Water Wheel November/December 2014

Abstract

Fluid Thoughts Fluid Thoughts WRC CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo The beginning of November saw one of the world’s largest dialogues on gender and water matters, when delegates from 37 countries converged in East London, South Africa to participate in the Gender, Water and Development Conference. The participants ranged from rural community women to Ministers for Water, academics to activists, public to private, and local entities to international institutions. There was strong convergence that Gender Equality was not only a human rights issue, but that gender inequality was a fundamental constraint to sustainable development. The case studies affirmed the universality of the challenge as the case studies illustrated that gender inequality and the suppression of women and the girl child was a phenomenon of both the developing and the developed world. And there was consensus that gender represents the pinnacle of the degrees of marginalisation (Fig. 1) with women and the girl-child carrying the heaviest burden.

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