Who are we?

The Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) was created at the 2nd World Water Forum (WWF) in 2000 in recognition that the water sector had been until then mainly technically-driven. This technical approach did not recognize or incorporate the different social relationships and roles of women and men, poor and rich communities, and minority and majority cultures in the different uses of water and water and sanitation services. The provision of sustainable water and sanitation services that incorporate an integrated water resources management approach would require a special emphasis and focus on gender, social justice and human rights.

GWA’s membership represents more than 500 organizations and individuals from around the world. More than eighty percent of the membership comes from a diversity of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The GWA is managed by an independent Steering Committee that is elected by the membership every two years. The Steering Committee is made up of nine members representing different regions and areas of expertise in the water and gender sectors. The Secretariat of the GWA is supported by a full-time Executive Secretary and a part-time assistant. It is hosted by the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) in Delft, the Netherlands. GWA is an Associated Programme of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). The present phase of the Alliance is funded by the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

GWA programme areas and main products

The actual programme areas of the Alliance are organised around the following sectors:

1. Information sharing. To collect, share and use - in electronic and hard copy version - key information on existing policies and practices in the three water sub-sectors. The leading activities are the four languages website and the series of Gender and Water Development Annual reports.
2. Experience sharing. To analyse and share key elements of success and failure in the gender mainstreaming practice of Alliance members and others partners, and to develop new strategies to improve this practice. Three electronic conferences in four languages took place before the 3WWF and had high levels of participation. A summary publication produced after the experience. New plans are under development for the next phase.
3. Advocacy. To develop and implement targeted advocacy on good practice of gender mainstreaming in national, regional and international fora. Targeted advocacy materials and three regional training workshops for gender ambassadors are key products of this programme area.
4. Training and capacity building. To develop and implement new, improved and tailored methodologies and tools for training and capacity building. The process started with the development of the training modules and the design of the methodology and it was followed by a Global and six Regional Training of Trainers workshops. The new phase of this programme area will concentrate its support on training and capacity building activities at national and local levels.
5. Pilot initiatives. To test, validate and assess replicability of good practice in gender mainstreaming through pilot initiatives developed by Alliance members. To date, the Alliance has sponsored numerous “Gender Ambassadors” to regional and international water sector events and developed and produced a range of “tools” for gender mainstreaming in the water sectors. Some of these products include:

• “Gender Scan” – a tool for gender mainstreaming of water sector institutions
• The first GWA Gender and Water Development Report on Gender Perspectives on Policies in the Water Sector.
• An Advocacy Manual for Gender and Water Ambassadors
• A compilation of “Lessons Learnt around the World” - a result of global electronic discussions on the benefits and challenges of gender mainstreaming. The discussions were conducted in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. A compilation of the main findings, case studies and discussions is available on CD-rom as well.
• A TOTs training kit of 6 modules on Gender Mainstreaming in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) which have been translated from English into the Alliances’ other languages. One global and six regional TOTs workshops in different language regions of the world.
• A note for donor agencies “Getting more from your development support”.
• Gender mainstreaming in integrated water resource management: guidelines for local governments
• A host of research, advocacy and lobbying pamphlets, videos and documents.

Partnerships

GWA believes in collaboration and building synergies with other key stakeholders of the water sector. In order to maximise available resources and have greater impact, GWA is engaged in results oriented partnerships with other organizations such as:

• Asian Development Bank for the implementation of the gender and water partnership initiative
• UNDP for the update of the jointly produced resource guide on gender mainstreaming for water resources management
• Cap-Net for joint activities on capacity building and training on gender and IWRM.
• IWMI -International Water Management Institute- for improving its gender mainstreaming practice while hosting the GWA regional co-ordinator in Africa
• GWP -Global Water Partnership- for better co-ordination and internalisation of gender within their activities and plans being GWA one of its main Associated programmes.
• WSSCC –Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council-for better information sharing and better incorporation of gender perspectives in sanitation.
• CAWTAR –Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research- to support Arab organisations with training and knowledge development processes on gender mainstreaming in IWRM.
• Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water to provide inputs for the development of strategic positions within this UN network of agencies and through it influence the work and decisions of relevant UN bodies and commissions.