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I had the honour to attend a conference on "Building and Managing Sustainable Transboundary Water Institutions in Africa and Beyond" in Entebbe Uganda from 15-18 February 2010.
The purpose of the conference was to share lessons learned from the management of international waters; exchange ideas on the resolving of conflicting demands among diverse stakeholders in the international water resources management; review best practices in international waters and also to develop experiential learning tools.
The conference was attended by a diverse group of people from all over and although the conference took place in Uganda it did not only focus on fresh water (lakes and rivers), but also discussed the management and institutional arrangements of marine ecosystems.
Emphasis was placed on governance of international waters with both environmental sustainability and gender equality as cross-cutting issues. One of the topics under gender equality was the participation of women and youth in the building and implementation of transboundary water management. What also came out is the inclusion of the knowledge of eldery in decision-making and policy formulation.
My personal contribution was that the communities should always be included in discussions regarding policy-making, transboundary water issues, development of institutional frameworks, etc. The communities are part of the stakeholders and that should never be forgotten. In addition to that, decision makers should then also allow communities to air their views, give their opinions and contribute to solutions. Therefore, it is very important to acknowledge and record the indigenous knowledge of communities and to provide communities a platform to speak out and make their voices heard.
A lot of valuable information was shared during this conference and I am confident that all the participants were able to learn something in one way or another. One really hope that this sharing of information should happen on a continuous basis. |
At the recent conference on "building and managing sustainable transboundary
water institutions in Africa and beyond", one of the topics on the agenda
was the involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management.
To many countries in Africa, water management issues has always been a male
dominated field. If we all are in favour of gender mainstreaming, then we
will have to allow women equal opportunities and also give them a fair
chance to actively partake in water management issues, decision-making
issues, etc.
The question is whether this is happening and also whether people out there
think that this is at all possible? Also how do people see the roles of
women in transboundary water management and decision making?
-----Original Message-----
From: Nadine Pickering [mailto:nadine@ecoafrica.co.za]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 11:54 AM
To: General Discussion
Subject: [DLIST Discuss] Conference on International Transboundary Waters in
Africa
I had the honour to attend a conference on "Building and Managing
Sustainable Transboundary Water Institutions in Africa and Beyond" in
Entebbe Uganda from 15-18 February 2010.
The purpose of the conference was to share lessons learned from the
management of international waters; exchange ideas on the resolving of
conflicting demands among diverse stakeholders in the international water
resources management; review best practices in international waters and also
to develop experiential learning tools.
The conference was attended by a diverse group of people from all over and
although the conference took place in Uganda it did not only focus on fresh
water (lakes and rivers), but also discussed the management and
institutional arrangements of marine ecosystems.
Emphasis was placed on governance of international waters with both
environmental sustainability and gender equality as cross-cutting issues.
One of the topics under gender equality was the participation of women and
youth in the building and implementation of transboundary water management.
What also came out is the inclusion of the knowledge of eldery in
decision-making and policy formulation.
My personal contribution was that the communities should always be included
in discussions regarding policy-making, transboundary water issues,
development of institutional frameworks, etc. The communities are part of
the stakeholders and that should never be forgotten. In addition to that,
decision makers should then also allow communities to air their views, give
their opinions and contribute to solutions. Therefore, it is very important
to acknowledge and record the indigenous knowledge of communities and to
provide communities a platform to speak out and make their voices heard.
A lot of valuable information was shared during this conference and I am
confident that all the participants were able to learn something in one way
or another. One really hope that this sharing of information should happen
on a continuous basis.
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This is a critical point as study after study shows the central role of
women and children as collectors of water and the inordinate burden it
places on this sector of society. If decsions are not being shared with
women and the youth then mechanisms certainly need to be put in place so
that this does happen.
glenn
On 2010/03/09 01:25 PM, Nadine Pickering wrote:
> At the recent conference on "building and managing sustainable transboundary
> water institutions in Africa and beyond", one of the topics on the agenda
> was the involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management.
>
> To many countries in Africa, water management issues has always been a male
> dominated field. If we all are in favour of gender mainstreaming, then we
> will have to allow women equal opportunities and also give them a fair
> chance to actively partake in water management issues, decision-making
> issues, etc.
