EventsFresh water is becoming increasingly scarce across the world, while remaining a daily basic need for all. This turns into a bigger issue as decisions about the different uses of water are overshadowed by men, while the actual use of water is mostly by women for their families, exacerbating this disparity. Being aware of this reality makes it difficult to ignore the need for integrated water resources management (IWRM) through a gender-inclusive approach.
Gender and water resources are intrinsically linked. As such, we need to learn how to apply sustainable and inclusive water resources management to ensure resilience in a world of changing climate, with meaningful participation of all stakeholders. Guided by the Why Gender Matters in IWRM training manual, this course unravels the existing challenges faced by vulnerable groups when dealing with water, demonstrates how the two are connected, explains the benefits of addressing them in an integrated way, and presents comprehensive tools on how to achieve this. An abundance of case studies and lessons learned are shared to provide concrete examples which can be tailored and adapted to suit practitioners’ needs.
Objective
The course aims to improve practitioners’ understanding of the benefits of integrating gender meaningfully through integrated water management practices.
The course discusses the tools required to fully integrate women and vulnerable participants, and the potential negative impacts of ignoring gender components when planning for water and sanitation, climate resilient measures, and inclusive participation in the water sector. The modules provide examples of tools and practical ways forward, as well as real-life case studies. The various monitoring and gender-specific indicators are also discussed.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to design and implement integrated and inclusive interventions in the water sector which ensure strong recognition of marginalised groups, leverage their knowledge towards adaptive measures to climate change, and work towards inclusive representation and access for sustainable management practices.
Participants
Participants representing various stakeholder groups from the entire water sector globally are invited to take this course:
- stakeholders and professionals forming part of water management, civil society, river basin, or international organisations; development programmes, members of UN organisations, and representatives of the private sector
- Sustainable Development Goals focal points and facilitators within national governments
- decision-makers, policy-makers, and high-level professionals and managers active in governmental bodies
- capacity developers active in the fields of integrated water resources management, climate action, gender mainstreaming, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation among others.
Participants are expected to have previous knowledge of the basic concepts of integrated water resources management. A basic understanding of the impacts of climate change on water resources is expected. No previous knowledge of gender or its interactions with water is required.