Subject: [fem-women2000 444] Gender and Water Alliance: New KnowHow activity
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 20:45:43 +0900
Seq: 444
Forwarded by lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org> ---------------- Original message follows ---------------- From: Lin Pugh <pugh@IIAV.NL> Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 13:39:04 +0200 Subject: New KnowHow activity -- Gender and Water Alliance: a role for women's information centres Paris, 2 July 2000: 35 representatives of water management, water users and information organizations from Asia, Africa, South America and Europe met in Paris for three days at the end of June to define the tasks of the newly formed Gender and Water Alliance. Initiated at the 2nd World Water Forum (March 2000), the Gender and Water Alliance is an informal network of individuals, NGOs, regional, national and local institutions, resource centres, research institutions and grass roots organizations. Its goal is to achieve equity and equality among women and men, regarding participation and decision-making in the water resources management. Among its first activities will be the identification, selection and equipment of gender ambassadors to influence policy development and attend relevant meetings. It will also review, adapt and package information on gender training methodologies, capacity building initiatives, indicators and operational checklists on gender equity for programs across sectors. More than 100 organizations are presently active within the Alliance. Those that did not attend the Paris were able to influence decisions made at the meeting through the online email conference hosted by the IIAV in the month preceding the meeting and throughout the three days of the meeting. The IIAV has been active in the lead-up to the formation of the Alliance, and in the creation of the Alliance. We are represented in the Interim Steering Committee. We would like our partner women's information services and centres to join in this initiative, as a way of fulfilling the commitments we each made in the Declaration of the Know How Conference. For example, at the local and national level we can work with water resource centres to provide water resource management programs with information for the advancement of the position of women. Women's information centres can play a leading role in information sharing among Alliance partners and with institutions and organizations involved in water management sectors. We can collect and disseminate key findings of research studies and help document best practices in the field of gender and water. I invite you to use this listserv to discuss ways in which women's information centres can participate in this global initiative. Background information is available on www.iiav.nl/knowhow/water. The Alliance has submitted, on invitation, a budget proposal to the Global Water Partnership. The secretariat of the Alliance is the IRC - International Water and Sanitation Centre. In the first round of actually organising the activity plans of the Alliance, program manager Jennifer Francis would like, by August 1st, an indication of which organisations are interested in participating in specific parts the program. For more information contact Lin Pugh, pugh@iiav.nl before July 15th. ======================================================= Lin Pugh Manager Knowledge Sharing Program IIAV International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement Obiplein 4 1094 RB Amsterdam The Netherlands tel +31-20-6651318 fax +31-20-6655812 http://www.iiav.nl (click through to European WomenAction 2000, Gender and Water, Mapping the World Database and Know How Conference) _________________________________________________________________________ fem-Women2000@jca.apc.org for Women 2000, UN Special Session on Beijing+5 Searcheable Archive http://www.jca.apc.org/fem/news/women2000/index.shtml visit fem-net HomePage for other mailing lists http://www.jca.apc.org/fem