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CSD12: day-to-day |
This is a personal report from the women representative on the
Dutch governmental delegation and Chair of BPW International Taskforce “Women
for Water” on the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
nr. 12 meeting, held from the 19th of April – 30 of April 2004 in New
York, USA.
 Click
for a photo impression
Nederlandse samenvatting (Worddoc, 40kb)
First of all: this report is in English, because friends from around
the globe are reading this, so it’s not only aimed at the women
organizations in the Netherlands.
Secondly, it’s also the basis for our report to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Netherlands, who were gracious enough to fund part of our
activities.
Thirdly, you might find information in the report, that is not so much of
interest to the women organizations I am proud to represent, but also
information that is hopefully of some use to the process for sustainable
development as a whole.
Day one: 18 April 2004
If you are travelling, expect surprises. So: no problems with carrying 25
extra kilos’ of handouts for the side – events and more than an hour’s
delay leaving Schiphol-airport because of an extra security check: His
Royal Highness the Prince of Orange is travelling on the same flight to
address the opening of the CSD 12 in New York. Feels very safe…
Since the World Water Forum 2 in The Hague, which was chaired by the
Prince, the involvement of the Prince and the Women Organizations in the
Netherlands seem to go along parallel routes to enhance integrated,
sustainable and gender mainstreamed ways of managing our precious water
resources in the world. One could wish for no better champion…
I am travelling to New York as a member of two delegations: the
Netherlands government Delegation and the Women for Water-delegation. It
is unique – as far as we know - that since the World Summit on
Sustainable development in Johannesburg there is a women delegate on the
Dutch delegation in a “quality seat”, which enables us to follow what
is going on from the inside and give direct input from our expertise and
ideas to the process.
The two women representatives up till now where Alice Bouman in
Johannesburg and Sigrid Bollwerk in Kyoto. Thanks to this phenomenon and
the support of the Foreign Office of the Netherlands, we could be “where
the action is” and influence the thinking on sustainable development and
the role of women in that process.
Marina van Koten – member of the Commission on Sustainable development
of the Netherlands Women’s Council - and I are flying together. We
shared the experience of being part of the NGO-delegation to the World
Summit on Sustainable development in Johannesburg, South Africa, and are
looking forward to working together again.
On arrival at our hotel in downtown Manhattan New York, we have to take
care of (the first) little crises: Our friends from the Ukraine, Svetlana
and Rumania, Michaela Vasilscu arrived shortly before us and were
confronted with “business the America way”. How can one explain to an
American that you do not have a credit card and that the deposit asked for
is more than a month salary? How do you explain to a East European, that
this is a normal way of doing business and has nothing to do with you as a
person? Culture shocks..
At 9 o’clock p.m. local time (3 o’clock in the morning in the
Netherlands) things had been sorted out, Marina and I had a late dinner at
the suite at Murray Hill with stuff bought at the local supermarket and
“lights went out”.
Day two: 19 April 2004
Accreditation day and the official opening of the CSD. I arrive at the
Dutch “Mission” – the permanent representatives of the Netherlands
to the United Nations – at 8 o’clock in the morning. They know who I
am, but the papers that should be there to get my pas to get into the
UN-building are not there.
Also the “pouch” – the mail from Amsterdam – has arrived without
our hand-outs for the Fair on Wednesday. For some reason the Mission was
led to believe I am staying at the Plaza 50 – where most of the members
of the Dutch delegation are staying – and my papers are there. So
another stiff walk through Manhattan and then to the accreditation office
of the UN.
While the sun is getting blazing hot outside (25 C in early April) I have
to stand in one line to get registered and another line to get my picture
taken and to get a pass. One hour later I emerge from the building again
and cross the street into the UN-building to get my other pas as a
NGO-representative (non governmental organization: BPW International). The
“red” pass, that I get as a member of the Dutch governmental
delegation turns out to be very useful and in no time I am standing next
to Rita Assogna from Germany and Anna to get my picture taken yet again.
In the same line are two friends from Surinam and Uganda, who are
surprised to see me. We agree to meet up later this week and discuss the
project in those countries that are supported by the “Women for Water,
Water for Women” partnership.
The UN building is huge, but the area where we will spend the next two
weeks is not too big, efficient and cool. Marina, Rita and I go into the
main conference room 1, just miss hearing the Prince of Orange give his
speech as part of the opening ceremonies.
What it is his main message?
Integrated Water Resource Management is the key to make sure that all the
stakeholders are involved and to ensure sustainable development for all.
