Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world
Every year men, women and girls push hard to achieve gender equality. The pay gap between men and women is over 30 percent, and the pandemic could set women’s careers back by as much as ten years as they returned to the home to become primary caregivers for their children. This year’s theme set by UN Women is: Womenin leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.
Across IWMI we’re celebrating the women who are leaders both in their families and their communities; we’re asking colleagues what they’ve achieved over the past 12 months, despite it being a tough year. Above all, we’ve shown the personal reserves of resilience and strength that women and men around the world have called on, and will continue to call on, to fight for equality, and to face an equal future together.
Women and water around the world
Worldwide, three billion people have no handwashing facilities at home, and two billion people use sources of drinking water contaminated by faecal matter. During the global pandemic, families must balance drinking and food preparation with sanitation and hygiene. Learn moreabout how IWMI’s work relates to Covid-19.
In Kathmandu, Nepal, water shortages are acute, and most households only get access to around an hour’s water supply per week from official or public sources. The alternative is a lifeline provided by vendors selling water from tankers which might be overpriced and is often polluted. It is common for families to spend around twenty percent of their earnings on water. Learn moreabout IWMI’s work on better WASH planning and financing, as well as how women are shaping water policy in Nepal.
The Gender and Inclusion Strategy 2020-2023 of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) supports implementation of the IWMI Strategy 2019-2023. This is done by ensuring that gender equality and inclusion are central to the Institute’s three Strategic Programs – water, food and ecosystems; water, climate change and resilience; and water, growth and inclusion – and to its fourth crosscutting program pillar on digital innovations.
Integrating MHM into water-related programming not only enhances the well-being and dignity of women and girls but also contributes to improved health outcomes, increased educational opportunities, and sustainable development at large.
In Bihar, India, the existing agriculture inequalities exacerbated by the climate distress has exposed the marginalized farmers especially women sharecroppers and laborers to intersectionality of vulnerabilities by caste, class, geographical location, age, ethnicity, and gender.
Social justice and equity must drive a sustainable approach. Women and disadvantaged groups need equal growth opportunities to become the next generation of Water, Energy, Food, and Ecosystems Leaders.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 and pursue "gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” find out how three IWMI researchers are translating those words into action.
Water resources policy in Ethiopia emphasizes the significance of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in river basins. The Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE) with its different directorates is vested with the responsibility of coordinating water resource management across basins. As part of executing this mandate, MoWE initiated the preparation of guidelines for establishment and management of multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) to coordinate IWRM in various basins.; The guidelines presented in this publication focus on coordinating and managing water resources in the Central Rift Valley Lakes Basin within the Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakes Basin. This basin faces numerous water-related challenges such as increasing water demand, pollution, ecosystem degradation, climate change impacts, and conflicting water-use practices. These guidelines are aimed at defining a framework outlining the purpose, scope, and scale of MSPs as well as the key roles to be played by the governance bodies involved.; While facilitating collaboration and partnership among the stakeholders involved in basin water resources management, these guidelines explicitly emphasize inclusion of women and marginalized groups. They highlight the essential elements required for effective management and governance of MSPs and underline the need for facilitation, trust-building, planning, goal-setting, effective communication, and a commitment to participatory decision-making. Ultimately, MoWE bears the responsibility of making the final decisions.; Collaborative dialogue and inclusive decision-making processes are vital for sustainable water management. Integrated planning, data collection, monitoring, and evaluation are important for taking well-informed decisions. Therefore, our guidelines recommend capacity-building initiatives and knowledge-exchange platforms to enhance the effectiveness of MSPs. Additionally, strategies and mechanisms for securing the financial resources needed to implement IWRM plans and activities are emphasized.; As effective communication plays a vital role in MSP processes, there is a need to define objectives, identify stakeholders, select communication channels, establish communication protocols, build relationships and trust, and develop outreach materials.; Gender issues in water resources management, particularly access to water and control and ownership, are highlighted in these guidelines. Capacity-building activities are recommended to enhance the knowledge and skills of the stakeholders involved in the MSPs.; Lastly, the guidelines stress the importance of monitoring and evaluating the MSPs involved in basin management. Such evaluations involve measuring stakeholder engagement, policy alignment, knowledge sharing, and collaboration and partnerships.; These guidelines can be used by basin and sub-basin coordination experts and officials to establish and manage MSPs in the Central Rift Valley as well as beyond.
