World Water Week 2017 put gender prominently on the global water agenda
Women for Water Partnership looks back at a very successful and fruitful World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. We pride ourselves that thanks to our contributions the important gender factor was strongly present in not only the sessions we co-convened but also in several other presentations and discussions throughout the week (of August 27th – September 1st). Below our key sessions are highlighted along with links for detailed further reading. Recommendations as collected during sessions will be published at a later stage.
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On the openings day of the event WfWP president “Mariet Verhoef-Cohen delivered the keynote speech for the seminar ‘Understanding the gender dimension of water and waste’, covering three (sub)sessions: ‘Water quality, health and hygiene’, ‘Embedding gender equality in decision-making on water and wastewater’ and, ‘Building enabling environments and empowerment for managing water and wastewater’. The seminar room was packed for these sessions with some 40 percent of the audience male, a first time experience for WfWP!
The overall theme of the seminar stated that: “A gender perspective illuminates how gender roles and relations affect and are affected by WASH and water resource interventions. This understanding can increase sustainability and resource efficiency, and thereby enhance the benefits for all. Experience has shown that interventions that include the views, inputs and participation of both men and women generally work better. WASH services, water resource management and waste water management are not gender-neutral. Interventions are incomplete without a gender perspective and the active involvement of women.” |
Interest for the Women for Water Partnership organized and co-convened sessions at the Stockholm World Water Week 2017 was not only impressively high, the participation of men, in some sessions around 40%, was unprecedented
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Mariet Verhoef-Cohen set the stage emphasizing the need to combine the implementation of the 2016-2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals 6 (Access to water) and 5 (Gender equality). Jack Moss, executive director of Aquafed, looked at the different needs and attitudes between women and men in water quality issues and waste water treatment. He concluded that quality failures impact women most: “”The faeces of young children pose higher pathogenic risks than those of adults. And who are more exposed to young children? Women”.
Professor Stephan Uhlenbrook of the World Water Assessment Programme presented some data on different roles and perceptions of men and women in water management and stressed that gender disaggregated data urgently need attention in the water world.
Other contributions included ‘a Participatory approach for ecologically sustainable sanitation’ by Khaoula Lamzouri, National Office for Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) of Morocco; ‘Enhancing women capabilities in wastewater management: beginning from schools’, by Neekita Sharma of India’s Government Department of Education in Jammu and Kashmir, and: ‘Women as Agents of Change in Faecal Sludge Management’, by Maren Heuvels of BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research & Development Association).
Part 2 of the gender dimension seminar focused on real live experiences and was opened by Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation (OHCHR). Heller said that participation of women in water and waste is about power and that specific interventions are needed to involve women: “It does not happen automatically”. And: “To bring together Wash and IWRM helps to break through the silos since at household level everything comes together.”
Stories presented about gender awareness in Central Asia, a gender inclusive approach in Bangladesh, gender transformation in Vietnam, women as agents of change in transboundary water governance and a catchment learning approach in Tanzania were deepened in lively discussion groups.
The last session of the seminar discussed enabling environments and empowerment for managing water and waste water with examples from Zambia, Bangladesh and Palestine. It was interesting to learn that the Palestinian Water Administration monitors the involvement of women both at technical and policy level and reports directly to the prime minister about the fairness of distribution, tariffs and other decisions. Knowledge and expertise inputs of women are furthermore highly appreciated and respected.
Women Inclusive Water Governance
Women’s leadership in the water sector matters. The form that their leadership takes is critical and it can only be effective if women are empowered to shape and influence change. Yet at present, there is a lack of evidence on women who are playing that important and influential role in water governance. What happens if women are included in decision-making processes on design, budget allocations, planning, implementation and monitoring? Are we able to provide evidence that having more women in water governance leads to better decisions to achieve equitable access to water?
These and other questions stood central during the second major event WfWP co-convened on Monday August 28th: ‘Toward Women-Inclusive Water Governance’. The session started with a survey to collect the knowledge, experiences and cases of the audience in this field. The results will feed into a study undertaken by OECD and WfWP. The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of women inclusion in water governance both in a quantifiable and qualitative manner.