In achieving the Millennium Goal on water and especially sanitation most
countries are behind the planning. Investment in hardware is needed, but
also programmes to raise awareness of and improve hygiene and sanitation,
particularly in schools. Women need to be involved in the entire planning
and decision making process, since they are directly responsible for
securing domestic water supplies and for family hygiene. There is an
important institutional and human challenge to raise the managerial and
professional capacities by greatly increase support for training and
education. Water use, especially in agriculture should be diminished (more
crop per drop). The goals from water and sanitation must especially be
achieved in human settlements where the 100 million dwellers live.
The Prince stressed the importance of building partnerships to address the
following key challenges in the process:
- increase knowledge exchange also with others than water specialists
- improve policy and legislation to increase the effectiveness of
water and sanitation governance
- build capacity to bring the knowledge to those who need it for
implementation
- seek new sources of investment in the water sector.
Everything depends on human effort and willingness, and the creativity
and innovative thinking of all stakeholders. How can a solution that works
in one part of the world be applied in other regions? Global Networks have
to be extended to grassroots level. The CSD should inspire us to go beyond
signed agreements, conventions and protocols and inspire us to take
actions required to bring about sustainable development and a better life
for all, especially the poor.
Off course we were happy about the Prince stressing the importance of the
involvement of women. We also heard the echo of our own motto as “Women
for Water. Water for Women”: act locally, join forces globally.
So what is the CSD12 about? The UN and it’s member States adopted in
2000 what is known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG); these 8
goals – and a lot more targets - cover a wide range of issues, all
having to do with fighting poverty, access to water, good sanitation,
health care, education etc. In 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg the goals and agreements about
Sustainable Development were set.
During this kind of big (UN) conferences, every Major group (9 in all
including women, Unions, indigenous people, NGO’s, Civil society,
business, Science and technology community) has a caucus. Here the
participants from that Major group meet every other day to discuss
developments, talk about the statements they are going to give etc.
The Commission on Sustainable development is unique in that the Major
groups play an active part in the proceedings (more than just being
observers).
The CSD 12 is the first part of a new cycle of two sessions and as said is
mainly aimed at review. The ensure the meaningful participation of all
sectors of civil society a new model of dialogue, experience sharing and
capacity building has been adopted at CSD, with a suit of activities
taking place everyday. These include interactive sessions on water,
sanitation and human settlements, partnership fair – which the WfWfW
Partnership is going to take part in on Wednesday – the learning centre,
exhibitions and side events – everything running parallel. That draws a
lot on the energy and it means we have to make choices and divide tasks to
take part in as many activities as possible.
An extra women Caucus meeting is held at 5 o’clock to discuss the draft
of the prepared statement for tomorrow in one of the main counsel rooms on
water. One of the issues we are going to address is the fact, that the
panels and the advisory board are not gender mainstreamed. Off course we
are going to stress that Integrated Water resource management is not
integrated as long as women are not actively involved as participants on
every level. We will stress that women are a powerful force for change and
that we will show lots of good, successful examples of women initiatives
and gender mainstreamed projects in the coming days.
In the evening the Ambassador invites us for a reception in honour of the
Prince and I get the chance to speak to him personally for a while.
Day
three: 20 April 2004
Sanitation (how do we cope with hygiene, toilets, etc.) seems to become
THE theme at the CSD12. Countries seem to look at water problems and
habitat problems a lot, but seem to be forgetting about sanitation and
hygiene. Eco sanitation gets more and more attention because of its easy
application (no big infrastructure needed) and the large involvement of
civil society.
I start the day by following an hour of the discussion in Conference room
1. Most speakers state that the progress towards reaching the Millenium
Goals is not on target, especially regarding sanitation. The big question
here of course, is how to get back on track.
It is extraordinary how many delegations stress the importance of women
getting really involved in the process as agent of change and the
attention that is given to gender friendly facilities. This also means
that the women major groups and others can focus more on how to implement
/ the “ how” this time!
It is also clear, that the delegations have to get used to the fact, that
this a review session and that it is important to give a realistic report
on the problems and workable ideas and methods. It is fair to say that a
lot of delegations get better at it as the week progresses.
