women in these important conversations and implementing solutions with them. Rural women, many of whom are local environmental stewards across the world, bring significant local knowledge and innovative solutions to the table. The work that you are doing is so important to informing and shaping the global agenda and for ensuring that women’s role in protecting the environment it given the attention that it deserves."
Recommendations
Anke Vervoord, women’s representative of the Netherland to UNGA 2012 and Director of the largest Rural Women’s organization of the Netherlands spoke on the development of rural women. Partipants discussed matters and clear and concise recommendations were formulated with respect to women’s empowerment and (financial) support for the Women’s Major Group. The recommendations were favorably received by the Minister for Emancipation and Gender Equality during the formal CSW56 briefing on February 7th. Minster Marja van Bijsterveldt expressed her commitment to women’s empowerment and to taking the issues forward as Head of the Netherlands Delegation to CSW56.
Links and downloads
