Uschi Eid (right) with H.E. Ambassador Katalin Annamária Bogyay, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN (left) and WfWP SC member Lesha Witmer
Key note speech Uschi Eid at HLPF side-event
Are Women meaningfully involved in implementing SDG6+ in National Plans
(United Nations Head Quarters, Conference room 8, July 12, 2018)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mme Ambassador BOGYAY, Dear participants,
It is obvious, that I do not have to educate this forum on the history of international decisions on water, sanitation and women. You all know it.
But for the sake of making it aware again and explaining our
let me just randomly name a few cornerstones:
We start in January 1992 when the International Conference on Water and the Environment was held in Dublin. 4 Water Principles where decided and Principle No. 3 reads as follows:
Women play a central part in the
It shows clearly: Our forerunners where already wise enough not to reduce the gender issue to water supply and the burden of fetching water. They stated clearly:
“… Acceptance and implementation of this principle requires positive policies to address women’s specific needs and to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resources programmes, including decision-making and implementation, in ways defined by them.”
So how many years is this? 26 years!!!
Another cornerstone:
In June 1992 at the Rio-Summit, Heads of States decided within Agenda 21, I quote:
“Countries should develop gender-sensitive databases, information systems and participatory action-oriented research and policy analyses with the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers”
So again, a decision taken a quarter of a century ago.
The third cornerstone was the decision 18 years later on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation by UN General Assembly when data showed clearly, that little progress had been made despite the Millenium Development Goals. It calls for the inclusion of all, for equal rights for women, and the end of discrimination between people, based - among others -on gender.
We had countless international water meetings and decisions on gender issues
But mind you, gender related issues are still too often dealt with in separate workshops, sometimes even far away from the main conferences – this should never ever be allowed and it is good, that more and more women oppose such practices.
We had a number of publications, alarming us, that women are not really present as they could be in the water world. The World Water report “Water and Jobs” gave us a good insight in 2016 with regard to the absence of women as actors in the management of water resources and water infrastructure – and this in the face of the fact, that “in essence, 78% of jobs constituting the global work force are dependent on water” – end of quote.
This is a waste of potential, knowing in the meantime, that companies with three or more women on their board show significant performance advantage over those with fewer women in these positions. Planning authorities, Engineering firms, Water utilities, waste water treatment plants, local administrations, river basin organisations – you name it - should listen and take action!
In contrast to this, in many parts of the world women shoulder responsibility for most unpaid care work. I do not want to down play the importance of care work. But a big proportion of this ‘unpaid’ work” is fetching water from distant sources away from home. Fetching water is the responsibility of women in up to 85% of the cases.. and it keeps them away from more productive activities.
The last cornerstone are the SDGs
Based on the unsatisfactory outcome of the MDG-targets on Water and sanitation, the water SDG 6 was ultimately adopted into the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Here I want to thank the Hungarian government for its tremendous efforts in this respect.
The SDGs are the youngest good opportunity for all actors to explicitly address gender discrimination and inequality, and to proactively facilitate women’s participation, empowerment and gaining leadership.
Did the actors use the last 2 and a half years wisely and effectively to implement the decisions taken in 2015 within the SDG 6 and 5?
Where do we stand?
Although we all know the benefits of integrating a gender lens into SDG6, there is not as much progress as the pressure on water and sanitation would need.
People still don’t seem to understand that we have a water crisis and it is unacceptable, that recommendations, which are on the table, are not taken serious.
While most discussions on the UN-level center around women as beneficiaries or victims in the water sector, there are many more dimensions to be taken into account. SDG6 and 5 show us the way.
We all know the integrated and nexus character of water and women and the benefits of it, which is so well summarized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women – and I quote only a few examples:
This shows us
Let us now have a look into the Voluntary National Reports, which were handed in this year, when water is one of the main topics at the HLPF.
In the Reports we have analyzed, we see the following
So, what do we learn from these disappointing results and what do we have to push for:
A strong impuls is needed and should emerge from this week
One is:
We need a UN Scientific and Practice Panel on Water and Sanitation in order to improve evidence-based decision making.
This panel should gather evidence on major challenges, water uses, their mutual impact, and water management.
It should stimulate external research and cooperate with local women researchers and practitoners to provide gender disaggregated data and close knowledge gaps.