Today the Major groups represented at the CSD12 get a chance to meet with
the Prince of Orange. The meeting is taking place at the Mission and is
informal, educational and worthwhile for all of us. Caroline Veldhuizen
(National Commission on Sustainable Development) gives a short overview of
the issues that have been brought to the attention of the Dutch
government. The civil society groups stressed that:
 | In formulating and implementing policies on Water, Sanitation and
Habitat the importance of and the need to look at these theme’s
combined and in using the method of IWRM is often overlooked |
| In daily practise the needs and ideas of the local actors and
governments are not taken into account enough; the methods of working
should be more actor/ people specific and centred |
| The central role of women and their participation in the process is
hardly facilitated; women and grassroots organizations should be
supported more |
| Training in problem solving and integrated project – and process
facilitation and coaching should be geared up |
| The property rights and access rights of the local community
including women must be safeguarded. |
An overview of the points discussed:
Irene Dankelman (WEDO) commemorates that the Major Groups stress that:
Water is a human right and a public good and the importance of an “enabling
environment” for local / major groups to be able to implement projects
on the three themes.
The Prince draws attention to the fact that getting water into the Human
Rights is going to be a very long political struggle; he is of the opinion
that the right to life implicates the right to water: no water, no life.
I talk about the complexity of the process: governments on al levels are
involved and so are nine major groups, al wit their own outlook. Local
actors are not enough involved; project concept as such are not always
applicable in all situations – “made to measure” should be the norm
with input of and attention for the specific involvement of all relevant
stakeholders and actors (local groups: civil society, women, local
government) in the process. The creation of networks, creating trust,
infrastructure etc., certainly on local level, is a long process. Project
cycles of donors often do match with that.
Sayida Vanenburg, the youth representative, advocates two priorities:
basic education for all and theme-specific education; more attention
should be given to IWRM at the schools.
Miriam Anne Frank (indigenous people) explains that indigenous people
bring a unique perspective to the table: their systems of water management
are based upon principles and practices, balancing immediate needs with
the needs of all living things and always considering the sustainability
for future generations. The Prince asks what should take precedent: water
or education and mentions that the fact that there is no water makes that
children do not go to school and teachers do not want to work in the area.
Eric van Herel tells about the research that Globus is doing especially
into factors they play a role in involving the private sector in
partnerships for water and sanitation.
Sascha Gabizon (WECF) – speaking from experience in Eastern Europe –
draws attention to the fact that the bigger private companies in the water
sector usually only operate in the cities, which means that the
privatisation does not bring solutions for the rural areas (or against to
high a cost). She recommends that the Netherlands during the EU presidency
develop a strategy for the rural areas in Eastern Europe. Gabizon also
remarks that the EU water legislation is not sufficient for the problems
in Eastern Europe: the private wells in the villages are not subject to
the legislation. The water is polluted with bacteria and nitrates from the
latrines, especially in the bigger villages (3 – 5.000 inhabitants). Eco
sanitation could be a solution for having better sanitation, reduce
pollution of groundwater and develop local entrepreneurship. The same
mistakes are being made again and again: the fees are to high so
installations are not being used, the local population was not involved.
The financial structures and programmes are usually such that there is no
funding for participation processes and/ or the project has all ready
ended by the time civilian support for the changes has been mobilized.
In this context I mention the project BPW is developing together with
other women organizations with the Army. Apart from the fact that the army
looks into ways of implementing resolution 1325 and involve women more in
all the peacekeeping processes, a project is on the verge of being
developed to use eco sanitation for the peacekeeping forces.
It’s easy, cheaper, does not pollute the environment as much, uses less
or no water, is gender friendlier and gives a good example. It would be
feasible to build the toilets on location – and so stimulate small
business - and so involve and introduce eco sanitation also with the local
population.
Marina van Koten elaborates on the Call for Action of the Ministery of
Foreign Affairs (DGIS). The women organizations can never comply with the
condition that they have to bring 50% of the funding to the partnerships
themselves.
Boon van Occhsee replies that Minister Van Ardenne sees an important role
of private enterprise in the PPP’s (Public Private Partnerships) and
called for ideas. With the call the Ministery tries to find out how the
private sector can and will be involved. Apart from that partnerships have
their own dynamics and other actors should and will be involved.
Lily Hutjes (Huairou Commission / Habitat) states that funding often stops
at the national and regional level or is spend on consultants from the “North”.
The local people never see the funding and or not enough involved.
The Ambassador to the UN, Van den Berg, wraps up the meeting by saying
that he has the strong impression that there is a clear distinction being
made between the process and the project approach and that the mechanism
in place do not address that. He also concludes that we know that we have
the technical knowledge needed, but that we should create an enabling
environment so knowledge can be transformed into durable projects.
