The GWP Gender Strategy: Working on the interface of SDG#5 and SDG#6
By: bouman-dentener, a.m.
Source: Solutions 7(6): pp 32-37.
https://thesolutionsjournal.com/
The water and gender interface: a largely untapped connection
Sufficient and safe water for daily life is fundamental to overcoming poverty and building sustainable livelihoods. Despite the considerable progress made under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), today’s reality is that water insecurity keeps millions of people in poverty, continues to obstruct human well-being and seriously threatens the ecosystems that sustain our planet. Population growth, progressive economic development, rapid urbanization, increased conflict and climate change add to the challenge of ensuring water security for all. While gender disaggregated data in the water domain are scarce and scattered, it is safe to say that women and girls in the developing world are still disproportionately affected and often quite literally carry the burden of daily water provision.
The centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment in achieving sustainable development is a recurrent theme in international development policies. A good twenty years have passed since the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) adopted the Beijing Platform for Action as a universal agenda for women’s empowerment and to ensure that women can meaningfully contribute to sustainable development in all spheres. Commitment to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has been reconfirmed on many occasions thereafter. The UN Secretary General, in his report for the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women states however, that: “Acknowledgement of the importance of women’s social, economic and political empowerment by State and Non-state actors has not been matched by concrete policy implementation and demonstrable change on the ground”.
According to the World Water Development Report 2015, “The principle of equity, perhaps more than any technical recommendation, carries with it the promise of a more water-secure world for all”. Gender equality is considered a key factor to boost water management and access, and the inclusion of women in decision-making on water development and management at all levels is called for.
The central role of women in the provision, management and safeguarding of water and their participation as a stakeholder at all levels is already included in the Dublin Principles for Integrated Water Resources Management of 1992 (Dublin Principle 3 and 2 respectively). Women’s participation and involvement in water-related development efforts was also specifically called for in the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005 – 2015, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly with the aim to propagate water cooperation at all levels, including transnational, between sectors, and with full inclusion of all stakeholders. Women’s civil society has risen to that challenge and accounts for many instances of meaningful involvement of women in water resources development and management leading to more effective and sustainable solutions to water problems and infrastructure development that yields maximum social and economic returns. On the whole, however, the emphasis of the Millennium Development Goals has been on technical service provision; and social equity and women’s inclusion as underlying principles for the sustainable use and management of water resources have not been addressed in a systematic way.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promises a trend reversal with due consideration for systemic barriers to sustainable development such as inequality and unsustainable behavior and practices. An all-of-society engagement and partnership is propagated as a main driver for transformation. Cross-sectorial cooperation is envisaged to break down existing silos and multi-stakeholder groups are encouraged to jointly overcome conflicting interests between nations, cultures, resource uses, and population segments.
The 2030 Development Agenda re-emphasizes the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment to make such a participatory and inclusive approach a reality on the ground. Goal # 5 - to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls - includes a commitment to facilitate women’s agency for the benefit of all other development goals. There is also a dedicated water goal SDG # 6 - ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all – reconfirming that water security is the foundation and the glue for achieving food and energy security, social stability, economic prosperity, disaster risk reduction, and peace; and that it plays an important role in empowering the poor and marginalized, the majority of whom are still women and girls.
Working on the gender and water interface has a high and as yet largely untapped potential to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals and to address the ambition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind.
GWP Gender Strategy: working on the SDG#5 –SDG#6 interface
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) was established in 1996 to contribute to water security as the foundation for sustainable development. Social equity and diversity and inclusion are core values of GWP and considered indispensable for sustainable water management. The Gender Strategy developed by Global Water Partnership as a supplement to its overall Strategy towards 2020 addresses the role of GWP in advancing gender sensitive and women-inclusive water governance and management at all levels.
Gender roles determine how women and men are affected by the way water resources are developed, used and managed. In countries and situations where there are distinct gender roles, it is particularly important to view water policies and programs through a gender lens. A well-known example of gender mainstreaming water policies is the AMCOW gender strategy in the development and implementation of which the GWP Regional Water Partnerships in Africa have played and are playing a substantial role.
At the same time, gender roles have a strong bearing on how and what women can contribute to achieving water security for all, both in their individual capacity and as a major group in society. Given that stakeholder participation is a core business of GWP and that women are considered an important stakeholder group, the GWP Gender Strategy specifically zooms in on women as contributors to water security.
There are various aspects to women’s inclusion in the water sector: gender parity amongst water professionals, equal participation of women in decision-making, but also the utilization of women’s social capital, that is enshrined in their diverse social networks, for strengthening community participation and for creating a strong civil society that can help realize distributed water governance on the ground.
Brazil presents a good example of how the GWP Gender Strategy has sparked gender and water integration in a country that has longstanding commitment to IWRM and to gender equality, with national policies and action plans in place for both. (BOX: The Brazilian example)
Situations are very different in the different parts of the world. Countries face specific socio-cultural realities of which gender is an intrinsic part; they are at distinct points on the development spectrum and they have different priorities, capacities and needs. The analysis of country-specific situations and an assessment of where working on the gender-water-development nexus may be expected to have true impact are therefore imperative to ensure effective gender and water programming that will lead to a tailor-made operationalization of the overall framework that the GWP Gender Strategy presents.
Operationalizing the GWP Gender Strategy
The Global Water Partnership has three strategic goals: 1) catalyzing change in policies and practice, 2) generating and communicating knowledge, and 3) strengthening partnerships.
In the GWP Theory of Change, a strong and inclusive multi-stakeholder network is considered the key asset for catalyzing changes in policy and practice. Country and Regional Water Partnerships offer neutral platforms for multi-stakeholder dialogue and facilitate cooperation. Talking to and learning from each other creates trust and understanding and helps different stakeholder groups such as government agencies, scientists, technical experts, business communities, NGOs, Women, Youth, Indigenous People, Farmers, and Community Based Organizations to find common grounds for action. The knowledge generated in our diverse network of partners is evidence-based and informs decision-makers and practitioners alike. It feeds bottom-up into the global fora where international frameworks for action are shaped and agreed.
