South Africa hosts Gender, Water and Development Conference

THE Water Research Commission invites stakeholders from across the globe to attend the Gender, Water and Development Conference in East London, South Africa from 7–11 July 2014. Up for discussion are the achievements and challenges that have emerged in mainstreaming gender across water policy.

This event also forms part of South Africa's 20 years of celebration of freedom, where the Department of Water Affairs will reflect on its scorecard in delivering clean drinking water and sanitation to the country’s poorest citizens and its efforts to erase the infrastructure backlog of the apartheid legacy. The conference is co-hosted by South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs, the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and the International Women for Water Partnership (WFWP). Partner organisations include the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the international Water and Sanitation Partnership (WSP), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Pretoria, and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

The conference programme is designed to encourage broad stakeholder engagement and to serve as a platform for key role players from community based organisations, academia, government institutions and the private sector to exchange knowledge and gather best practice on gender perspectives in policy, programme implementation and governance.

“Our intention for the conference is to challenge the social constructs that define roles for men and women and tackle topics that intersect race, class and gender. Only through an equal society can we achieve the kind of economic stability needed for growth and development in our poorest countries” explains Barbara Schreiner, chairperson for the conference.

Participants can register balerínky