The data and experiences of Lida Schelwald-Van der Kley, executive member of a Dutch Water Authority, were telling. In 22 water authorities in The Netherlands 113 out of 641 members of the General Assembly and 16 out of 104 members of the Daily board are women. Three women are presiding a water authority. An organization called the “Water Ladies” addresses that situation by campaigning and facilitating more women to be part of the Water Authorities. In her work Lida experiences that women are just as data driven as men, moreover more willing to share and are often dynamic leaders of change processes.
WfWP director Annemiek Jenniskens represented WfWP member Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) in an illustrative presentation on practical experiences of women-inclusive water governance. TGNP is an expert in the field of Gender Responsive Budgeting, an important tool for women inclusive governance. In 1997 TGNP initiated this process, involving many stakeholders at both political, national and community level, to change policies and regulations. They also organized public campaigns and built the capacity of budget officers and civil society in this field. In 2017 they started a new campaign “Why water budget should be gender sensitive”.
Is wastewater a she?
“Why should wastewater be a she? Why do women get the 'crap', let it be men!” It was the initial reaction of Uschi Eid, Former Chair of UNSGAB, seeing the title of the third event co-convened by WfWP.
However, Women are more affected by the lack of wastewater treatment and responsible management than men. This ranges through all dimensions of sustainable development, both in the developing and developed world. Women can and should play a role in the management of wastewater. Experience shows that interventions and actions including the views, inputs and participation of both, men and women, are more sustainable.
Cynthia Mitchell of the University of Sydney, opened the session in an innovative way by asking the audience the question: “What would be different if 85% women and 15% men would take the decisions about water and waste water.” By imagining that situation, most participants thought that menstrual hygiene at schools and the workplace would no longer be an issue.
In this session, live broadcasted by SIWI, six experts of different walks of life were interviewed about the realities, the opportunities and the policy gaps in waste water management. Bruno Tisserand of EurEau was a bit hesitant to make a distinction between men and women, while Kathleen Padulo, Chief of the indigenous women of Ontario, expressed loud and clear that the role of women in waste management is essential.
Carlos Carrion Crespo of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stated that “waste water is work and it is neither a he or a she”. He gave some great examples of the impact of women participating as actors in waste water management. Linda Bui, a student at the University of Toronto representing World Youth Parliament for Water, highlighted the economic opportunities for women through reusing water in agriculture, an insight she gained during an internship in Sri Lanka. MariaLena Vyzaki of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) addressed the issue of decision making power of women from an investment perspective, stating that the EBRD is making a dedicated effort to increase the participation of women in wastewater management.
The question whether wastewater is a she remains open and of course there is no single definite answer to it. Water and wastewater management should be gender inclusive however, and the attention for this during World Water Week 2017 encourages WfWP in its mission.
Read also:
WfWP kicks off at World Water Week 2017 in Stockholm - Understanding the gender dimension of water and waste
Waste (water) is a she (blog)
The Dutch Water Sector at Stockholm WWW2017
Professor Stephan Uhlenbrook of the World Water Assessment Programme presented some data on different roles and perceptions of men and women in water management and stressed that gender disaggregated data urgently need attention in the water world.
Other contributions included ‘a Participatory approach for ecologically sustainable sanitation’ by Khaoula Lamzouri, National Office for Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) of Morocco; ‘Enhancing women capabilities in wastewater management: beginning from schools’, by Neekita Sharma of India’s Government Department of Education in Jammu and Kashmir, and: ‘Women as Agents of Change in Faecal Sludge Management’, by Maren Heuvels of BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research & Development Association).
Part 2 of the gender dimension seminar focused on real live experiences and was opened by Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation (OHCHR). Heller said that participation of women in water and waste is about power and that specific interventions are needed to involve women: “It does not happen automatically”. And: “To bring together Wash and IWRM helps to break through the silos since at household level everything comes together.”
Stories presented about gender awareness in Central Asia, a gender inclusive approach in Bangladesh, gender transformation in Vietnam, women as agents of change in transboundary water governance and a catchment learning approach in Tanzania were deepened in lively discussion groups.
