The 2002 e-conference series

From January to September 2002, the Gender and Water Alliance convened an electronic conference series titled "Successes and Failures in Gender Mainstreaming in Integrated Water Resources Management". It aimed to collect, share and analyse information on the successes and failures in the practice of mainstreaming gender in order to make recommendations for improving practice.

The e-conference series provided information on the state of art of gender mainstreaming in Integrated Water Resource Management including concepts and definitions of gender in IWRM; promoted the sharing of experiences and knowledge of GWA members and beyond on the practice of gender mainstreaming through case studies; and supported the functioning of the GWA members in their practice of gender mainstreaming with specific recommendations based on the analysis of the state of art and actual experiences. The results of the e-conference series are a basis for continued discussions and promotion of Gender Mainstreaming in IWRM in the sector.

To encourage wide participation of sector professionals and include regional perspectives on the subject matter, the e-conferences were run in 4 languages simultaneously, being English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. All summary documents from each language were translated and shared with the other language regions to share information between the different regions as well. Furthermore, the e-conference series was mirrored in the Virtual Forum organised by the 3rd World Water Forum secretariat and major websites of sector organisations.