Marcia Brewster ()

Marcia Brewster is a senior officer in the Sustainable Development Division of the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She has been working mainly in the areas of water resources and sustainable development for the last 29 years, in both UN Headquarters and at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.

She was responsible for covering the water resources agenda at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002, was the Focal Point for the International Year of Freshwater, 2003 and is now coordinating the International ‘Water for Life’ Decade, 2005 to 2015. She has been actively involved in managing the main theme on sanitation for the Commission on Sustainable Development in 2004-05.

She is a committed advocate for women’s rights and serves as Task Manager of the UN interagency Task Force on Gender and Water, covering 18 UN agencies and five non-UN organizations. She is committed to promoting a stronger role for women in water development and management during the ‘Water for Life’ Decade, which coincides with the timetable of the Millennium Development Goals.

Representative UN in the Steering Committee since 2003