UN Water Conference 2023: How to make the Water Action Agenda gender transformative: connecting policy, practice, and research

The first UN water conference in 50 years was held in 2023. Together with Simavi, the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, the Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET), the African Civil Society Network for Water and Sanitation (ANEW), the government of the Netherlands, and the Water Integrity Network, SEI co-hosted an official Side Event at the UN Water Conference to discuss learning around addressing gender in water and sanitation policy, practice and research. The side event aimed to share good practices related to integrating gender as well as highlight knowledge and practice gaps. A focus was on gender transformative approaches that seek to address power relations. Sarah Dickin presented recent work on measuring empowerment in collaboration with Simavi to highlight the importance of more research on women’s empowerment in the water sector.

For a more in-depth discussion of how the UN Water Conference integrated gender please read this associated perspective article: https://www.sei.org/perspectives/the-next-water-action-agenda-must-be-gender-transformative/

Following the Conference, commitments made by different stakeholders were collected to produce the Water Action Agenda. Out of 842 commitments, 3 commitments mention a commitment to gender transformative action.