With the provison of balanced, fact-based, transparent and comprehensive information, it enables Member States and the UN to make the right decisions on water and sanitation.
A Network of researchers, called GRoW, have already adopted this idea and are looking for partners to promote it.
The second is:
The United Nations should decide on an International Year on Water and Women so that during one whole year all the
Finally I call upon governments, represented here, to support these ideas.
Ms Uschi Eid is Former Chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB). Currently she is honorary professor at Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences. During two periods of her career she was Member of the German Bundestag, initially serving as Development Policy Spokeswoman of the Green Parliamentary Group and Vice-Chair of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development. Later she was Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Foreign Cultural Policy Spokeswoman of her Parliamentary Group.
Are Women meaningfully involved in implementing SDG6+ in National Plans
(United Nations Head Quarters, Conference room 8, July 12, 2018)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mme Ambassador BOGYAY, Dear participants,
It is obvious, that I do not have to educate this forum on the history of international decisions on water, sanitation and women. You all know it.
But for the sake of making it aware again and explaining our
- frustration and
- anger and
- ending patience
let me just randomly name a few cornerstones:
We start in January 1992 when the International Conference on Water and the Environment was held in Dublin. 4 Water Principles where decided and Principle No. 3 reads as follows:
Women play a central part in the
- provision,
- management, and
- safeguarding of water.
It shows clearly: Our forerunners where already wise enough not to reduce the gender issue to water supply and the burden of fetching water. They stated clearly:
“… Acceptance and implementation of this principle requires positive policies to address women’s specific needs and to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resources programmes, including decision-making and implementation, in ways defined by them.”
So how many years is this? 26 years!!!
Another cornerstone:
In June 1992 at the Rio-Summit, Heads of States decided within Agenda 21, I quote:
“Countries should develop gender-sensitive databases, information systems and participatory action-oriented research and policy analyses with the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers”
So again, a decision taken a quarter of a century ago.
The third cornerstone was the decision 18 years later on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation by UN General Assembly when data showed clearly, that little progress had been made despite the Millenium Development Goals. It calls for the inclusion of all, for equal rights for women, and the end of discrimination between people, based - among others -on gender.
We had countless international water meetings and decisions on gender issues
- The OECD-Principles on Water Governance
- We had UNSGAB, which targeted women specially with the initiation of the International Year on Sanitation in order to empower them, make them decision makers, actors and leaders in the field
- We had the International Decade “Water is life” from 2005 to 2015 which called for women’s participation in water related development efforts; this year we are entering the International Decade “Water for Sustainable Development”, which again stresses the importance of full involvement of women.
But mind you, gender related issues are still too often dealt with in separate workshops, sometimes even far away from the main conferences – this should never ever be allowed and it is good, that more and more women oppose such practices.
We had a number of publications, alarming us, that women are not really present as they could be in the water world. The World Water report “Water and Jobs” gave us a good insight in 2016 with regard to the absence of women as actors in the management of water resources and water infrastructure – and this in the face of the fact, that “in essence, 78% of jobs constituting the global work force are dependent on water” – end of quote.
This is a waste of potential, knowing in the meantime, that companies with three or more women on their board show significant performance advantage over those with fewer women in these positions. Planning authorities, Engineering firms, Water utilities, waste water treatment plants, local administrations, river basin organisations – you name it - should listen and take action!
In contrast to this, in many parts of the world women shoulder responsibility for most unpaid care work. I do not want to down play the importance of care work. But a big proportion of this ‘unpaid’ work” is fetching water from distant sources away from home. Fetching water is the responsibility of women in up to 85% of the cases.. and it keeps them away from more productive activities.
The last cornerstone are the SDGs
Based on the unsatisfactory outcome of the MDG-targets on Water and sanitation, the water SDG 6 was ultimately adopted into the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Here I want to thank the Hungarian government for its tremendous efforts in this respect.
The SDGs are the youngest good opportunity for all actors to explicitly address gender discrimination and inequality, and to proactively facilitate women’s participation, empowerment and gaining leadership.
Did the actors use the last 2 and a half years wisely and effectively to implement the decisions taken in 2015 within the SDG 6 and 5?
Where do we stand?
Although we all know the benefits of integrating a gender lens into SDG6, there is not as much progress as the pressure on water and sanitation would need.