The Prince graciously gives permission to take a couple of group photo’s. (Click
for photo on own page)
Unfortunately I am not able to attend the meeting of the Women of Europe
for a common Future regarding sustainable solutions to rural water and
sanitation in NIS and CEE, with a focus on Eco sanitation and Water
resource Protection, presented by Anna Tsvetkova, Gulbachar Izentaeva
(Aral sea region), Mihaela Vasilescu (Medium & Sanitas, Rumania) and
Sascha Gabizon (WECF Germany).
The rest of the afternoon I follow the discussions in the main conference
room.
Day
four: Wednesday 21 April 2004
We start the day with rushing to the Mission to get all the hand-outs
for the Information desk Fair, that has finally arrived. One of the
chauffeurs of the Mission is very helpful in helping Annelie and me
carrying all the stuff to the UN building.
The stand looks oke ( click
for photo) with the nice posters designed by Esther Mosselman and we
get a lot of interest, people stopping by etc. during the day. We also
invite people in person for the presentation tomorrow.
Today I spend most of the time in the different Partnership Presentation
sessions.
The partnership sessions are very different in terms of quality and level.
“Partnership networks” / IUCN gave a very technical presentation at
which mainly their project management approach was highlighted. For
support at local level it looks like a long, complicated and expensive
road to go. I can see it being useful for national governments and
international bodies.
Interesting is the partnership “Community Water Initiative”, where
e.g. WaterAid, Gender & Water Alliance and UNDP are participating.
Sweden and Japan are donor countries.
This is one of the very few partnerships (off course Women for Water is
also such a partnership) where the local communities are actively involved
as equal partners.
The “Community Water Initiative” tries to combine traditional
knowledge about water management and sanitation with new approaches e.g.
by setting up voluntary water users associations.
Equity of distribution, indicators for local governments, better planning,
participatory approach, capacity building and empowerment (using the
Sarar-method) and including “gender roles” are part of their way of
working.
Day
five: Thursday 22 April 2004
One of on-going activities is the “learning centre”. Rita Assogna
has visited most of these up-to-date (22nd of April):
One of the weaker points of governmental services to the “public” is
making information about the financial facilities accessible to the local
communities. These learning centres do provide for that to a certain
extend.
Simultaneous with the 12th Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD12),
learning courses have been offered in the learning centre.
The courses are designed to train on the aspects of sustainable
development regarding water and sanitation at a useful and practical level
so as to enable a better implementation of the Agenda 21 and of the
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.
Jumping from one meeting to another, Rita had the opportunity to
participate in several of those courses. She personally – as a new comer
to this circuit - found the following courses interesting for the ‘”Women
for Water” mission.
“How to apply for GEF (Global Environmental Facility) projects”: The
GEF has been established to forge international cooperation and to finance
projects about global environment. We have received a couple of practical
examples when and how to apply for GEF resources. We hope that partners in
the WfWfW are able to make use of them soon. More information at www.gefweb.org
”Investing in Communities”: Tri-sector partnership (private sector,
civil society and government) and how to work together. The reason of the
success of the partnership was investigated. The importance of the NGOs
(non governmental organisations) in providing leadership, in mobilising
local community participants was stressed. The major risk was individuated
in the loss of independent credibility status (trust) of the NGOs. More
information at the Worldbank
site "Investing in Communities".
“Learning about Water Management and Environmental Education Network”
The course was about how to build an effective and well-functioning
national network for education on sustainable development in which
scientific institutions support and guide schools, based on lessons
learned from 20 years of experience in Norway. At the end of the course 6
Norwegian students (all girls) presented two projects on water management.”
In the afternoon, Alice Bouman and I have a meeting with Belinda
Calaguas of WaterAid, to talk about among other things,
| their concept of the Water User Associations – which would be very
interesting for local women groups to serve as a concept for
establishing their influence on the way water is management in local
communities |
| Working together on the Stakeholder Forum of the European Union
Water Initiative (EUWI) and the financial working group |
| Their possible participation in the working conference to be
organized by WfWfW in the spring of 2005 |
| Funding issues especially for the preparation phase of projects and
building infrastructure for that. |
We will continue our conversation later this year.
The main event of the day is off course the Partnership presentation of
“Women for Water, Water for Women”. Marina van Koten (Netherlands
Council of Women), Anna Tsvetkova (WECF) and I (on behalf of BPW
International and NetWwater) give brief presentations (see leaflets on the
website)
about the partnership and a couple of projects that we have worked on
together and/ or as combinations of women organizations. (For the
background paper, see the website).
