Water for Shared Prosperity: Amplifying diverse voices and knowledges for the global water goals

During the 10th World Water Forum in Bali, Indonesia, 18-25 May, Water for Women brought to the fore and elevated the voices and experiences of Asian and Pacific communities and shared insights, knowledges and learning from our water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects and research across the region to advance "Water for Shared Prosperity" for all.

Water for Women was represented on the ground by Dr Alison Baker, Fund Manger, Joanna Mott, Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) Adviser, and Zahra Bolouri, Knowledge and Learning Manager. Several Water for Women partners also attended, bringing diverse experiences and strong representation of WASH to a forum that has traditionally focused more on the 'hardware' or infrastructure, and ensuring that GEDSI, and local and traditional knowledges and voices were central to global discussions and decision-making for climate-resilient and inclusive solutions.

Jose Mott reflected on the global dialogues throughout the week and the powerful messages that emerged from across sessions and syntheses for accelerated action towards SDG6 - Clean water and sanitation for all: 

"The case for change is clear. The planet can no longer sustain “business as usual”. Shared water prosperity - along with sanitation for all and for our ecosystems - depends on different and more holistic ways of working with each other."

Elevating diverse voices in global dialogues

Water for Women led two conference sessions and two Australia booth sessions; was directly involved in five other sessions in panels, presentations, and syntheses, and was represented by partners from 10 civil society and research organisations in more than 12 other conference sessions in addition to a plethora of side events and engagements staged during and around World Water Forum. 

You can read our session summaries and highlights below 

Uncovering the power of local culture and knowledge for better water management 

Actively including marginalised voices, particularly from Indigenous and traditional communities, deepens our understanding of water related challenges and solutions, which leads to more effective and sustainable water resource management (WRM) and WASH outcomes.

On Tuesday, 21 May, this session (4D3) shared evidence-based approaches and tools being used to incorporate local culture and knowledge for equitable and climate-resilient water and sanitation in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Indonesia and Nepal.

Milika Sobey, a Natural Resource Management Specialist based in Fiji, took attendees on a journey to two rural Fijian villages where a private quarry's operations upstream were detrimentally impacting the water catchment - not just from a food and water security perspective, but also harming culturally significant totemic species of clans. Despite their water responsibilities and local knowledge, women were not included in solution finding and decision-making: "In Fijian culture women don’t have a voice in community decision making processes. It is a patriarchal culture. Yet women have responsibility for water and food security and therefore are the first to notice the changes that impact their families." 

Milika explained how the Social Empowerment and Education Programme (SEEP) brought together graduate scientists and women in the community in a peer-to-peer learning exchange (shown above conducting biospecies examination in the river), with both skillsets and knowledges as valued as the other. Then, after data collection and analysis, the group was able to present cultural and scientific evidence to the male community leaders and spur action. Further to this and influenced by these outcomes, the Government of Fiji committed to documenting traditional environmental and custodial knowledges to ensure that these largely oral sources are not lost to history.

Sheilla Funubo, a researcher and teacher with Solomon Islands National University and partner of the International WaterCentre (IWC) at Griffith University, spoke about the importance of local and cultural knowledge to support planning for climate-resilient water in Solomon Islands - where around 80% of the population lives in remote rural areas but only 35% have access to drinking water and 58% have no choice but to practise open defecation.

Sheilla emphasised the need for innovative planning processes facilitated by supporting actors that work with existing cultural strengths, such as levels of social cohesion (zones) and local cultural knowledge: 

"It is important that we appreciate our own cultures and kastoms and recognise that many solutions are within [us] especially for behavioural actions.

We empower the water committee with skills and governance in water planning and monitoring. We encourage communities to reflect on past climate hazards so they better prepare for the future. 

Including women in water stewardship at zone level is important because they can go back to their communities and share information with other women." 

Silvia Devina, Water for Women Project Manager with Yayasan Plan International Indonesia, shared insights from Nusa Tenggara Timur and Nusa Tenggara Barat, including on forest and water conservation 'Pati Ongong' and 'Pati Buru' in Sumbawa, and Barong Wae for water source protection in Manggarai. Through their Water for Women Climate-Resilient and Inclusive WASH project, Plan Indonesia is integrating GEDSI in water resource management for effective locally led solutions that benefit all members of the community. Plan Indoensia has established inclusive Integrated Water Management Forums (IWM Forums), which include representatives from women's organisations and organisations of persons with disabilities, with one fully operational in Sumbawa and in Maggarai, and one soon to commence in Kupang City. The IWM Forums bring together all stakeholders involved in the planning and management of water systems across the entire water cycle to ensure that the liveability, resilience and sustainability outcomes the community is seeking are maximised across cities and regions.