The last session of the seminar discussed enabling environments and empowerment for managing water and waste water with examples from Zambia, Bangladesh and Palestine. It was interesting to learn that the Palestinian Water Administration monitors the involvement of women both at technical and policy level and reports directly to the prime minister about the fairness of distribution, tariffs and other decisions. Knowledge and expertise inputs of women are furthermore highly appreciated and respected.
Women Inclusive Water Governance
Women’s leadership in the water sector matters. The form that their leadership takes is critical and it can only be effective if women are empowered to shape and influence change. Yet at present, there is a lack of evidence on women who are playing that important and influential role in water governance. What happens if women are included in decision-making processes on design, budget allocations, planning, implementation and monitoring? Are we able to provide evidence that having more women in water governance leads to better decisions to achieve equitable access to water?
These and other questions stood central during the second major event WfWP co-convened on Monday August 28th: ‘Toward Women-Inclusive Water Governance’. The session started with a survey to collect the knowledge, experiences and cases of the audience in this field. The results will feed into a study undertaken by OECD and WfWP. The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of women inclusion in water governance both in a quantifiable and qualitative manner.
The data and experiences of Lida Schelwald-Van der Kley, executive member of a Dutch Water Authority, were telling. In 22 water authorities in The Netherlands 113 out of 641 members of the General Assembly and 16 out of 104 members of the Daily board are women. Three women are presiding a water authority. An organization called the “Water Ladies” addresses that situation by campaigning and facilitating more women to be part of the Water Authorities. In her work Lida experiences that women are just as data driven as men, moreover more willing to share and are often dynamic leaders of change processes.
WfWP director Annemiek Jenniskens represented WfWP member Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) in an illustrative presentation on practical experiences of women-inclusive water governance. TGNP is an expert in the field of Gender Responsive Budgeting, an important tool for women inclusive governance. In 1997 TGNP initiated this process, involving many stakeholders at both political, national and community level, to change policies and regulations. They also organized public campaigns and built the capacity of budget officers and civil society in this field. In 2017 they started a new campaign “Why water budget should be gender sensitive”.
Is wastewater a she?
“Why should wastewater be a she? Why do women get the 'crap', let it be men!” It was the initial reaction of Uschi Eid, Former Chair of UNSGAB, seeing the title of the third event co-convened by WfWP.
However, Women are more affected by the lack of wastewater treatment and responsible management than men. This ranges through all dimensions of sustainable development, both in the developing and developed world. Women can and should play a role in the management of wastewater. Experience shows that interventions and actions including the views, inputs and participation of both, men and women, are more sustainable.
Cynthia Mitchell of the University of Sydney, opened the session in an innovative way by asking the audience the question: “What would be different if 85% women and 15% men would take the decisions about water and waste water.” By imagining that situation, most participants thought that menstrual hygiene at schools and the workplace would no longer be an issue.
In this session, live broadcasted by SIWI, six experts of different walks of life were interviewed about the realities, the opportunities and the policy gaps in waste water management. Bruno Tisserand of EurEau was a bit hesitant to make a distinction between men and women, while Kathleen Padulo, Chief of the indigenous women of Ontario, expressed loud and clear that the role of women in waste management is essential.
Carlos Carrion Crespo of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stated that “waste water is work and it is neither a he or a she”. He gave some great examples of the impact of women participating as actors in waste water management. Linda Bui, a student at the University of Toronto representing World Youth Parliament for Water, highlighted the economic opportunities for women through reusing water in agriculture, an insight she gained during an internship in Sri Lanka. MariaLena Vyzaki of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) addressed the issue of decision making power of women from an investment perspective, stating that the EBRD is making a dedicated effort to increase the participation of women in wastewater management.
The question whether wastewater is a she remains open and of course there is no single definite answer to it. Water and wastewater management should be gender inclusive however, and the attention for this during World Water Week 2017 encourages WfWP in its mission.
Read also:
WfWP kicks off at World Water Week 2017 in Stockholm - Understanding the gender dimension of water and waste
Waste (water) is a she (blog)
The Dutch Water Sector at Stockholm WWW2017