People still don’t seem to understand that we have a water crisis and it is unacceptable, that recommendations, which are on the table, are not taken serious.
While most discussions on the UN-level center around women as beneficiaries or victims in the water sector, there are many more dimensions to be taken into account. SDG6 and 5 show us the way.
We all know the integrated and nexus character of water and women and the benefits of it, which is so well summarized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women – and I quote only a few examples:
- - Women are more likely to engage in environmentally sensitive behaviors such as recycling, conserving water and using environmentally friendly products. . (SDG 13: Climate Action)
- - Providing access to sanitation and hygiene will decrease childbirth mortality and the mortality level of women. (SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing)
- - Having access to clean water will decrease the risk of violence against women and girls because they will not have to travel long distances to get water. (SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions)
- - Access to toilets in schools will increase girls’ attendance and participation in school. (SDG 4: Quality education)
This shows us
- that Gender equality is not only a prerequisite to the success of the Sustainable Development Agenda
- but that investments in gender equality have the highest returns.
Let us now have a look into the Voluntary National Reports, which were handed in this year, when water is one of the main topics at the HLPF.
In the Reports we have analyzed, we see the following
- Although SDG 6 is part of the official thematic debates, water is absent a lot in the main summaries of the Reports.
- Even countries that have both issues (water and women) in their top-priorities, do not seem to make clear connections in their national plans and actions on the SDG targets (yet)
- There seems to be more attention in the plans to gender and women’s issues in the framework of international development cooperation then at national level;
- The main “language” in the plans is on policy / good intentions (like gender mainstreaming – and thus a bit outdated), not so much on implementation and concrete measures
- Sex-disaggregated data seem to be missing “everywhere” and hence are not part of the analysis and future planning of diversity in measures.
So, what do we learn from these disappointing results and what do we have to push for:
- Decision makers seem not really to understand, that SDG 6 is not only on service delivery but also on empowering women as actors on various levels and in various fields in the water and sanitation sector
- Women can no longer be reduced to beneficiaries, or objects of other decision makers, but are actors, are subjects who are part and parcel of decision making processes, be it in politics, administration, planning, engineering, on school boards or professional associations
- Governments, administrations, research-institutions have to invest in data disaggregation to more clearly identify implementation necessities and better target resources, in particular to ensure that we Leave No One Behind
- Governments have to improve localization of the Agenda to include specific ways that women’s organizations (and inter alia Youth, local governments, the private sector) can contribute to national monitoring and reporting. The advantage of local level monitoring: it provides evidence for practical action.
- Governments have to develop and establish improved multi-stakeholder partnerships with civil society and other stakeholders, particularly at the local level
- Governments must provide an honest assessment of progress, existing gaps, specific challenges and lessons learned to be able to use the HLPF as a key opportunity for peer learning and exchange.
- For once and for all: national and local institutions have to address cultural barriers, social norms and gender stereotypes through gender sensitization and take appropriate actions to reduce respectively eliminate gender barriers. Preaching better practices , giving insights and enlighten the society is not enough, women must be given the education, the training , the space and the power to perform and use their potential, wisdom and knowledge on all different levels
A strong impuls is needed and should emerge from this week
One is:
We need a UN Scientific and Practice Panel on Water and Sanitation in order to improve evidence-based decision making.
This panel should gather evidence on major challenges, water uses, their mutual impact, and water management.
It should stimulate external research and cooperate with local women researchers and practitoners to provide gender disaggregated data and close knowledge gaps.
With the provison of balanced, fact-based, transparent and comprehensive information, it enables Member States and the UN to make the right decisions on water and sanitation.
A Network of researchers, called GRoW, have already adopted this idea and are looking for partners to promote it.
The second is:
The United Nations should decide on an International Year on Water and Women so that during one whole year all the
- efforts are concentrated,
- our attention is focused
- our knowledge is bundled
- funding is redirected
- locally needed efforts in implementation get highest attention and support
- training and empowering of women get a worldwide push.
Finally I call upon governments, represented here, to support these ideas.
Ms Uschi Eid is Former Chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB). Currently she is honorary professor at Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences. During two periods of her career she was Member of the German Bundestag, initially serving as Development Policy Spokeswoman of the Green Parliamentary Group and Vice-Chair of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development. Later she was Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Foreign Cultural Policy Spokeswoman of her Parliamentary Group.