Darshan Karki, a researcher with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Nepal, spoke about how the people of Nepal, “have over the ages learned to live with resource scarcity. However, this has not stopped them from making the best use of what they have…” Darshan pointed to examples of choosing intakes for drinking water from naturally protected areas, planting trees such as bananas and Nepalese alder around water sprouts and springsheds, which are traditional practices she said both scientists and practioners can learn from and replicate. However, Darshan also highlighted that not all traditional practices and knowledge benefit everyone equally.

Drawing from the social science findings of research undertaken through IWMI's Water for Women project, Towards Climate-Resilient Inclusive WASH Services in Rural Nepal, Darshan pointed to examples of banned yet self-enforced isolation of women in Chhupadi huts during menstruation and post-partum, caste discrimination and patriarchal priviledge: "We started to understand some of the exclusionary traditional practices in WASH. For example menstruating women are not allowed to touch taps or other facilities because they are considered impure at this time. But it is not men who take on these domestic chores while their female relatives are menstruating. It is other women who take them on." 

Darshan emphasised the importance of asking key questions when considering the value of power of local culture and knowledge for better water management: 

"To whom is it useful? Who benefits? Who is excluded? What norms do those traditional understandings perpetuate?”

Turning rhetoric into reality - ensuring gender equality and social inclusion for climate-resilient WASH for all

Critical to achieving climate-resilient WASH for all is ensuring diverse voices are not only part of, but central to decision-making for climate-resilient solutions at institutional, policy, and community levels. During this session (6C3) on Thursday 23 May, panellists provided evidence-based examples being used in the water and WASH sectors in diverse country contexts to amplify the voices of marginalised communities in decision-making to realise climate-resilient WASH for all.

Novika Noerdiyanti from Yayasan Plan International Indonesia started the discussion sharing lessons from development and use of the Climate Change Response for Inclusive WASH (CCRIW) tool. The CCRIW tool aims to assess how climate change affects rural WASH service outcomes, gender, and inclusion, and map village resources and action plans for climate-resilient WASH adaptation and mitigation. Plan Indonesia has implemented the tool in 94 villages in East and West Nusa Tenggara Provinces, where half the community collects water from further away than they should have to due to the fact that women and people with disabilities were not consulted during water planning processes, and more than 80% of the villages lack accessible sanitation. Using the tool to facilitate community participation in mapping potential climate hazards, impacts on GEDSI and WASH, and map resources, 24 of these 94 villages have now prepared action plans that support GEDSI in climate-reslient WASH through measures such as construction of accessible sanitation facilities, involvement of people with disabilities in the development cycle, GEDSI awareness raising initiatives, and action plans executed by community, households, villages and governments.

Mary Alalo from the Pacific Community (SPC) next took attendees to the heart of Small Pacific Islands, where she shared "Half of our countries depend on rainwater or groundwater; they don’t have access to surface water” and that "the burden of water carriage falls heavily on girls and women and impacts their education and economic opportunities." Mary presented a case study from the Pacific Resilience Partnership Multi-Sectoral Water Security Technical Working Group, who are working to improve engagement and collaboration on water security – with GEDSI a key component of the strategy for building resilience among vulnerable communities in the Pacific region. Mary spoke about the Pacific-led approach being guided through the Pacific Resilience Partnership's Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific 2017-2030, which is a global first where the Pacific seeks to reduce their exposure to climate and disaster risk, support low carbon development and improve disaster response and reconstruction.

Cesarina Quintana from non-government organisation, Forest Trends Peru, transported attendees from the Pacific to Peru, starting with an overview of how the country has emerged as a champion on nature-based solutions (NBS) for water and climate resilience in the past 10 years. This has been predominantly driven by policy changes enabling public investments to “see” nature as infrastructure. Natural infrastructure, also referred to as green infrastructure, is important in water security as it uses existing natural areas (and engineered solutions that mimic natural processes) to minimise flooding, erosion, drought, fires, landslides, and runoff. Cesarina outlined how investments in natural infrastructure for water security increased from less than USD 2m to about USD 21m per year from 2008-2021, and today, around USD 30m is generated from tariffs (MERESE) for conseravtion initiatives under the national policy. According to the WHO/UNICEF 2021 Joint Monitoring Programme, about 9% of Peru's population lacks access to clean water, and 28% does not have basic sanitation. At the same time, the economy is highly dependent on water-intensive commodities, which means that significant increases in prosperity and human well-being are contingent on improving access to WASH for all.

