Report on the Gender, Water and Equity Training workshop October 2008, Goa, India

GWA joined the Tata Institute for Social Sciences, SaciWaters, and Soppecom to support the organization of this 5 days training programme, which was held from 20-24 October 2008 in Goa, India.The training was the first in a series of workshops as part of the “Crossing Boundaries: Regional Capacity Building on IWRM & Gender and Water project” and 29 participants from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Buthan and Nepal participated in the event. The reports starts with the organisation and preparation process, which includes practical tips for those who want to organise a workshop themselves. The second part of the report describes the course day by day and session by session with ample attention for each session’s key points. Apart from gender concepts, current debates about water rights, the course elaborated on gender concerns in key water sectors, like irrigation, domestic water, sanitation and hygiene, in particular menstrual hygiene management. The third section of the report gives an overview of the exercises and activities carried out by the participants. The report continues with an interesting summary of the participants’ comments on the various workshop topics and sessions. It ends with the assessment of the training by the core team. These last two sections hold valuable lessons on (sensitive) contents as well as on training techniques. The daily workshop schedule and detailed evaluation of the workshop can be found in its annexes.