Major Group: Women
WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTION ON WATER
In line with the Secretary General recommendations at the occasion of the 49 th session of
the CSW, specifically to invest in infrastructure to reduce women's time burden,
including women's access to water and guarantee women's access to land and right to
inheritance, we the Women's Major Groups, underscore the following concrete actions:
1. Ensure that all institutions and programmes in water and sanitation make women
a central factor in their policies, programs and budgets. In order to achieve this,
we recommend using tools such as gender-disaggregated data, gender analysis,
gender responsive budgeting initiatives, gender sensitive monitoring and
evaluation systems and gender sensitive indicators.
2. Mobilize and in line with `Micro Summit' criteria, allocate funds in form of
grants and loans to facilitate women's capacity building in the water and
sanitation sector including infrastructure maintenance and management, as well as
scaling up success stories such as rain harvesting and watershed management.
3. Ensure women's active participation in the dialogues, partnerships and
consultations with governments, private sector, international development
partners and decision-makers. Specifically, women should be involved and
consulted in setting up of innovative financing mechanisms such as the Global
Water Fund Initiative
4. Sanitation and water should not be considered as separate issues. Both must be
linked in all policy proposals, designs )and implementation.a.-elL nw-
4e
y.-
5. Adoption of an ecosystem approach hence intervening in degradation processes
with wide implication on global environmental health
6. Prompt implementation of policies that promote and favor women's rights to
access water through relevant legal reforms including land rights which enable
women to manage and control water resources.
7. Mainstream pro-women strategies in Integrated Water Resources Management
Plans emphasizing women fully involvement in programme and project
development, implementation and evaluation.
Finally, women underscore that access to water is a human right. There are many
examples from several parts of the world that show that privatization of water
resources and services have had advance effects on poor women. It is established that
when profits comes before people, poor women are the victim. Therefore, women
caution privatization of water resources and are in favor of strengthening public
utilities.
In line with the Secretary General recommendations at the occasion of the 49 th session of
the CSW, specifically to invest in infrastructure to reduce women's time burden,
including women's access to water and guarantee women's access to land and right to
inheritance, we the Women's Major Groups, underscore the following concrete actions:
1. Ensure that all institutions and programmes in water and sanitation make women
a central factor in their policies, programs and budgets. In order to achieve this,
we recommend using tools such as gender-disaggregated data, gender analysis,
gender responsive budgeting initiatives, gender sensitive monitoring and
evaluation systems and gender sensitive indicators.
2. Mobilize and in line with `Micro Summit' criteria, allocate funds in form of
grants and loans to facilitate women's capacity building in the water and
sanitation sector including infrastructure maintenance and management, as well as
scaling up success stories such as rain harvesting and watershed management.
3. Ensure women's active participation in the dialogues, partnerships and
consultations with governments, private sector, international development
partners and decision-makers. Specifically, women should be involved and
consulted in setting up of innovative financing mechanisms such as the Global
Water Fund Initiative
4. Sanitation and water should not be considered as separate issues. Both must be
linked in all policy proposals, designs )and implementation.a.-elL nw-
4e
y.-
5. Adoption of an ecosystem approach hence intervening in degradation processes
with wide implication on global environmental health
6. Prompt implementation of policies that promote and favor women's rights to
access water through relevant legal reforms including land rights which enable
women to manage and control water resources.
7. Mainstream pro-women strategies in Integrated Water Resources Management
Plans emphasizing women fully involvement in programme and project
development, implementation and evaluation.
Finally, women underscore that access to water is a human right. There are many
examples from several parts of the world that show that privatization of water
resources and services have had advance effects on poor women. It is established that
when profits comes before people, poor women are the victim. Therefore, women
caution privatization of water resources and are in favor of strengthening public
utilities.