Soroptimist International of Europe, as part of the Women for Water
Partnership, co-organized a pre-conference in Marseille, France in preparation
for the 6th World Water Forum. During this two day conference, the
weekend before the World Water Forum started, women from different women’s
networks had the opportunity to exchange their knowledge and ideas as well as
come up with joint messages to propose to the Forum.
This Forum was seen as particularly crucial as it also prepared for Rio+20. For this
reason, the messages the women’s groups
proposed were for the Rio+20 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development as well as the Forum. The overall theme of the pre-conference was ‘Women Leadership in Water’. Three priority themes were tackled as part of this topic:
- Women’s role
in water and food security; - Community water
supply and sanitation; - Water,
peace and security.
Click here to read the background paper.
Ministers, water professionals, women’s civil society organizations and
young professionals all presented their Best Practices on each of the topics.
The motto of this year’s World Water Forum was “time for solutions”. The
focus on all levels has been implementation and action as opposed to just
dialogue. Here are some of the key messages and solutions that were concluded
from the pre-conference:
- Let us move from talking to action
Solution: MDG 9 – Half by the
year 2015 all water and development related fora and conferences. Put all the
money that is saved into a Women and Water Development Fund.
- Needs-based approach! We know the
what, involve us in the how!
Solution: Move from consultation to participation. Put women’s civil
society groups at the centre of needs assessment process.
- Empower women to play central
role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water!
Solution: Empower women through water and sanitation and they will move on to
integrated community development.
- Sustainability of water / sanitation
provision and management is a social issue, not a technical issue!
Solution: Organize
local community involvement and use existing civil society mechanism as a
network.
- Involve us as opportunities for
rapid change! Promote women’s leadership!
Solution: Give women access to knowledge and resources to make informed decisions
and be leaders in their own communities’ development.
- Dare to let go and delegate
responsibility to local level!
Solution: Women hold the keys to their community’s development.
- In times of crisis, put your
money where your mouth is!
Solution: Fund locally owned successful projects that have potential of up-scaling
to ensure sustainability.
- From policies to implementation,
the principal actors change!
Solution: 2013
International Year of Water Cooperation. Take us on board to accelerate and
meet the water-related internationally agreed development goals.
These messages and solutions were prominently
presented on a catwalk during the High Level Special session during the World
Water Forum where Ministers of Environment of Uganda and South Africa,
Ambassador of Green Cross, USAID Head of mission and Mayor of Bangangte in Cameroon
spoke. The High Level Session received a lot of media attention and attracted
large number of participants.
Report from Suba Parthiban
SIE Programme Executive