Globally, and in Nigeria specifically, water availability is heavily impacted by climate change and it is evident that women will be much more impacted than men. Addressing water-related problems is central to climate change adaptation and civil society. Women in particular must be involved, not only for moral and pragmatic reasons, but because they possess local, ecological, social and political knowledge that can inform and contribute significantly to climate change adaptation strategies.
Mr. S.H. Adamu, Minister of Water Resources Nigeria
In order to improve water resources management in face of climate change, three actions were highlighted: taking into account a gender approach within development strategies and resources management, including women in water resources management, and seeking for political commitment in terms of financial resources for gender-related outcomes". Examples of the severity of the situation in e.g. Burkina Faso were reported, where the current COVID19 emergency is posing a real threat to water availability, on top of already existing issues such as harassment and sexual violence towards women and conflicts in the country. Finally, the discussion denounced the male-dominated character of the water sector, attributed to impeding factors such as social norms, tradition, culture, self-consciousness and education, claiming the key to turn the tide is to ensure women's partaking in capacity building efforts. Also women's inclusion in field projects is considered necessary to positively impact the projects outcomes. Examples from the field in Ghana and Nigeria showed how women's inclusion countered ongoing water users conflict, and brought along significant improvements in community health.
The event culminated with the presentation of the 2019 WWAP Toolkit on sex-disaggregated water data by the UNESCO WWAP Director and Coordinator a.i., Michela Miletto, for the first time ever in the West Africa region. "The toolkit contains a priority topic on water, migration, displacement and climate change, dedicated indicators and the related questions for the collection of data in the field, making it a valuable tool for the collection of much-needed and currently scarce sex-disaggregated water data." Following the presentation, Ms. Miletto declared the West Africa Capacity Development Programme 2020-2021 officially open, aiming to spearhead gender equality in the water domain in West Africa.