Integrated land management / Knowledge sharing / Communication / Accountability / Monitoring and evaluation / Financing / Learning / Capacity development / Marginalization / Social inclusion / Women / Gender / Local communities / Policies / Decision making / Partnerships / Collaboration / Sustainability / River basin management / Governance / Guidelines / Multi-stakeholder processes / Integrated water resources management Record No:H052584
Solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) are emerging as a popular technology to address water, energy, and climate change challenges in South Asia while enhancing livelihoods and food security. SIPs are deemed to be a women-friendly renewable energy technology (RET) due to their design, operating system, and safety. While the gender dimensions of natural resources are well documented, the extent to which the water, energy, and food (WEF) policies—including policies to promote SIP technologies in the countries of South Asia—conceptualize and operationalize gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) is not well understood. Therefore, in this study, we reviewed 39 WEF sectoral policies of Bangladesh and Nepal by adopting a gender-transformative analysis approach to rank the policies on a continuum ranging from a scale of 0–3 (denoting gender-unaware, gender-aware, gender-responsive, and gendertransformative). We found that the governments in both countries commit to gender equality and women’s advancement in their WEF sector policies, institutions, and decision-making by ensuring gender and justice principles in their constitutions and national development frameworks. However, these higher-level aspirational principles are not always operationalized in the WEF sector policies. We found that the WEF policies are aware of the need to include GESI and social equity in sectoral programming, yet operational rules for their implementation often fail to challenge structural barriers. Such barriers hinder women and marginalized groups from participating in and benefiting from WEF policies, including the deployment of SIP technologies. This calls for a transformation not only in project implementation but also in the policymaking processes of WEF sectors in the South Asian region.
Water policies / Solar powered irrigation systems / Gender Record No:H052566
The main aim of this book is to illustrate circular models for sustainable resource management. It highlights the benefits of transformative approaches in integrating, simplifying, and facilitating understanding of complex systems and transforming systems towards greater sustainability while achieving multiple social, economic, and environmental outcomes. It provides pathways towards strategic policy decisions on socio-economic transformation supported by case studies.; Features:; Discusses exploration of a transitional path to the circular economy, explored from the point of view of waste and technology.; Explains transformational change towards sustainable-socio ecological interactions.; Reviews provision of pathways towards sustainability through scenario development.; Provides assessment of progress towards Sustainable Development Goals.; Presents cross-sectoral and multicentric approaches towards circularity.; This book is aimed at researchers and professionals in water and environmental engineering, circular economy, sustainability, and environmental studies.
Case studies / COVID-19 / Production systems / Agriculture / Women / Gender norms / Policies / Resilience / Climate change adaptation / Awareness / Infectious diseases / Sanitation / Human health / Environmental health / Composting / Organic wastes / Faecal sludge / Sewage sludge / Wastewater treatment plants / Technology / Waste management / Innovation / Nexus approaches / Food systems / Energy / Water management / Business models / Reuse / Resource recovery / Water supply / Environmental engineering / Sustainable Development Goals / Sustainability / Transformation / Socioeconomic aspects / Circular economy Record No:H052573
Mapedza, Everisto. 2024. Gender norms and social transformation of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Nhamo, L.; Mpandeli, S.; Liphadzi, S.; Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe. (Eds.). Circular and transformative economy: advances towards sustainable socio-economic transformation. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press. pp.159-174. (Africa Circular Economy Series)[DOI] More... | Fulltext (201 KB)
There is a paucity of scientific information regarding gender norms and social transformation in the Sub-Saharan region. This has contributed to the insufficient articulation of gender issues in the proposed agricultural programmes and visions, such as the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Malabo Declaration. These efforts premise the transformation of the African continent on the foundation of the agricultural sector, a critical pillar in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and Climate Change of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change must be locally applied. This means that the water and land livelihood pathways in agriculture and the related value chain linkages will contribute towards food self-sufficiency for Africa and the modernization of the economies in Africa. In all these discourses, whilst gender is sometimes highlighted, it is often not well articulated within the proposed solutions. This study aims to better understand the role of gender norms in agriculture transformation. This chapter aims to draw upon generic literature to illustrate how gender norms are central to transforming the agricultural sector within Sub-Saharan Africa. The study method is based on a generic desk study literature review that identified descriptive thematic areas.