Expert Group Meeting for the Water for African Cities phase II (WACII) Gender Mainstreaming Strategy Initiative
The objective of this meeting was to present the results of the Rapid Gender Assessments (RGA) carried out in 17 cities participating in the WAC-II programme. The RGAs were carried out under the facilitation of GWA members identified for this purpose in each of the WAC-II cities. The city teams -made up in general of the WAC-II City Manager, a senior official within the water and sanitation utility of the city and the GWA Facilitator- participated actively contributing to the finalisation of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Framework and by starting to develop the gender mainstreaming city action plans that will guide the implementation of activities identified through the rapid gender assessments to engender local WAC II interventions.
The Rapid Gender Assessments were implemented following a participatory and inclusive approach, constituting themselves in innovative capacity building and sensitisation exercises. The facilitating role played by GWA members allowed the identification of key issues that need attention to ensure a pro-poor and gender sensitive approach in urban water and sanitation sectors as well as a process to ensure ownership of local level gender mainstreaming initiatives.
It is expected that the RGA methodology that will be developed through this initiative can be a useful tool to promote gender sensitive and pro-poor approaches in the delivery of urban water and sanitation services. After the development of the city plans, the WAC-II city managers will take up the leadership to ensure its implementation. The final RGA reports including the endorsed city plans will be published later this year by UN-Habitat as stand alone documents.
Sixteen cities from fourteen African countries were present in the meeting namely: Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Harar from Ethiopia; Yaounde and Douala from Cameroon; Kampala, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya; Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania; Jos, Nigeria; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Dakar, Senegal; Bamako, Mali, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Lusaka, Zambia; Kigali, Rwanda and Accra, Ghana. Unfortunately Maputo, Mozambique could not be present in the event.
At the end of the event, the GWA Executive Secretary held a one day internal meeting with GWA Facilitators to share information on the latest developments of the network and to present the GWA strategic plan for the coming years. Many creative ideas emerged from this meeting that will need to be consolidated in the future as building blocks for GWA’s regionalisation process in Africa.
