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)




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