REACH 2023 Water Security and Poverty Conference

On 20-22 September, the REACH international conference convened leaders from government, industry, academia, finance, and civil society to define the water security agenda to 2030 and beyond. Sessions explored how the latest science is shaping policy and practice to address key challenges on climate services, sustainable finance and water quality at local and regional scales.

In a session on ‘Tools for Measuring Women’s Empowerment and Agency in the Water Sector’ aiming to look at a suite of new survey tools designed to provide insights into relationships between empowerment and water security, Dr. Elijah Bisung and Dr. Sarah Dickin presented experiences applying the Empowemrent in WASH Index in WASH research and practice. Other modules on measuring women’s agency developed in collaboration with the World Bank MAGNET project were presented by Dr Maria Hernandez de Benito, Universidad de Alicante and Dr Marya Hillesland, University of Oxford. The session was chaired by Dr. Cheryl Doss (Tufts University) with Dr. Ana Gren (World Bank Climate Change Group) as discussant.