Gender and Water Alliance

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The Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) is an international organization committed to strengthening gender mainstreaming in integrated water resource management (IWRM). The vision of the GWA is to achieve justice and equality between women and men in relation to sustainable development and sustainable management of water resources at all levels.

Emergence

The alliance was founded in March 2000 at the second World Water Forum in The Hague. There was a ministerial declaration on water security for the 21st century that recognized the link between integrated water resource management and poverty reduction and urged that special attention be paid to the poor and the roles, skills and needs of women should. After a consultation process by email, the GWA was founded by 110 organizations and individuals from all over the world. The Dutch Directorate for International Relations (DGIS) initially funded a six-month planning phase. Thereafter, the DGIS and the British DFID (Ministry for International Development) financed a three-year GWA program (cf. GWA 2005, p. 5).

background

Water scarcity and poverty are closely linked. Providing easy access to water is an important part of fighting poverty. Worldwide, poverty affects women more than men. They are also mainly responsible for the procurement and handling of water (cooking, cleaning work, etc.). Nevertheless, women are hardly taken into account in structural plans and in water management. The GWA believes that gender mainstreaming in integrated water resource management, on the one hand, can bring important information or new insights through the inclusion of the knowledge and experience of women. On the other hand, she believes that inclusion can have empowerment effects on the women concerned. So it is also a kind of help for self-help (cf. Muylwijk 2007).

organization

Members

There are 715 members from 94 countries. Of these, 80% are individuals and 20% organizations who campaign for GWA issues in their home countries (cf. GWA 2007).

Leadership committee

There is a leadership committee responsible for the management, public representation and directional strategy of the GWA program. This committee consists of 11 members who are supposed to represent on a broad basis the geographical regions in which the GWA is active, the water subsectors and political donor organizations. The members are elected for a period of 2 years and can be in office for a maximum of 2 consecutive periods (cf. GWA 2005, p. 11).

office

The GWA is coordinated by a secretariat in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is u. a. responsible for contractual agreements with GWA members and partners. In addition, it is obliged to submit monthly reports on the activities of the GWA to the management committee and to write various other reports on progress, finances, future plans etc. and to publish them on the GWA website (cf. ibid.). The secretariat currently consists of four people:

Problem areas

The GWA sees the following problem areas that it wants to work on:

  • Women and men do not have the same say in decision-making processes and they are also not involved in the management and implementation of water-related services to the same extent (cf. GWA 2005, p. 4).
  • At national and local levels, there is little or no awareness of the need and the positive consequences of a gender-sensitive approach to integrated water resource management (cf. ibid.).
  • Too few countries have recognized the importance of water issues in their poverty reduction programs. Where this importance has been recognized, however, there is a lack of considerations on gender equality in the strategic plans. Often the sector is simply dominated by technological approaches that ignore social realities (cf. ibid.).
  • As part of the Water for Life Decade (which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly for the years 2005–2015), national plans for integrated water resource management and effective water use are currently being developed. However, the development and implementation of these plans is the job of water experts who are probably not very familiar with social considerations and gender issues. It is therefore very unlikely that gender issues will be adequately taken into account in these plans without special training for these experts (cf. GWA 2005, pp. 4-5).

Goals and Activities

  • Since the members are scattered all over the world and speak different languages, it is important to create and maintain an effective means of communication between them. The website www.genderandwater.org serves as such, providing information in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The constant maintenance and improvement of the website is one of the most important activities of the GWA (see GWA 2005, pp. 7-8).
  • There is already a wealth of information on gender mainstreaming in the water sector. The task of the GWA is to make this information available to its members in an accessible form (cf. GWA 2005, p. 8).
  • The aim is to equip its members and experts in the water sector with the appropriate skills for gender mainstreaming. For this purpose, training materials are constantly being developed or further improved and appropriate courses are offered for the respective target groups (cf. ibid.).
  • The GWA wants to take a number of measures to support its members in raising awareness of gender issues in this area in their home countries (cf. ibid.).
  • Although the focus of the association's work is on work at the national and local level, it is also important to ensure that these gender issues are appropriately discussed at international events and included in the strategy papers adopted there (cf. ibid.).

Footnotes

  1. ^ English: "Integrated Water Resources Management". For an explanation of the term, see e.g. B. www.cap-net.org ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archive.cap-net.org

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Web links

www.genderandwater.org