Access to water key to
women’s economic empowerment
Women for Water, BPW International and Soroptimist International CSW61 Team
It has been a busy first week for the Women for Water Partnership delegation participating in the 61st UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) held from 13-24 March at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. This year the UN’s largest gathering on gender equality and women’s rights focuses on “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work”.
Along with the 18 official meetings that include Ministerial Round Tables, high-level interactive events and expert panels, no less than 200 side events and 400 parallel events are scheduled during the 2-week event. WfWP attends as many as possible of them and on March 17th together with its member organizations Business and Professional Women International (BPWI) and Soroptimist International (SI) hosted the side-event ‘Women in Water diplomacy as key to economic empowerment’, in collaboration with the Mission of Brazil to the United Nations, headed by Mauro Vieira, UN Permanent Representative of Brazil, and Hungarian Ambassador HE Mrs Katalin Bogyay.
Along with the 18 official meetings that include Ministerial Round Tables, high-level interactive events and expert panels, no less than 200 side events and 400 parallel events are scheduled during the 2-week event. WfWP attends as many as possible of them and on March 17th together with its member organizations Business and Professional Women International (BPWI) and Soroptimist International (SI) hosted the side-event ‘Women in Water diplomacy as key to economic empowerment’, in collaboration with the Mission of Brazil to the United Nations, headed by Mauro Vieira, UN Permanent Representative of Brazil, and Hungarian Ambassador HE Mrs Katalin Bogyay.
SI President Yvonne Simpson (l), and WfWP President Mariet Verhoef-Cohen with HE chair of CSW Antonio Patriota of the Brazilian Mission
The purpose of the session was to create a joint picture of the current situation and share experiences, good practices and lessons, resulting in recommendations to be used in addition to during CSW for inter alia during the 8th World Water Forum in 2018 in Brazil. The session was chaired by SI President Yvonne Simpson (New Zealand) and moderated by Lesha Witmer, Steering Committee Member Women for Water Partnership and Chair IFBPW Water taskforce and UN representative for IFBPW.
Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, President of Women for Water Partnership and President-Elect of Soroptimist International, delivered a keynote speech stating: “Women traditionally care for and protect the water resources. In modern times their knowledge is not acknowledged and is lost. Women for Water Partnership, Soroptimist International and Business and Professional Women, have taken it upon ourselves to draw attention to the important role women play as experts, agents of change and partners in achieving equal universal access to water and sanitation. We are on a mission to secure the combined implementation of SDG 5 and 6.”
Verhoef-Cohen continued concluding that “the role of women as water professionals and/ or traditional water managers is not valued enough”. “Projects managed by women are often not recognized as contributing to Integrated Water Resource Management. Infrastructure is not maintained, also because women are left behind and not being trained as i.e plumbers.”
A first solution therefore has to be found in ensuring “we are working together with men to show concrete examples of successful women in the water sector”. “By getting more women involved as policy experts, diplomats, professionals. Many members of Women for Water Partnership and local women organisations are being empowered: many members embarked on income generating projects or small scale businesses after access to water was secured. So, access to water is key to women’s economic empowerment.”
Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, President of Women for Water Partnership and President-Elect of Soroptimist International, delivered a keynote speech stating: “Women traditionally care for and protect the water resources. In modern times their knowledge is not acknowledged and is lost. Women for Water Partnership, Soroptimist International and Business and Professional Women, have taken it upon ourselves to draw attention to the important role women play as experts, agents of change and partners in achieving equal universal access to water and sanitation. We are on a mission to secure the combined implementation of SDG 5 and 6.”
Verhoef-Cohen continued concluding that “the role of women as water professionals and/ or traditional water managers is not valued enough”. “Projects managed by women are often not recognized as contributing to Integrated Water Resource Management. Infrastructure is not maintained, also because women are left behind and not being trained as i.e plumbers.”
A first solution therefore has to be found in ensuring “we are working together with men to show concrete examples of successful women in the water sector”. “By getting more women involved as policy experts, diplomats, professionals. Many members of Women for Water Partnership and local women organisations are being empowered: many members embarked on income generating projects or small scale businesses after access to water was secured. So, access to water is key to women’s economic empowerment.”
UN HQ conference room 2 was packed during the WfWP side event
Hungarian Ambassador HE Mrs Katalin Bogyay in her intervention stressed that it “is in the fields dominated by males, such as leadership positions in politics, economics, science and technology decision making that we should aim at breaking through gender stereotypes”, presenting some best practice examples of her country: “ The Hungarian National Strategy for the Promotion of Gender Equality for 2010-2021 sets out that the percentage of women in leadership positions should reach at least 40% in Hungary by 2021. The National Research-development and Innovation Strategy for the period 2013-2020, entitled “Investment in the Future” builds on the priority of creating equal opportunities for women in the Research, Development and Innovation sector.This will require multi-stakeholder partnership with civil society, private sector, academia, media and all relevant umbrella organizations that is well underway. Promoting gender equality should be embedded also in education and vocational training. The scholarship programme called Stipendium Hungaricum is Hungary’s most important bilateral development program promoting equal chances for education by providing access to our higher education institutes for students from developing partner countries. We are happy to see that every year there is a significant number of female applicants.”
In her presentation, Leanne Burney of UN Water highlighted the lack of sex-disaggregated data as major obstacle to “the production of scientific evidence on gender-related inequalities in the water realm”. “45.2% of countries do not produce any gender statistics related to water. We need to create a gender baseline knowledge related to water and a global standard for gender sensitive water monitoring.”
In her presentation, Leanne Burney of UN Water highlighted the lack of sex-disaggregated data as major obstacle to “the production of scientific evidence on gender-related inequalities in the water realm”. “45.2% of countries do not produce any gender statistics related to water. We need to create a gender baseline knowledge related to water and a global standard for gender sensitive water monitoring.”
CSW every year offers a select number of NGOs to deliver an oral statement during the sessions. This year Arzu Özyol, Vice President United Nations of WfWP member BPW International was given this opportunity. Özyol in her statement outlined necessary actions and policy aiding the empowerment of women in water related sectors by welcoming the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change:
(This article will be updated with contributions during the second week of CSW61)
- The importance of coherence between gender-responsive climate policies and balanced participation of women and men in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda should be underlined.
- Lima work programme on gender should be integrated into programmes to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda, as well as into all climate change mitigation and adaptation activities;
- The particular vulnerabilities of women and children who are displaced or forced to migrate due to effects of climate change and armed conflicts, should be determined.
- Permanent funding for NGO programmes promoting gender balance in decision-making bodies on climate change and sustainable development policies should be provided.
- The number of women participating in decision-making should be increased.
(This article will be updated with contributions during the second week of CSW61)
