Gender and water

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Gender and water

Water and Peace

When properly managed, water can be a peacemaking platform for long lasting cooperation

Water cooperation

Water is a growing concern in many parts of the world. Countries can improve their water resilience through transboundary water cooperation over shared waters.

Indigenous peoples are the custodians of many of the world’s most fragile and important ecosystems. They also possess invaluable knowledge about sustainability and resilience, so they have a vital role in protecting our environment.

Water and the 2030 Agenda

In 2015, the global community launched the 2030 Agenda, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that should be reached by 2030. Some progress has been made, but for most of the goals, the world is not on track to meet the deadline. Water can help us do better.

Water in landscapes

A growing number of people, societies and companies are discovering the power of resilient landscapes. It is still possible to shift to more sustainable practices that recharge water, restore soil health, sequester carbon, and strengthen biodiversity – but we need to make the transformation now.

Agriculture and water

How to increase the productivity of agriculture around the world through better water management.

Groundwater

Groundwater is the regulator of the entire freshwater cycle, but its invisibility makes it difficult to manage and protect.

Rivers

While we all depend heavily on rivers for our survival, many rivers are under constant threat from unsustainable human activities

Water scarcity

Insufficient supply and inadequate infrastructure leaves millions of people in the world without water.

Source-to-Sea

The source-to-sea approach focuses on the strong connection between what happens on land, along waterways, and in the sea.

Water and climate

The climate crisis is essentially a water crisis. When we treat it as such, we get new tools to mitigate climate change and adapt to consequences that are unavoidable.

Water governance

Many of the most pressing challenges in the world are about water: too little, too much or too inferior. Such challenges can only be effectively addressed through adequate governance of available water resources.

The impact of COVID-19

The global COVID-19 pandemic has pushed millions of people back into poverty and exposed unacceptable gaps between the rich and the poor. One in three people are still not able to wash their hands with soap and water at home.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

More than two billion people in the world lack safely managed drinking water and twice as many lack safely managed sanitation, making WASH one of the most urgent development challenges.

PERSPECTIVES

Youth and water

More and more young people offer important contributions to solving the growing water challenges they are inheriting.

Human rights and water

Having access to water and sanitation has been recognized as a human right since 2010. But water is also essential to ensuring the fulfilment of many other rights.

To improve water governance, we need to take a close look at gender roles.

To improve water governance, we need to take a close look at gender roles. While women and girls shoulder the main responsibility for collecting water, men are more likely to be making water decisions. This needs to change.

There is a strong argument to be made that more women are needed in water diplomacy and peacebuilding. Between 1990 and 2017, women constituted only 2 per cent of mediators, 8 per cent of negotiators and 5 per cent of witnesses in all major peace processes. Yet, peace agreements signed by women seem more likely to lead to lasting results – the likelihood that an agreement lasts more than 15 years increases by 35 per cent if it is signed by both men and women.

Inclusive decision-making

Inclusive decision-making is, therefore, a shared interest and responsibility, but how can it be achieved?

Knowledge is key. Water decisions are not sustainable if the needs and experiences of half the population are not reflected.
Educate boys and men about the gender bias. They must understand how they are influenced by and can influence norms and attitudes related to gender.
Provide more gender-disaggregated data.This can contribute to better informed decisions.
More women are needed in the water sector. In developing countries, they still make up less than 17 per cent of the WASH workforce.
Combat discrimination. As highlighted in the 2016 World Water Development Report Water and Jobs, women are often not given the same opportunities for training and promotions that would enable them to take on more responsibilities.
Strengthen women’s legal rights to land. The fact that women often have less secure land and resource rights than men can also be an obstacle to their participation since land tenure can be a requirement for such participation at a local level.
Consider the diversity of gender identities. Transgender men and women, as well as people with other non-binary or gender-queer identities, can also experience exclusion and discrimination based on concepts of gender.

Equal rights for all

Effective water governance needs to confront outdated social norms and the inefficiencies they lead to. Women and men, girls and boys, members of gender minorities, we must all have equal rights, conditions, and opportunities, with a chance to influence important water decisions. Only then will we reach the goal of equal access to water for all.

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