Ton Boon van Occhssee, the Dutch Ambassador for Sustainable development,
and Gerry Cunningham (senior Development Specialist of the development
cooperation Directorate of Foreign Affairs of Ireland) are respondents. ( Click
for photo).
The room is full with representatives - to name a few - of the governments
of the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Columbia, Suriname, Sri
Lanka,NGO’s like WaterAid and Care, women organizations from Mexico,
Brazil, and organizations like the World Water Council.
Day
six: Friday 23 April 2004
Thematic discussions on Human Settlement continue; this time from the
perspective of finance and urban governance including the role of local
authorities and civil society groups.
I am in the Dutch Chair all day. One of the points highlighted by Iran,
Pakistan, India and Indonesia is the fact that ODA money can not be used
for human settlements – they are clearly “upset” about that. It
looks like it might be wise to communicate again, that also regarding
Human Settlements a integrated approach combined with water and sanitation
is the way to go as far as The Netherlands are concerned.
Belgium presents a brochure with interesting best practices and
experiences on the subject of Human settlements and regional projects.
In between sessions, I visit the presentation of the “Helena Z Benitez
Global Forum on Women, Power and Sustainable Development”, organized by
the Philippine Women’s University and the Philippine Women’s Network
in politics and governance. WEDO and the Asian Women’s network on Gender
and development are participants in this Forum.
Part of the discussion evolves around really having / getting women in
functions where they are decision makers themselves. Part of the solution
is quota-setting, which has been helpful in the past and can be so again
especially when looking at the position of immigrant-women.
I bring to the discussion, that looking into gender stereotyping in
relation to culture (stereotyping) as (implicit) “basis” of the way
functions and profiles are being described – and as a result are a
barrier for women to qualify especially for management positions –
should be part of the subjects covered in the discussions.
Sharing a short break in the open air with David Boys of the Unions Caucus
and later with Irene Dankelman (Women Caucus), one of the topics of
conversation is the membership and the task of the Advisory Board on water
and sanitation, that was instituted by the UN. It is not clear how the
process of selecting members was conducted, what their relationship is
with the CSD and what they are specifically supposed to be doing. The
women Caucus on the first day all ready commented on the fact that the
Advisory Board – and for that matter the panels of experts during the
sessions - are not gender mainstreamed.
The Major groups have started a discussion on the subject with the
secretariat of the Secretary General of the UN and suggested that the task
of the Advisory Board (TOR: Terms of Reference) will be directly linked
with the outcomes and constraints that come out of CSD12.
A lot of countries also have questions about the role of the Advisory
Board.
The end of the week was marked by a very sociable event hosted by the
permanent mission of the Netherlands: the Dutch delegation and all the
Dutch Major group/ NGO representatives assembled in New York got together
for an Indian meal at the “Maharaja”. Nice food, a very good
atmosphere and lively discussions send some of the delegation off back to
the Netherlands and others into a short weekend.
Day
seven: Saturday 24 April 2004
This morning we had the first chance of having a “founding members
– meeting” with all the women groups that are represented in New York
and are members of the “Women for Water, Water for Women” Partnership
(WfWfW).
The group from Women of Europe for a common Future - including the women
from Mama 86 (Rumania) and Bulgaria – the Netherlands Council of Women
and Business and Professional Women International are there and so is a
representative of a large women group from Mexico and the middle American
States. Topics discussed include the way we want to facilitate the
partnership in the future, the division of roles and tasks between the
partnership as such and the individual partners, the management of funding
and the criteria for groups and partnerships we want to work / associate
with and the further development of our aims and goals. It is clear that
facilitation of the women groups is terms of communication, knowledge
management and the role of “broker” are important parts of the
function of the Partnership. The meeting will continue tomorrow.
A second meeting is held between a delegation of WfWfW and the Gender
& Water Alliance, to establish working and cooperation relations and
division of tasks for the future. The purpose of the meeting is planning
to work together towards organizing side-events during the CSD13 in 2005
and the World Water Forum 4 in Mexico in 2006, and setting up a couple of
projects regarding documenting and exchange of knowledge. GWA offers a “quality-seat”
on the board of the GWA for the WfWfW. Very positive and great
developments!
In the margin of that we also discuss the developments around the Advisory
board and the CSD Bureau (see above). The women groups would very much be
in favour of the nomination of the (female) Brazilian Minister of the
Environment as chair of the CSD13.
A big portion of the day than goes into writing reports and reorganizing
my papers.