Cesarina shared a case study from Forest Trends' Natural Infrastructure for Water Security project, which aims to scale up gender-sensitive investments in natural infrastructure, such as forests and wetlands, as a strategy to regulate water supply and strengthen climate resilience. Some highlights included support for structural changes that address gender gaps in water management and climate policy, including Peru's first gender equality policy for the water sector established in 2021 (SUNASS); the guide to mainstream gender, intercultural and intergenerational approaches in design and implementation of Peru's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) (MINAM 2024); and participation of more than 100 women in the Women's Leadership Program for water and natural infrastructure management between 2020-22, including 53 women leaders within the Yaku Warmikuna network - a mechanism to support their continuous learning and mutual support as water guardians and defenders.

Jigme Choden from SNV Bhutan, returning to Asia, drew on SNV's collaborative Water for Women work with research partner, the University of Technolgy Sydney - Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF), discussing the importance of transformative leadership in the national and subnational government of Bhutan and within rights holder organisations and self-help groups to drive inclusive and climate-reslilent WASH for all. Jigme spoke about "collaboratve circles" that involve all members within communities as central to these efforts.

While Bhutan is one of the few countries currently on track to achieve SDG 6, emerging water governance and security challenges, including water-related risks of floods, dry spells, and landslides, undermine and threaten to reverse hard won sanitation amd hygiene gains of the past decade. 

“The transformative leadership is key to driving gender equality and inclusion beyond water, sanitation and hygiene services. Strengthening WASH services is a pathway to gender equality, creating opportunities for meaningful participation. The transformational leadership emphasises the connections between beliefs, actions, and inclusive outcomes.  Attending the Transformative Leadership meetings, I really came to understand that gender and social inclusion is their fundamental right and also very important in decision making in all level of planners… We can change and further improve in existing implementing norms and infrastructure...” 

- District Chief Engineer

Jigme shared examples of how SNV and UTS-ISF's approach scales up, scales out and scales deep - impacting laws and policies that underpin access to climate-resilient and inclusive WASH for all; replicating and increasing reach to benefit more people and communities; and fostering transformative leadership that shifts harmful social norms, beliefs and practices that perpetuate inequities.  

Claire Meyer from iDE Cambodia was the final speaker for this session and introduced attendees to three women WASH entrepreneurs who are iDE partners situated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Ghana, and shared approaches for empowering women like them to strengthen the climate reslience of services and facilities. Claire shared how in the private sector in these countries, as in many other contexts, while women may be involved in the business, most sanitation businesses are male owned and women lack decision-making power, leadership and ownership. Similarly, in the public sector, while local female authorities may have the mandate of facilitating improved WASH services, they are typically under-resourced.

iDE addresses these challenges through their Water for Women project and beyond by building entrepreneurs’ business skills, strengthening their technical capacity for climate-resilient inclusive WASH products, and partnering with local GEDSI experts to strengthen women entrepreneurs’ skills and confidence and support men to create enabling environments for women to thrive (as shown in action in top photo). 

Sharing recommendations for powering women entrepreneurs for climate-resilient and inclusive WASH, Claire emphasised:

Connecting across contexts at Australia booth

Alongside other Australian partners for water development, Water for Women was part of the Australia booth convened by the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Water for Women actively participated and engaged at the Australia booth in the Country Pavilion throughout the World Water Forum. This included hosting two booth sessions:

1. A Circle of Water Stories, including the launch of the new Climate Resilient Sanitation Coalition website
2. Tools for Transformation: Pathways Towards a Water Secure and Peaceful Future. 

Water for Women tools co-created and implemented over the last six years were shared during the Tools for Transformation session, with partners contributing their experiences in applying these tools in their local contexts, including the:

• Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Self-Assessment Tool
• Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
• Shifting Social Norms for Transformative WASH: Guidance for WASH Actors.

"The GEDSI SAT is an important tool for self-reflection. It starts with the organization, through a process that takes the whole staff, including from finance to the field, to start reflecting on our assumptions about GEDSI. "

- Jigme Choden, SNV Bhutan 

You can explore these tools and more in our Transformative WASH for Climate Resilience Toolkit 

The transformative work of three Water for Women partners was also showcased through case studies displayed on the booth's wave walls. You can read and download full versions of these case studies below.

View the Water for Women and partners session outlines