Water project by Soroptimist International Cotonou Doyen (Benin)

In
this week’s SoroptiVoice blog, Marie-Christine Gries de La Barbelais, one of SI’s
UN Representatives in Paris, reports from the 2nd NGO-UNESCO Forum on access to
water, which took place in Ivory Coast. Our UN Reps in Paris, where UNESCO has
its HQ, and members of SI Abidjan Flamboyant (Ivory Coast) were involved in this
event, one of a series of forums being organised by UNESCO around the world to
share expertise between NGOs.

On July 30th-31th, a forum organized by NGOs in
partnership with UNESCO took place in Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast). This forum
gathered more than 350 people, mainly representatives of  NGOs from West African countries, NGO representatives
to UNESCO in Paris, UNESCO staff, and official representatives of local
authorities. The Minister of Education and Technical Education of Ivory Coast,
Mrs Kandia Kamara, sponsored the forum and attended the main part of it. In her
conclusion speech, she praised the brilliant success of the event.

 

Organisation
and Soroptimist involvement

The forum was preceded by 18 months’ work by a group
of a dozen NGOs in official relationship with UNESCO, mainly working in the
field of education or human rights and social action. Soroptimist International
UN Reps in Paris were all involved: Rina Dupriet, Evelyne Para and myself.
Former UN Rep Dominique Mertz kindly gave us assistance she is an expert on health
and water problems.

Meanwhile, as soon as the Government of Ivory
Coast agreed to host the forum, local teams were formed under the responsibility
of the Ivorian Commission for UNESCO and members of the Soroptimist International
club of Abidjan Flamboyant were involved as local partners.

Each participant in the Forum was given a summary
of the 7 major topics for the conference; three of these were by Soroptimists:

• Women’s role and
  access to water management (Soroptimist- MC Gries de La Barbelais )
• Water diseases in
  Africa ( Soroptimist- Dominique Mertz)
• Conflicts about
  water and management (Soroptimist in association with  International Federation of Women
  Lawyers (FICJ) Rina Dupriet)

The Soroptimist information stall in the hall was awesome
and in the best location! Five ladies in their Soroptimist
dresses kept the stall, distributing information about local programs and SI. Soroptimist
representatives were also involved in providing summaries of the forum and presenting
the conclusions and manifesto.

 

Women
and water in Africa – key issues

Introducing the forum in a video, Mrs Irina Bokova
, Director General of UNESCO, underlined two major issues:

• There is enough water for all on the earth but the governance is
  missing
• Access to safe water is key to better education for girls 

A child dies every 3 seconds with water disease or thirst. Mrs
J. Rome-Chastanet of the International Federation of Scientific Workers highlighted
the brutal reality of people deprived of clean water in Africa. We must open
minds, reject preconceptions, put pressure on policy and, crucially, educate
women and involve women in decisions.

The keynote speakers highlighted several
challenges:

• Available
  safe water should be distributed evenly without leaving anyone out, which
  is far from being the case today – 35 % of Africans can’t
  access safe water
• Water
  distribution should not lead to drudgery particularly for women, hindering
  access to gender equality – women and girls can spend 6 hours a day
  collecting water.
• Sanitation
  should absolutely be integrated with water programs since water pollution
  and resulting diseases are a major health scourge – less than 40% people
  in Africa benefit from sanitation- wastewater treatment.
• Water
  management too often ignores the resource saving methods.
• When
  there is occasionally too much water, nothing is done to store it ; there
  is no anticipation of flood risk or drought.
• Water
  security is not assured for agricultural and industrial uses.
• Governmental
  programs are difficult to implement in the field and the results are
  inconclusive.
• Research
  on hydrology are scattered and incomplete.
• Water
  topics are not sufficiently prioritised by governments, this is a huge threat
  for the future.

We must think globally, act locally,
emphasised Mr Abou Amani, (UNESCO office, Nairobi). To act locally, in consultation with affected communities seems
to be the missing link in the process of governing. Many governmental or
intergovernmental programs exist on national and continental levels. But local
levels needs remain unsatisfied – this is a gap that Soroptimist International
can fill!

A Soroptimist project from Tunisia – Femme,
Enfants, Eau (Women, children, water) was used as a successful example of Integrated Water Resources
Management (IWRM), an approach that has now been accepted
internationally as the way forward for efficient, equitable and sustainable
development and management of the world’s limited water resources. Where
projects fail, it is largely due to lack of information and training of people: education
about water is absolutely required.

Mrs Mariam Traoré Konate, a Soroptimist from Ivory
Coast and President of the taskforce for the SI African Federation and Mrs
Hodonou, MIVAFED (a french association of home and education places for inner
city youth) described the damage to urban populations from the absence of
sanitation, part of everyday life of mainly illiterate people in Abidjan slums.
Mariam Traoré advocated for awareness among women and the need to educate and
train women on householding issues, as well as engaging authorities to
implement effective monitoring practices and to build sanitation fittings. 

All speakers advocated strongly for education. We
heard about a school program inspired by traditional Ivorian customs and values
attached to water, which is sacred. This approach is a means to avoid the
divide between modern education and tradition. As a symbol of this, the work of
the forum was opened by a traditional poet (griot) who reminded the audience
the respect due to the source of life: Water
is to the world what blood is to the body.

Due to the traditional division of labor in
everyday life, women play a major role in the supply and use of water. A broad
consensus was evident on the priority of involving women in decision-making on
issues relating to water and its management. This progress toward gender
equality for the benefit of all cannot succeed without a solid investment in the
education of women and girls.

Access to Water for All: UNESCO Forum to bring together African NGOs 

(News, May 2014)

Forum on Access to Water for all in Africa (UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee)

Infographic – Women and Water