With Prabha I spend part of the day shopping including getting myself a
new rug sack – the one I was still using from the WSSD 2002 finally gave
way under the weight of so much paper! An other purchase is a new laptop;
my “old and faithful” wanted to “retire” and did a “pre-retirement”
crash this morning.
End of the day was a nice drink and vegetable starters at a terrace on the
streets of New York and – returning to the hotel – more reporting.
Day
eight: Sunday 25 April 2004
8.30 a.m.: would you believe – but yes: another meeting with the
partners of the WfWfW, triggered by the fact that most of the
East-European Women are leaving today for home and we want to make the
most of it. We discuss a lot of topics concerning the way we want to be
organized in the near future, the membership criteria for new members,
etc.
An Interim Steering Committee 2004 – 2005 gets elected: Kusum Athukorala
(NetWwater), Alice Bouman (NVR), Sascha Gabizon (WECF), Mihaela Vasilescu,
Lesha Witmer (BPWI).
The tasks of the Steering Committee is: Organize the reporting, monitoring
and quality control, appoint coordinating office, fundraising, budgeting,
allocation of money policies and issues, Membership, PR and communication
in- and externally mainly at international level, representation at
international bodies etc.
Also a foundation will be set up to manage funding for the Partnership and
act as administrative office for funds to be allocated to members and
collective projects. The Board of the foundation is the same as the
Steering Committee with the addition of a professional accountant /
controller.
It looks like the next meeting will take place in Stockholm in august this
year during the Water Week. WECF and BPW are planning to stage a workshop
during the Water Week.
After the meeting, I say goodbye to Alice and Sascha, who are going back
home again. After they have left, I start my computer for the first time
and get it going. Off course some more work on my reports and diary.
The weather is not very inviting (grey and raining), so a limit myself to
a short walk and get two more parts for the new laptop.
Dinner is a salad and Sushi from the local deli around the corner. Lights
out: late.
Day
nine: Monday 26 April 2004
I overslept! I decide to go straight to the UN and arrive there cold
and very wet.
First activity of the day is talking to Ethné Davey, Chair of the Gender
& Water Alliance. We are both happy about the new plans for working
together that have emerged in the last few days here in New York. We also
talk about our shared conviction that more should be done about the water
and sanitation problems in Eastern Europe; a point of concern is the fact
that the Danes are resigning as lead country of the NIS program of the
European Union and so far nobody seems to want to take over. Ethne thinks
that local communities in the East European countries could benefit from
the experience of women groups and local civil society in the last few
years in South Africa.
After that I visit the presentation, organized by the SARD initiative:
Sustainable agricultural and Rural development. The initiative is a civil
society-led, government supported and FAO facilitated initiative that was
officially launched in Johannesburg in 2002. The SARD initiative is a
great idea, that for some reason is very slow in coming of the ground –
to my very personal opinion because FAO is still working with procedures
(and language) that do not fit this initiative. The FAO wants to
facilitate the Initiative by:
| Building on common objectives among different stakeholders e.g. by
developing a code of conduct for partnerships |
| Mediating (on the outset) unequal stakeholders for common efforts |
| Facilitating a transparent structure for implementation and improve
accountability |
| Improving indicators and ability to assess good practise. |
The Initiatives aims at a full participatory process with commitment
and ownership, agreed mediators, values, actions and goals.
They would like to identify successful cases that can be “scaled up”.
(this term is heard a lot around the corridors and in the meetings –
meaning that you should use experience and methods from small scale
projects somewhere else or make it into a bigger project. It’s meanly
the donors, who are asking for this, making funding easier (less
paperwork).
Apart from a few reports on small-scale projects by representatives of the
groups themselves (sustainable livestock working group; linking local
learners/produce-consumer link), one of the best things I hear during the
meeting - presented by Paul Osborne - is the existence of a communication
consortium that assist farmers in exchanging knowledge, communicate etc.
They are all media specialists that “report and transmit” and promote
the involvement of farmer’ media. As far as I know, this is really new,
being directly linked to a initiative like this.
FAO is organizing a session in Rome in September to do some more thinking
about communication, transfer of knowledge etc. I have told Ethne about
the very good things I have seen and heard during the WSIS in Geneva last
December about NGO-networks in rural/ farming areas in Africa and South
America, using combinations of ICT for communication among farmers even in
very remote areas and promise to send her the information.
SARD is also looking for exchange of experience and training south-south
and south-north.
