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Women for Water Partnership at UNESCO International Water Conference:
"Gender-responsive approach to achieve water security a necessity, but easier said than done"
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On 13-14 May, UNESCO organized an International Water Conference at its Headquarters in Paris with the theme “Leveraging Intersectorality for Sustainable Water Security and Peace”. Thematic panels on the links between water and UNESCO’s fields of competence took place throughout these two days, including a panel dedicated to the promotion of gender equality, entitled “Thirsty for Change: Promoting a Gender-Responsive Approach to Achieve Water Security”, facilitating an interdisciplinary discussion on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in the water sector to achieve the 2030 Agenda through evidence-based gender-transformative water policies and management. WfWP President Mariet Verhoef-Cohen concluded the discussion:
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WATCH: After the Unesco conference Mariet Verhoef-Cohen was invited on France 24 to further explain why gender-responsive solutions are needed when it comes to the problems of water scarcity and sanitation. According to the UN, women and girls spend 200 million hours a day worldwide collecting water and "those 200 million hours, you cannot spend on education, on economic development, on jobs".
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I am honoured to conclude this interesting session, as President of Women for Water Partnership and Soroptimist International. Women and Water are topics very close to my heart.
Equitable access to water for all for all uses (sanitation included) is vital. We have heard that in many countries it is the women who are responsible for fetching water for their households, and as such women hold substantial knowledge and first-hand experience of water, and yet, they are barely recognised when it comes to the planning, design and implementation of water projects. Women for Water Partnership understands this value and through its work positions Women where they should be, as agents of change, leaders, professionals, experts and partners, as equals to men in water and sustainable development programmes and to achieve this join hands with men.
The same counts for indigenous women and I’d like to emphasise what Ms Diana Ulloa – Undersecretary for Water Resources, Ministry of Environment, Ecuador, talked about. Specifically, that rural indigenous women play an important role and need more rights (like land rights).
Vice Minister Ms Emanuela Del Re – (from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation) spoke of the principles of the human right to water and sanitation; participation, accountability, non-discrimination and transparency - and transforming these principles that can support the positioning of women as experts, leaders and partners to gain access. She also focused on sanitation, and the related health issues and cases of child- mortality; illnesses such as diarrhoea, linked to poor water quality. It was in 1979 that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) underlined discrimination of women ‘as an obstacle to the equal participation of women in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries’. And that is 40 years ago! She stated that we should not forget refugees and displaced people and the relation between gender-based violence and water.
The principles we have mentioned are important aspects of governance. There is little research on the inclusion of women in decision-making processes related to water governance, although, together with the OECD, Women for Water Partnership is preparing research on this topic. UNESCO is developing gender-responsive indicators and a call for action on gender and groundwater governance.
However, we still lag behind in comparison to some companies in the private sector. Mc Kinsey monitors the implementation of their diversity policy and concludes that diversity of leadership-style matters, and that leadership styles frequently used by women can prove the most effective in addressing the global challenges of the future. Women are as ambitious as men, however there must be a supportive environment for them to be empowered.
There is little scientific evidence to measure the impact of equal participation of women and men in water programmes, as discussed during this panel session. However, there are many positive stories and case studies showing the benefits of the inclusion of women. Further scientific evidence may convince policy makers to create conditions to successfully implement their policies, because currently the gap between preaching and practicing is huge. Research and reports on how such changes are implemented and monitored, may also encourage people to put these policies into practice.
Scientific research is hampered by a lack of sex-disaggregated data, with few countries or organisations doing this. Sex-disaggregated data would enable ‘all-inclusive’ programming to ensure the participation of women and girls. And we should not forget the work on gender-responsive indicators and the influential Toolkit on sex-disaggregated water data produced by UNESCO WWAP. Mr Canisius Kanagire, Executive Director of AMOW, emphasised the importance of monitoring and the use of sex-disaggregated indicators.
Scientific evidence alone is not enough to overcome barriers to equal participation. No longer limited to lack of education, girls are closing the gap in academic education, with the gap down to 5% worldwide. Slowly, an increasing number of girls are entering more technical disciplines. This is good news!
Pregnancy is no longer a key reason for inequality, gender stereotypes however do remain – these out of date values and beliefs, together with a lack of female role models create obstacles to education and occupational equality. For example, women are often perceived to be unsuitable for fieldwork or to participate in a traditionally male dominated sector, also …. very practical …..due to lack of proper sanitation facilities, preventing women and girls from having careers in the water sector.
I admired the story of Ms Euphrasie Kouassi Yao, Advisor to the President of Cote d’Ivoire on Gender and Holder of the UNESCO Chair on "Water, Women and Decision-making” showing good practices from Cote d’Ivoire in empowering women in decision-making positions related to water management. The creation of her database of 15,000 expert women give us hope. Her government embraces gender mainstreaming issues and agrees that gender and water go hand in hand.
On another note….. Evidence shows that growing climatic variability impacts on water availability and quality, in turn jeopardizing social stability and jobs for younger generations, especially women and girls. This is particularly true in arid and semi-arid regions, where often migration is the only option. In the MENA region, water scarcity is acute. : Mr Almotaz Abadi - Managing Director of the Environment and Water Division, Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UFM), has shed light on the interdependency between water scarcity - lack of employment - gender - and migration, through a gender lens, and showed us how this specific region is planning to address this nexus and its complexity. Through involvement and engagement of women, the MENA region is aiming at tackling SDG 6.
Moving now to the role of finance - something not easily available to women, and we therefore strongly advocate for women’s access to financial investments and instruments. As we can see, the Inclusion of women does not happen automatically and often special budgets are lacking: budgets for capacity building, (vocational) training, operation and maintenance, monitoring and evaluation at all levels, for women, and their organisations. Without adequate budget allocation, nothing will change!
