Switzerland
CSD-13 on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements
New York, March 11 to 22°a, 2005
Subject:
Date and Time:
Responsible Person : Tatjana von Steiger
Mr. Chairperson
Allow me to raise two cross-cutting issues which Switzerland considers of critical importance in
the development and implementation of strategies to improve access to water, sanitation and
human settlement. These are culture and gender .
Culture
Respect for local socio-cultural complexities is a key to achieve equitable and sustainable
development. This means, for example :
1) Recognise and build upon local initiatives ;
2) Recognise that roles and responsibilities with regard to the provision and maintenance of
water, sanitation and habitation are culturally prescribed and distributed among different
members of a society;
3) Each culture has its own concepts of purity, pollution and danger, which affect their
knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to hygiene, domestic water management, and
sanitation;
4) Each culture has some rules and taboos on domestic water management, sanitation and
housing that have to be respected, for example in the design and site selection for wells,
water points, latrines, as well as for settlement patterns, and housing designs ;
5) Traditional architecture, construction materials, and settlement patterns are functional to
specific lifestyles, well adapted to local ecological conditions and gender-sensitive ;
These and many other cultural dimensions need to be seriously kept into account, also in
relation to post-disaster reconstruction programmes!
Thorough contextual knowledge, bottom-up project identification strategies and community
participation are essential ingredients of culturally sensitive planning and implementation of
water, sanitation and housing programmes . We must ensure that we go beyond paying a lip
Speaking Points
Inter-linkages among the three themes and all cross-cutting issues:
13 .04 .2005 : 16 :30 - 18 :00 Conference Room 1
service to participation and allocate sufficient time and resources for participatory planning and
implementation methodologies .
Gender
Switzerland fully supports the points mentioned in the chairman's-summary, concerning gender
issues. In addition, we would like to see the following practical measures highlighted in the
negotiated policy outcome:
The delivery of water and sanitation services has a potential impact on context-specific gender
power relations. This may increase the vulnerability of marginalised groups through exacerbating
existing inequalities . Especially with respect to the commodization of water one frequently
observes a drive for the formalization of property rights over watershed areas . In these
processes, women who had informal access rights often find themselves excluded . It is therefore
of crucial importance to integrate domestic water uses, such as health, hygiene, etc ., which often
depend on informal access rights, in the management models, to assure their equity and
sustainability of such models .
New York, March 11 to 22°a, 2005
Subject:
Date and Time:
Responsible Person : Tatjana von Steiger
Mr. Chairperson
Allow me to raise two cross-cutting issues which Switzerland considers of critical importance in
the development and implementation of strategies to improve access to water, sanitation and
human settlement. These are culture and gender .
Culture
Respect for local socio-cultural complexities is a key to achieve equitable and sustainable
development. This means, for example :
1) Recognise and build upon local initiatives ;
2) Recognise that roles and responsibilities with regard to the provision and maintenance of
water, sanitation and habitation are culturally prescribed and distributed among different
members of a society;
3) Each culture has its own concepts of purity, pollution and danger, which affect their
knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to hygiene, domestic water management, and
sanitation;
4) Each culture has some rules and taboos on domestic water management, sanitation and
housing that have to be respected, for example in the design and site selection for wells,
water points, latrines, as well as for settlement patterns, and housing designs ;
5) Traditional architecture, construction materials, and settlement patterns are functional to
specific lifestyles, well adapted to local ecological conditions and gender-sensitive ;
These and many other cultural dimensions need to be seriously kept into account, also in
relation to post-disaster reconstruction programmes!
Thorough contextual knowledge, bottom-up project identification strategies and community
participation are essential ingredients of culturally sensitive planning and implementation of
water, sanitation and housing programmes . We must ensure that we go beyond paying a lip
Speaking Points
Inter-linkages among the three themes and all cross-cutting issues:
13 .04 .2005 : 16 :30 - 18 :00 Conference Room 1
service to participation and allocate sufficient time and resources for participatory planning and
implementation methodologies .
Gender
Switzerland fully supports the points mentioned in the chairman's-summary, concerning gender
issues. In addition, we would like to see the following practical measures highlighted in the
negotiated policy outcome:
The delivery of water and sanitation services has a potential impact on context-specific gender
power relations. This may increase the vulnerability of marginalised groups through exacerbating
existing inequalities . Especially with respect to the commodization of water one frequently
observes a drive for the formalization of property rights over watershed areas . In these
processes, women who had informal access rights often find themselves excluded . It is therefore
of crucial importance to integrate domestic water uses, such as health, hygiene, etc ., which often
depend on informal access rights, in the management models, to assure their equity and
sustainability of such models .
Stakeholders