Include women in leadership of water management bodies — AfWA

The Senior Programme Coordinator of African Water Association (AfWA), Dr Mbaye Mbeguere, has called for the inclusion of women in the leadership of water and sanitation management bodies.

He said there was very little participation of women in issues of water and sanitation management across Africa and was of the view that there should be a deliberate attempt to encourage more women to take part in those discussions.

According to him, “at the household level, women are the most important part of the family who take care of sanitation.

“This is why our objective is to allow this important part of our population to participate better in the sanitation sector, to bring their skills set in the sanitation solution,” he stated.

According to him, gender has become a very important component in the assessment of the development goals and “even the United Nations has recognised the need to involve women in the decision-making process of water and sanitation in order to mobilise all the skills and knowledge in the improvement of water and sanitation services.”

Workshop

Dr Mbaye was speaking to the Daily Graphic after the opening ceremony of the workshop of AfWA Pan-African capacity building programme on sanitation in Kumasi.

The workshop, which formed part of the strengthening AfWA operators’ capacity for the implementation of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation in Africa (SAO-CWIS), was aimed at strengthening the capacity of utility service providers and district assemblies in Africa dealing with water and sanitation service delivery.

It would also train all sanitation stakeholders in Africa to enable them to be in a good position to deliver their mission.

Sponsors

He said it was a $3.4 million project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a three-year period.

In all, he said, 14 African countries had been selected to benefit from the capacity building programme to enable them to manage effectively issues of water and sanitation.

The beneficiary countries are Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Guinea Conakry.

The rest are Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

In Ghana, three cities have been selected to benefit from the project; they are Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi.

Collaboration

Earlier, in a speech read for him, the Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Dr Clifford Braimah, said the water and sanitation challenges facing cities could not be overcome in isolation.

He said all levels of administration and other stakeholders had important roles to play to ensure a holistic solution to the problems.

Using the GWCL as an example, he said although their mandate was the provision of water, “we play an essential role in the sanitation value chain.

“No single stakeholder can achieve a meaningful impact without understanding and appreciating the role and contributions from others.

“Though individuals present here today will be key, a compelling team will be needed to achieve our goals,” he stated.