{"id":3816,"date":"2021-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/news\/gender-mainstreaming-in-water-sector-key-to-industrial-development-economic-growth-and-equality\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:12:26","slug":"gender-mainstreaming-in-water-sector-key-to-industrial-development-economic-growth-and-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/news\/gender-mainstreaming-in-water-sector-key-to-industrial-development-economic-growth-and-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender mainstreaming in water sector key to industrial development, economic growth and equality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Gender mainstreaming in the water sector is instrumental to the delivery of sustainable development and will contribute to economic growth and equity.<\/b> This was one of the key outcomes of the Gender Session for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gwp.org\/en\/GWP-SouthernAfrica\/About-GWP-SAF\/more\/News\/event-9th-sadc-river-basin-organisations-workshop\/\">9th SADC River Basin Organisations\/Shared Watercourse Institutions (RBOs\/SWIs) Workshop<\/a>, which took place virtually on 21 September 2021 under the theme: <b>\u2018Integrating gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) into water programs of the SADC RBOs\/SWIs and Member States\u2019.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo ensure that gender is mainstreamed in the Water Sector, the SADC Secretariat has developed instruments such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sadc.int\/files\/3413\/6698\/6218\/Revised_Protocol_on_Shared_Watercourses_-_2000_-_English.pdf\">Revised SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sadc.int\/files\/1913\/5292\/8376\/Regional_Water_Policy.pdf\">SADC Regional Water Policy<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sadc.int\/files\/2513\/5293\/3539\/Regional_Water_Strategy.pdf\">SADC Regional Water Strategy<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sadc.int\/files\/9313\/5850\/8772\/Southern_African_Vision_For_Water_Life_and_Environment_In_the_21st_Century.pdf\">Southern African Vision for Water, Life and Environment in the 21st Century,\u201d<\/a> said Dr. Patrice Kabeya, Senior Programme Officer: Water Division in the SADC Directorate for Infrastructure and Services.<\/p>\n<p>The recently held SADC Gender session forms part of a series of workshops that have been convened by the SADC Secretariat, with support from GWPSA, in order to equip gender focal points (GFPs) within SADC water and gender ministries with the knowledge, skills, and tools to mainstream gender considerations into the design and delivery of water policies, programmes, and projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s gender session refreshed understanding of gender equality and social inclusion in relation to water and climate-resilient investments,\u201d said Ms. Leonissah Munjoma, acting Executive Secretary for the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM), which co-convened the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019Participants had the opportunity to share experiences on gender mainstreaming into water investments and Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) in the development and implementation of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB),\u201d added Ms. Munjoma.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/rbo-gender-2-1.png\" height=\"300\" width=\"640\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>Participants at the Gender Session for the 9<sup>th<\/sup> SADC RBOs\/SWIs Workshop<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Through the session, member states and other stakeholders shared experiences, challenges and lessons learned on the integration of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in water investments and climate resilience building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Default\">GESI is a step toward reducing gender inequalities and achieving gender equality and social inclusivity. A detailed analysis of gender dynamics, which include constraints faced in accessing, managing and sustaining water interventions and climate information as well as power relations, guides in formulating mechanisms to move countries towards gender equality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Default\">\u201cThe first step in gender and social inclusion integration is a gender analysis, an analytical process that helps visualise and identify differences and similarities,\u201d said Ms. Litumelo Mate-Sievers, Gender Specialist at GWPSA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Default\">\u201cThe analysis will help organisations and member states identify their position in the Gender Continuum which ranges from a position of being gender blind\/ hostile \/unequal to being gender transformative\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Building capacity on GESI in transboundary water resources management plays a significant role in entrenching gender-responsive practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe upcoming GESI training for Transboundary Management is set to enhance the understanding of key terms and concepts of GESI and strengthen the capacity of participants to mainstream GESI into project preparation, implementation and &nbsp;reporting processes,\u201d said Ms Vimbai Chasi, USAID Resilient Waters\u2019 Program Coordinator and GESI Advisor.<\/p>\n<p>The Gender Session was attended by more than 100 participants&nbsp; who included representatives from RBOs, SWIs Gender Focal Points from the Ministries of Water, Gender Machineries of SADC Member States, and water experts from the Ministries of Water. It was organized by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sadc.int\/sadc-secretariat\/directorates\/office-deputy-executive-secretary-regional-integration\/infrastructure-services\/sadc-water-sector\/\">SADC Water Division<\/a>, in partnership with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zambezicommission.org\/\">&nbsp;Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM)<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/chemonics.com\/projects\/natural-resources-management-and-water-security-in-southern-africa\/\">USAID Resilient Waters Program<\/a>, and Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA).<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the proceedings of the session please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/event.zambezicommission.org\/gender-session-proceedings\/\">ZAMCOM website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo credit: Joy Makumbe and GWPSA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gender mainstreaming in the water sector is instrumental to the delivery of sustainable development and will contribute to economic growth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,4],"tags":[11,82,22,24,21,23],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-news","tag-climate","tag-english","tag-finance","tag-gender","tag-iwrm","tag-southern-africa"],"acf":[],"spectra_custom_meta":{"_sidebar_content":["field_69d4d421acab1"],"sidebar_content":[""],"_old_url":["field_69d4d472acab2"],"old_url":["https:\/\/www.gwp.org\/en\/GWP-SouthernAfrica\/About-GWP-SAF\/more\/News\/gender-mainstreaming-in-water-sector-key-to-industrial-development-economic-growth-and-equality\/"],"_last_date":["field_69d4d498acab3"],"last_date":["10\/11\/2021"],"_event_start":["field_69d4d4c4acab4"],"event_start":[""],"_event_end":["field_69d4d4dcacab5"],"event_end":[""],"_scrape_id":["field_69d4d4ebacab6"],"scrape_id":["01-GWP-English"],"_wp_page_template":["default"],"_thumbnail_id":["5427"],"_encloseme":["1"],"_edit_last":["1"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:0:\"\";s:2:\"js\";s:0:\"\";s:18:\"current_block_list\";a:14:{i:0;s:13:\"core\/freeform\";i:1;s:11:\"core\/search\";i:2;s:10:\"core\/group\";i:3;s:12:\"core\/heading\";i:4;s:20:\"core\/latest-comments\";i:5;s:9:\"core\/list\";i:6;s:14:\"core\/list-item\";i:7;s:19:\"rank-math\/toc-block\";i:8;s:14:\"core\/accordion\";i:9;s:19:\"core\/accordion-item\";i:10;s:22:\"core\/accordion-heading\";i:11;s:20:\"core\/accordion-panel\";i:12;s:14:\"core\/paragraph\";i:13;s:10:\"core\/image\";}s:8:\"uag_flag\";b:0;s:11:\"uag_version\";s:10:\"1779178195\";s:6:\"gfonts\";a:0:{}s:10:\"gfonts_url\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"gfonts_files\";a:0:{}s:14:\"uag_faq_layout\";b:0;}"]},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo.jpg",640,300,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo-300x141.jpg",300,141,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo.jpg",640,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo.jpg",640,300,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo.jpg",640,300,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/gender-rbo.jpg",640,300,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"satsiriwinberg@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/author\/satsiriwinberggmail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Gender mainstreaming in the water sector is instrumental to the delivery of sustainable development and will contribute to economic growth [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4736,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions\/4736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/southern-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}