ZijActief, the Catholic rural women organization in the Netherlands all
ready in 2002 wanted to work together in exchanging knowledge and
experience 1 on 1 at local level, but requests for more information were
not answered. I have a chat with the coordinator Eve Crowley and decide to
have a meeting tomorrow to talk about how to get things going- the idea is
still to valuable not to explore further. Since the Dutch Government,
Ministry of Agriculture is going to host a big conference together with
the FAO in 2005, we will also talk about involving women’s organizations
(agricultural, rural) in that. I have all ready talked to the two advisors
from the Ministry, that are here, about involving the 4 rural women
organizations from the Netherlands and their partners in developing
countries in that.
At 13.15 a meeting starts, organized by UN-Habitat. Mrs. Anna Kajumulo
Tibaijuka, executive Director, chairs an impressive session, one of the
best and informative one’s I have been to so far.
A short video was shown with stories of women in developing countries
living in slums. Then four students from developing countries told tales
about the dangers of being a women in the slums with bad sanitation and
not enough water.
One of the stories introduces “the flying toilets”: because of lack of
sanitation facilities that work and also give some privacy, women suppress
their sanitary needs until the evening – which causes constipation –
and at night time they than use plastic bags and bottles as toilets, wrap
them up and throw time away as far as possible (all though they know this
it not a good idea). Toilets – including in schools - have no doors and
there is no private place where (young) women can change their sanitary
bandages during their period.
Again and again these stories “get to me” in a big way.
One of the things that is continuously being stressed, is that women need
other, better and safer sanitation facilities than men to stay healthy and
dignified. The Women’s Major group and the Netherlands delegation have
put this into statements during the official sessions more than one’s
and we hope that it will get a prominent place in the speech of the deputy
Minister and the report of the Chair of the CSD.
There are also presentations of f.i. mrs. Nesreen Berwari, Minister for
municipalities and public works in Iraq; mrs. Margaret Catley-Carlson,
chair Global Water Partnership; mrs. Maria Mutagamba, Minister for Water
of Uganda, mrs. Bience Gawanas, commissioner of the African Union. One of
the things that come out of the panel discussion is, that - in order for
women to be able to keep fighting for better conditions and further the
development of their communities - they need: be able to keep their
dignity, have motivation, “anger” and courage, and security, health,
education, and economic development in their community.
In this context it is important that
| women leaders stand up and are empowered to take all the expertise,
knowledge and questions of women to the right level |
| women get title of their house and land (however small) to be able
to build assets and gain a “voice” |
| vocational training get’s available for women to enable them to
(primarily) maintain and repair water and sanitation facilities
themselves |
| gender mainstreamed water and/ or sanitation committees are set up
with women in the lead |
| local communities/ municipalities get the opportunity to borrow
money for development |
| local communities will support the paying for user costs (by tax)
provide they are equal partners in the decision-making and management
process |
| we redefine the concepts and working methods that we are so used to. |
A good example are the sanitation committees in local communities in
Uganda, where a women is the chair – and most of the time – a women is
the “treasurer”.
In Iraq for the first time in history there are now municipal councils set
up; women are being elected to these councils. 40% of the Iraqi population
at the moment has no safe drinking water and there are all most no waste
disposal systems.
After the meeting – in the context of developing the “dry-toilets”
project of the army and BPW among others - I exchange a few words with the
Minister of Iraq about ideas for eco-sanitation in peace keeping
operations. She is very interested and we will talk some more later or by
email very soon.
Meanwhile, Marina van Koten, Annelie Hubach and other are attending the
session, organized by WEDO, the Heinrich Boll institute, the World
Resources Institute and the Gender & Water Alliance about “water
through women’s eyes”: Gender, water and poverty connections. Irene
Dankelman (WEDO, University of Nijmegen, Netherlands), Ethne Davey (GWA,
South Africa), Elisabeth Peredo (Fundacion Solon, Bolivia) and Svitlana
Slesarenok (Mama 86 Ukraine/ WECF/ Women for Water, Water for Women) are
the presenters.
This side event – as so may others - aimed to make a case for the
participatory approach and strong involvement of women in water
management. Three cases were presented. One on rural water supply in South
Africa, showing the need to empower communities. This does not happen
overnight; it takes ample time to involve (rural) communities in design
and management. The key message was: listen to communities and take (your)
time.
The urban case showed the failure of privatization through big
multi-national companies and the need to return the right to manage water
to the consumers – a plea was made to respect the rights of indigenous
people and incorporate the rights of indigenous people and incorporate the
traditional vision on water management into the practise of water service
delivery.
