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The Mainstreaming of Gender in IW Projects in Light of the new GEF Policy on Gender Equality

UNESCO-WWAP/WWF-US

By IW:LEARN

April 29^th, 2019

Click here for the new GEF Policy on Gender Equality.

Summarizing the results of the Gender Clinics run by UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) at the International Waters Conference 9 (IWC9) in Marrakech last year.

The Gender Clinics run by UNESCO WWAP and the WWF gathered 31 participants in total, two thirds of which which were women. As gender does not equate with women and is also a men’s issue, men are encouraged to participate in future gender-related events. Participants from different parts of the world engaged in productive clinics during the conference. One thing was very clear throughout the sessions:

We need to discuss practical gender (and women's) issues more, especially how to address them at a project level.

Translating gender mainstreaming policies into actions on the ground is a challenging task. In this regard, it was discussed that capacity-development, based on needs identified through a capacity assessment, is required to ensure that gender is mainstreamed throughout all stages of the IW projects: 1) design, 2) planning, 3) implementation, and 4) monitoring and evaluation.

As an example it was agreed that both gender analysis and the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated* water data are essential in highlighting the invisible, but active roles that women play in water collection and management. This should be done in order to inform gender-transformative policies and frameworks, as well as accelerate the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Considering the relevance of the gender topic, and the urgency for all IW projects to address such issues immediately and in the design of all future projects, clinic participants suggested that “engendering water” should be included as a theme for the plenary of the next IW Conference.

Gaps identified during the clinics and tools to address them:

Twinning and exchange between women’s networks are a useful tool to include their considerations into integrated water resources management (IWRM) and transboundary water management.
Without gender-responsive indicators we cannot establish a baseline, measure progress, or keep track of strengths and weaknesses in project implementation and progress towards women’s empowerment and gender equality in the water realm. The WWAP Toolkit on “Gender and Water” is widely recognized in the international arena as providing a useful methodology, conceptual gender-responsive indicators, relevant guidelines and questionnaires to collect and analyse sex-disaggregated data on water.
To engage more women in IW projects, the quota system solely based on attendance rates is not sufficient for a meaningful participation. More qualitative data on interventions and acceptance of women’s interventions are needed. To overcome this issue, specific training aiming to enhance women’s confidence to speak up is needed, as well as training for chairs to ensure they acknowledge women’s interventions.
To promote “gender considerations” in countries where the issue is not very present in public policies, one approach could be to refer to the SDGs and targets Government pledged to achieve and combine goals and targets in their national plans (e.g. SDG 5 and 6).
Implementing commitments towards gender equality and women’s empowerment requires intentional measures to incorporate a gender perspective in planning and budgeting frameworks and concrete investment in addressing gender gaps. This can be achieved through gender-responsive budgeting.

For more information on this project, please contact Michela Miletto or Sarah Davidson.

* Data collected and tabulated separately for women and men allowing the measurement of differences between women and men in terms of various social and economic dimensions and are one of the requirements to obtaining gender statistics. (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/water-and-gender)