GWA attends Cap-Net managers meeting 2007

Esther de Jong, Programme Officer of GWA, attended the Cap-Net managers meeting which took place in Paraty, Brazil, from 3-7 December 2007. She presented the strategic plan 2006-2010 of GWA and focussed on the possibilities for cooperation between both networks. A short overview of possibilities per region follows below:

It was decided to improve the links between the secretariats of GWA and Cap-Net by informing each other about planned trainings and activities.

For the Arab region the possibility of developing a regular training course on gender and IWRM in Arabic was discussed.

The possibilities for cooperation in Africa are a gender training in IWRM to be organised in Nigeria and the writing of a policy brief on Gender, Water and HIV/AIDS.

For the Asian continent cooperation with Cap-Net is possible in the theme of Gender, Water and Integrity; a case study on Gender, Water and Disaster management and Vulnerability; Gender Mainstreaming in IWRM policies in India; and development of a module on Gender Maindstreaming in Water Management to be tought at the universities in Indonesia.

Also for the Caribbean possibilities for training university staff were discussed. Only in this case the discussion focussed on possibilities to train the gender department in IWRM, so they can develop and teach a course on Gender in IWRM themselves. As Cap-Net Caribbean has a yearly meeting with the ministers of the Caribbean working in the water sector to discuss IWRM, GWA expressed interest in participating in this meeting to discuss the incorporation of gender issues in water management.

For the Latin American continent cooperation in the field of organising training in Gender and IWRM was discussed and agreed upon.

Together with GWP and Cap-Net for the Lusophone countries intial talks were held to cooperate between the 3 networks together, to create synergy between the three networks.