To conclude, Thirsty for change is significant, a gender-responsive approach to achieve water security a necessity, but this is easier said than done. Stereotypes persist, sex-disaggregated data is lacking and finance for women is practically impossible. Nevertheless, what we need to do is clear - it is worthwhile to continue our mission."
More on the UNESCO International Water Conference:
Launch of The 2019 Water & Gender Toolkit
Press release
Opening and Closing Ceremony
Photos
Equitable access to water for all for all uses (sanitation included) is vital. We have heard that in many countries it is the women who are responsible for fetching water for their households, and as such women hold substantial knowledge and first-hand experience of water, and yet, they are barely recognised when it comes to the planning, design and implementation of water projects. Women for Water Partnership understands this value and through its work positions Women where they should be, as agents of change, leaders, professionals, experts and partners, as equals to men in water and sustainable development programmes and to achieve this join hands with men.
The same counts for indigenous women and I’d like to emphasise what Ms Diana Ulloa – Undersecretary for Water Resources, Ministry of Environment, Ecuador, talked about. Specifically, that rural indigenous women play an important role and need more rights (like land rights).
Vice Minister Ms Emanuela Del Re – (from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation) spoke of the principles of the human right to water and sanitation; participation, accountability, non-discrimination and transparency - and transforming these principles that can support the positioning of women as experts, leaders and partners to gain access. She also focused on sanitation, and the related health issues and cases of child- mortality; illnesses such as diarrhoea, linked to poor water quality. It was in 1979 that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) underlined discrimination of women ‘as an obstacle to the equal participation of women in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their countries’. And that is 40 years ago! She stated that we should not forget refugees and displaced people and the relation between gender-based violence and water.
The principles we have mentioned are important aspects of governance. There is little research on the inclusion of women in decision-making processes related to water governance, although, together with the OECD, Women for Water Partnership is preparing research on this topic. UNESCO is developing gender-responsive indicators and a call for action on gender and groundwater governance.
However, we still lag behind in comparison to some companies in the private sector. Mc Kinsey monitors the implementation of their diversity policy and concludes that diversity of leadership-style matters, and that leadership styles frequently used by women can prove the most effective in addressing the global challenges of the future. Women are as ambitious as men, however there must be a supportive environment for them to be empowered.
There is little scientific evidence to measure the impact of equal participation of women and men in water programmes, as discussed during this panel session. However, there are many positive stories and case studies showing the benefits of the inclusion of women. Further scientific evidence may convince policy makers to create conditions to successfully implement their policies, because currently the gap between preaching and practicing is huge. Research and reports on how such changes are implemented and monitored, may also encourage people to put these policies into practice.
Scientific research is hampered by a lack of sex-disaggregated data, with few countries or organisations doing this. Sex-disaggregated data would enable ‘all-inclusive’ programming to ensure the participation of women and girls. And we should not forget the work on gender-responsive indicators and the influential Toolkit on sex-disaggregated water data produced by UNESCO WWAP. Mr Canisius Kanagire, Executive Director of AMOW, emphasised the importance of monitoring and the use of sex-disaggregated indicators.
Scientific evidence alone is not enough to overcome barriers to equal participation. No longer limited to lack of education, girls are closing the gap in academic education, with the gap down to 5% worldwide. Slowly, an increasing number of girls are entering more technical disciplines. This is good news!
Pregnancy is no longer a key reason for inequality, gender stereotypes however do remain – these out of date values and beliefs, together with a lack of female role models create obstacles to education and occupational equality. For example, women are often perceived to be unsuitable for fieldwork or to participate in a traditionally male dominated sector, also …. very practical …..due to lack of proper sanitation facilities, preventing women and girls from having careers in the water sector.
I admired the story of Ms Euphrasie Kouassi Yao, Advisor to the President of Cote d’Ivoire on Gender and Holder of the UNESCO Chair on "Water, Women and Decision-making” showing good practices from Cote d’Ivoire in empowering women in decision-making positions related to water management. The creation of her database of 15,000 expert women give us hope. Her government embraces gender mainstreaming issues and agrees that gender and water go hand in hand.
On another note….. Evidence shows that growing climatic variability impacts on water availability and quality, in turn jeopardizing social stability and jobs for younger generations, especially women and girls. This is particularly true in arid and semi-arid regions, where often migration is the only option. In the MENA region, water scarcity is acute. : Mr Almotaz Abadi - Managing Director of the Environment and Water Division, Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UFM), has shed light on the interdependency between water scarcity - lack of employment - gender - and migration, through a gender lens, and showed us how this specific region is planning to address this nexus and its complexity. Through involvement and engagement of women, the MENA region is aiming at tackling SDG 6.
Moving now to the role of finance - something not easily available to women, and we therefore strongly advocate for women’s access to financial investments and instruments. As we can see, the Inclusion of women does not happen automatically and often special budgets are lacking: budgets for capacity building, (vocational) training, operation and maintenance, monitoring and evaluation at all levels, for women, and their organisations. Without adequate budget allocation, nothing will change!
To conclude, Thirsty for change is significant, a gender-responsive approach to achieve water security a necessity, but this is easier said than done. Stereotypes persist, sex-disaggregated data is lacking and finance for women is practically impossible. Nevertheless, what we need to do is clear - it is worthwhile to continue our mission."
More on the UNESCO International Water Conference:
Launch of The 2019 Water & Gender Toolkit
Press release
Opening and Closing Ceremony
Photos
