Statement

9 March 2005

Pretoria,
South Africa

Distinguished Participants
Dear colleagues from the United Nations System
Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of Mr. K. Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and United Nations Under-Secretary General, on behalf of Mr. Josué Dione, Director of ECA's Sustainable Development Division and indeed on my own behalf, I cordially welcome you all to this seminar on Gender and Water Resources Management in Africa. Your presence here today is a testimony to the importance that you attach to gender and water resources management in Africa.

This seminar has been organized as a follow-up to the African Ministerial Conference on Water held in December 2003 in Addis Ababa, during the Pan African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water. At that meeting the African Ministers adopted a number of commitments some of which addressed the mainstreaming of gender in water resources management. Your discussions and deliberations today therefore will focus on the promotion, implementation and achievement of the gender commitments. There are two tasks before us today. The first one is how to transform those commitments into a 10-year action plan for mainstreaming gender in water related activities in Africa as part of the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'. The second task is to promote awareness of gender mainstreaming in water resources management. In that context the seminar will aim at imparting new knowledge and ideas on how to incorporate a gender perspective in your work. Furthermore, it is my sincere hope that you will use your presence here to strengthen partnerships for enhanced gender advocacy in the water sector. Indeed it is not without reason that one plus one is often believed to equal 3 when it comes to net working and enhancing joint efforts.

May I take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the government of South Africa for hosting this seminar. May I also use this opportunity to thank the International Water Management Institute, based here in Pretoria, for their support and assistance in the preparation for this seminar as well as the two workshops that have just concluded their work.

Distinguished participants,

As you may be aware, during 2004 the ECA organized 5 sub-regional meetings on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The meetings were organized in each of the sub regions of the ECA culminating in the regional meeting on the Decade Review of the Beijing Platform for Action, organized in Addis Ababa in October 2004. The follow-up Global Review meeting is NOW taking place at U.N. Headquarters in New York. The Platform for Action that is being reviewed was the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in 1995 and it provides a framework for action to overcome all major obstacles towards gender equality and sustainable development. Amongst many other issues, the platform expresses concern over the integration of gender perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development. It calls for action such as the integration of women, in decision-making for sustainable resource management. Further it calls for the promotion of knowledge on the role, particularly of rural and indigenous women in food production, irrigation, watershed management and sanitation. Whereas the Platform for Action acknowledges women's knowledge of natural resource conservation, it expresses concern with the impact of environmental and natural resource degradation on women. In addition, the Platform for Action explicitly calls for equal access to safe water by the year 2000, a goal not achieved by 2000 but now incorporated under the Millennium Development Goals.

I further would like to draw your attention to the African Water Vision 2025. The vision was presented during the Second World Water Forum in 2000 in The Hague and later on acknowledged by the African Union. The vision is one of an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment. Targets have been set to achieve the vision, including the mainstreaming of gender in water resources management. The Vision explicitly calls on women to take on key positions and functions in decision-making on water issues and for stakeholder involvement in water resources management by particularly women and youth. Within the NEPAD framework, this vision was endorsed by the African Union Extraordinary Summit on Water and Food at Sirte, Libya in February 2004.

Your discussions and deliberations today and the preparation of a 10-year action plan for mainstreaming gender in water related activities in Africa will contribute substantively to the activities of the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'. The International Decade aims at having a strong focus on implementation of water-related programmes and projects, while striving to ensure in particular the participation and involvement of women in water-related development efforts, and the furtherance of cooperation at all levels, in order to help to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals. The decade will commence on this year's World Water Day on the 22nd of March.

I would like you to know that this gender seminar has been incorporated in the activity plan of the Interagency Gender and Water Task Force, the task force also taking primary responsibility for the International Decade for Action. It consists of UN members and a few non-UN agencies and facilitates gender mainstreaming in water activities, policies and programmes. I would like to thank the Task Force's Chairperson, Ms. Marcia Brewster, although not present here, for the support she provided in organising this seminar. I would also like to recognize the presence of Ms. Ethne Davey, Task Force member, who, on behalf of the Gender and Water Alliance, is also standing in for the Task Force.

Distinguished Participants

We all know that there are many more activities taking place in Africa and beyond in the framework of gender and water. I want to mention just a few. First, we acknowledge the various initiatives taken by the Global WASH Forum, the forum focusing on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for all. Activities include the recent endorsement of the concept of Global WASH Advocates and the African Ministerial Initiative on WASH. A small group of dedicated women leaders from around the world will act as advocates for WASH at various national and international fora. The group is chaired by Honourable Minister Maria Mutagamba, chair of the African Ministers Council on Water and Minister of State for Water in Uganda, and Honourable Minister Hilde Johnson, Minister of International Development of Norway.

Second we acknowledge the central role the Gender and Water Alliance plays in bringing gender advocates together for mainstreaming gender in water activities. We are grateful for the presence and active participation of the chair of the Gender and Water Alliance, who is also the chair of the Global Water Partnership in Southern Africa, at this seminar.

Third, distinguished participants, and not least, we also acknowledge your own work and the work of the research institutions, governments, NGOs, CBOs and UN-agencies you are representing. Only in a collaborative effort by all of us, researchers, policy-makers, implementers and foot soldiers from different communities, can we improve women's lives and achieve gender equality and sustainable development.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Finally, allow me to say a few words on the programme of work. Following the opening statements, we will have a few presentations to introduce the subject. These presentations will set the stage by focussing on the importance of gender mainstreaming in water resources management, the interlinkages between gender, poverty and water, the topics of the group discussions, the gender commitments of the African Water Vision 2025 and the recent African Ministerial commitments. After tea break, we will continue in 5 different parallel sessions for which you have already signed up. Within the sessions, introductory presentations will be given, after which discussions will lead the way towards the recommendations for a 10-year action plan. The group discussions will continue after lunch. At the end of the day, the recommendations will be presented in plenary and we will discuss the way forward, after which the seminar will be officially closed.

Distinguished Participants

I wish this important seminar fruitful deliberations leading to enhanced gender mainstreaming in water activities in Africa and implementation and achievement of the African Water Ministers' gender commitments.

I thank you for your kind attention.