The same principles apply to the gender strategy: GWP works toward embedment of the gender dimension in international and national water policies, development plans and programs (Strategic Goal # 1), generates and disseminates knowledge and tools for gender and women inclusive policies and plans (Strategic Goal # 2), and creates strong multi-stakeholder partnerships in which women participate on an equal footing, both in their individual capacity and as Major Group in society (Strategic Goal # 3).
The 85 country water partnerships of GWP, in which different stakeholder groups work together as equal partners, play a key role in promoting the inclusion of women’s voice in national and local water dialogues. They can facilitate the involvement of women’s civil society in integrated planning processes, and in implementation and monitoring of resulting programs and projects. Social networks of women are generally built on trust and reciprocity, on shared ethical norms and mutual support; and they have built-in accountability and transparency mechanisms making them a valuable partner to develop local ownership and good water governance. GWP Pakistan presents an example of the added value and positive spin-off that the inclusion of an empowered women’s civil society can have. (BOX: The Pakistani example)
A key element for women-inclusiveness is the strengthening of women’s civil society so that they are equipped to participate on an equal footing. GWP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the global Women for Water Partnership (WfWP) to cooperate on strengthening women’s civil society and enable their full participation in water governance at all levels. NetWwater, the Network of Women Water Professionals of Sri Lanka and founding member of both GWP Sri Lanka and the Women for Water Partnership, provides a good example of women leadership in gender sensitizing water policies and practice. (BOX: The Sri Lankan example)
The Brazilian Example
The Water & Gender dialogues organized by National Water Agency (ANA), GWP Brazil, and the National Policy for Women of Brazil on the basis of the GWP Gender Strategy, resulted in the creation of the Commission pro ANA´s Gender Committee. The Gender Commission focuses both on internal issues (e.g., establishing a gender-sensitive culture within the Agency and including the gender issue in all its programs, projects and actions), as well as on external issues (e.g., promoting the recognition that Women play a central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water). This ANA Gender Committee, when fully at work, will be linked to the Board of ANA. Following these initiatives, other gender committees related to Water Resources Secretariats have already been established, or are in this process, throughout Brazil. With this institutional mechanism in place, Brazil creates the enabling environment to systematically address gender in water in a decentralized way and with full inclusion of Women as stakeholder groups. The GWP Gender Strategy has been translated into Portuguese and made available to all Lusophone countries.
The Pakistani Example
In Pakistan, an urban water partnership, Karachi Water Partnership has effectively engaged women’s networks as stakeholders in decision-making processes. The main aim was to promote good governance with not just 50% involvement of women but also to empower them for a more efficient system. There were training and discussion workshops to raise awareness and capacity. These women networks have played an instrumental role in implementing water demand management initiatives and in discussions with government ministries on enhancing water laws, which now reflect more equitable resource sharing.
The Sri Lankan Example
NetWwater, the network of Women Water Professionals in Sri Lanka and founding member of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership, has ensured gender sensitive and women inclusive practice of GWP Sri Lanka from the start. Annual Gender & Water Dialogues at district level are an important activity of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership since 2004. The deliberate inclusion of women’s civil society voices has lead to gender sensitive and informed decision-making by national and local authorities and there are many instances of active community participation through women’s agency.
Women-to-women networking and exchange on water related development issues has resulted in many community-based and women-led projects that show a high degree of sustainability. For instance, in the drinking water sector, the bottom-up movement of women’s participation that was supported by the Sri Lanka Water Partnership improved management of their drinking water facilities, inclusion of sanitation including school sanitation needs, highlighting menstrual hygiene management and a spin –off of social and economic development initiatives.
Concluding thoughts
Gender is a complex and multi-faceted issue; and GWP is a diverse and multi-layered network that works on integrated approaches in water management, which is a complex matter in itself. The challenge is to make gender inclusion in water related work relevant and manageable. Assessing where working on the water-gender-development nexus is most useful in terms of impact on water security for all is an essential first step.
Gendered dynamics of water underscores the close inter-linkages between gender, poverty, sustainable development and peaceful societies. Bridging the gap between conceptual comprehension of gender issues and everyday grassroots realities of differential access to and use of water is the ultimate challenge and can only be realized by asking and involving the key stakeholder themselves; by capacitating them to articulate their issues and to participate in solving their problems. Serious pre-investment in the strengthening of local actors is vital and donor support should be directed to creating this enabling environment, supporting groups operating at the local level, that are willing to take the first steps and able to engage with grassroots communities; also to enable women’s civil society to engage with gender specialists and water technicians as equal collaborators in mainstreaming gender in all development efforts including in providing sustainable access to water for women and girls. Without this commitment we will not have the bottom-up processes that complement the top-down policy processes and the realization of our ambitions will once again fail.
The successful integration of gender in water-related development efforts relies on ownership, commitment, leadership and perseverance. It is a slow process of social transformation and mind-set change. A strong and multi-stakeholder partnership that initiates and fuels this process is indispensable. And it is imperative that women are an equal partner in this process and strengthened – where need be - to play their role as agents of change.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the GWP secretariat, in particular gender focal point Ankur Gupta, for the constructive contribution to this article. A special word of thanks goes to Ms Gisela Damm-Forattini of GWP Brazil and Ms Kusum Athukorala of GWP Sri Lanka for providing the example from their countries. Last but not least, my highest appreciation for all partners and individuals in the GWP family for their past and on-going efforts to making gender sensitive and women inclusive water management and governance a reality the ground.