Finally the women from the Ukraine through the NGO Mama 86 have taken
successful action against industries neglecting their environmental
responsibilities in a situation where the government fails to play its
role as law enforcer. The key message: legal rights of (local) communities
/ civil society should be clear and enforced. The discussion further
focused on the issue of privatization which seems to be on of the most
debated concerns in this CSD by the Major group’s participants.
After these interesting presentations, a couple of us talk about the
developments around the chair of the CSD13 again: the chair of CSD 13 has
to be elected and by roster will come from the South American countries.
We are trying to lobby for a women chairperson, the Minister of
environment of Barbados. Whether her country and she want to be nominated
and this idea can succeed, is still unclear. In the end it is off course
up to the countries in the region (south America and the Caribbean) to
decide.
I head for the hotel and try to write parts of the report again. Marina
and Annelie call to give the last “ instructions” about the boxes that
have to go back to the Netherlands and last pieces of information. They
will leave tomorrow to go back home. That also means that most of the NGO
delegation (and what feels as my “support team” have left) Lights out
late.
Day
ten: Tuesday 27 April 2004
8 O’clock meeting of the delegation to divide tasks and speak about
the speaking points for the deputy Minister. I am satisfied with the fact
that the necessity of involvement of women in general is mentioned and
that the need for safe, gender-friendly sanitation in secure surroundings
is mentioned.
We are brought up to date about the conversations within the EU delegation
about the draft text of the report about the first week of the Chair of
the CSD12. All of us will read the more than 35 pages report and give
points that should be commented on by the delegations.
I finally manage to access my email and spend time to read the most
important messages and send part of the report and pictures to the
webmasters in the Netherlands.
During lunch time, part of the time together with Marcel van Nijnatten
(Ministry of Agriculture of the Netherlands), I speak with Eve Crowley,
the FAO coordinator of the SARD program.
I mainly explain about the Women for Water Initiative and the organisation
and activities of the 4VO, the 4 rural women organizations in the
Netherlands. We come up with an idea for a “twinning” program between
local women groups from the Netherlands and the developing countries. The
aim amongst other things is exchange of experience and knowledge
(especially about marketing products, empowering the community, etc.). I
will take the idea back to me to the Netherlands to discuss with 4VO and
the FAO will put a short proposal in writing in the next few weeks.
The end of the afternoon sees the presentation of the draft report of the
Chair of CSD 12 about the first week of the CSD12. The Major groups find
that the report is unbalanced:
| most of the information exchanged in the side events and
partnerships presentations is not in there. This has to do with the
way formal reporting in the UN is done: only what is said during the
official sessions in the conference room gets recorded – and we will
suggest to change that, especially in a review year |
| the practise of reporting about the number of delegations and major
groups (without naming who) that intervened about a topic, does not do
justice to the importance of their ideas and suggestions – here the
risk exists that a lot of valuable ideas and comments does not get
into the final report of the Chair and is not taken into account when
setting the work plan for CSD13 (here the fact that reporting is all
ways done in the context of negotiations shows; this also is a point
of attention for the next review session) |
A short meeting of the delegation, during which we give suggestions for
and comment on the speech for the deputy minister for the environment
Pieter van Geel, who is arriving today. His first speech will focus on “
building trust” and how to advance with the challenges and possible
solutions towards CSd13 and off course what the steps and actions in
between.
I rush back to the hotel to change and off again to the reception of the
Seed Initiative, hosted by the German Permanent Mission to the UN.
The Seed Initiative is an award scheme, set up by IUCN, UNDP, UNEP and the
Stakeholders forum with support (so far) of the German Government. It is
one of the very few partnerships that is actually stimulating to bring up
new ideas (not projects) and will try and facilitate the 10 best ideas to
develop by giving them tailor made support in the pre-project phase. The
talk themselves about “social venture capital” investment. The ideas
should be entrepreneurial (not necessarily business), locally driven and
entail new (combinations) of doing things, partnerships etc. It is very
worthwhile for the Netherlands Government to look into this and for the
partners in Women for Water to stimulate members to send in ideas!
The room is full and the presentation interesting. I meet Minu Hammati,
who is one of the facilitators of the Seed Initiative and we make an
appointment to talk a bit further tomorrow.
I also get a chance of talking with Rosemary Rop from Kenia, whom I met
before at the World Water Forum 3. We catch up and among others things
discuss the fact that the European Water Initiative – program for Africa
is not getting of the ground. Too much bureaucracy and sectorial thinking?
I get back in the Hotel by 23.00 hrs.
To be continued....
Click
for a photo impression
Nederlandse samenvatting (Worddoc, 40kb)
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