>
> The question is whether this is happening and also whether people out there
> think that this is at all possible? Also how do people see the roles of
> women in transboundary water management and decision making?
|
According to the research, it has been noticed that women are the ones who mainly use water as they have to travel to the river to fetch water for irrigation purposes and for domestic use, but when it comes to water management decisions they are excluded on the issue. The findings show that, involving both women and men in integrated water resources initiatives can increase project effectiveness. This clearly indicates that this situation really needs to be improved, by Government bodies through implementation programmes to ensure effectively participation of women in decision making at all levels of water resource management.
Quoting Nadine Pickering <nadine@ecoafrica.co.za>:
>
> At the recent conference on "building and managing sustainable transboundary
> water institutions in Africa and beyond", one of the topics on the agenda
> was the involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management.
>
> To many countries in Africa, water management issues has always been a male
> dominated field. If we all are in favour of gender mainstreaming, then we
> will have to allow women equal opportunities and also give them a fair
> chance to actively partake in water management issues, decision-making
> issues, etc.
>
> The question is whether this is happening and also whether people out there
> think that this is at all possible? Also how do people see the roles of
> women in transboundary water management and decision making?
>
> |
I am rather surprised by the little reaction that Nadine's e-mail on the
involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management evoked. Two
responses said basically the same thing, namely that women are often those
who are the carriers of the water for household needs, etc. and that, for
such reasons they should not be excluded from water management issues. That
is fair enough, of course. The fact that women have been most often denied
access to powerful positions, certainly justifies a stronger focus on the
empowerment of women. But let's not forget that there is a bigger issue here
also - discrimination is discrimination, and leaving out any sector of
society from management issues is dangerous. Should we not think of gender
mainstreaming rather, which obviously would include the inclusion and
empowerment of women? Imbalances between women and men continue to influence
all walks of life and it is becoming increasingly clear that new approaches,
new strategies and new methods are needed to reach the goal of gender
equality. Gender mainstreaming is one of these strategies. Without gender
equality someone will always lose out somewhere, and so will society as a
whole, simply because not all human potential is tapped and put to good use.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nadine Pickering [mailto:nadine@ecoafrica.co.za]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 1:25 PM
To: 'General Discussion'
Subject: [DLIST Discuss] Involvement of women and youth in transboundary
water management
At the recent conference on "building and managing sustainable transboundary
water institutions in Africa and beyond", one of the topics on the agenda
was the involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management.
To many countries in Africa, water management issues has always been a male
dominated field. If we all are in favour of gender mainstreaming, then we
will have to allow women equal opportunities and also give them a fair
chance to actively partake in water management issues, decision-making
issues, etc.
The question is whether this is happening and also whether people out there
think that this is at all possible? Also how do people see the roles of
women in transboundary water management and decision making? |
It would be informative to know what are concrete actions that DLIST has been/will be taking at its demonstration sites (or beyond) towards gender mainstreaming at the community level.
Meantime, DLIST would certainly benefit from others' inputs what are the desired actions and/or what are the current barriers prohibiting those actions to be taken.
Regards,
Akiko
-----Original Message-----
From: Francois Odendaal [mailto:francois@ecoafrica.co.za]
Sent: 12 March 2010 12:03 PM
To: 'General Discussion'
Subject: Re: [DLIST Discuss] Involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management
I am rather surprised by the little reaction that Nadine's e-mail on the
involvement of women and youth in transboundary water management evoked. Two
responses said basically the same thing, namely that women are often those
who are the carriers of the water for household needs, etc. and that, for
such reasons they should not be excluded from water management issues. That
is fair enough, of course. The fact that women have been most often denied
access to powerful positions, certainly justifies a stronger focus on the
empowerment of women. But let's not forget that there is a bigger issue here
also - discrimination is discrimination, and leaving out any sector of
society from management issues is dangerous. Should we not think of gender
mainstreaming rather, which obviously would include the inclusion and
empowerment of women? Imbalances between women and men continue to influence
all walks of life and it is becoming increasingly clear that new approaches,
new strategies and new methods are needed to reach the goal of gender
equality. Gender mainstreaming is one of these strategies. Without gender
equality someone will always lose out somewhere, and so will society as a
whole, simply because not all human potential is tapped and put to good use..
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