Gender and Water: Experiences of Women led organization in securing safe drinking water in rural communities through poverty alleviation in Nepal

 

        

2015 World Water Forum Citizen’s Forum Review Report

 

 

▢ Organization’s Information

Name  (Proposal No.)	•  Gender and Water: Experiences of Women led organization in securing safe drinking water in rural communities through poverty alleviation in Nepal Proposal No: B 40
Brief Introduction	• Women in Environment is a women’s led environmental group, implementing natural resource conservation program in Nepal through promotion of good governance, income enhancement and addressing emerging challenges of climate change.
Official Website	• www.wenepal.org
Focal Contact	Name	Dr. Aditya Bastola and Mr Sanjeev Poudel
	E-Mail	adityabastola@gmail.com / sanjeevdevs@gmail.com

                            

 

 

▢ Program Contents

Title	•Gender and Water: Experiences of Women led organization in securing safe drinking water in rural communities through poverty alleviation in Nepal
Brief Introduction	•The program shares some of the key gender focused issues in regard to the impacts of climate change and how rural communities – women and men adapt to the change process, and draws lessons from policy implications.
Type (Please mark ✓)	þ Session   □ Exhibition   □ Event   □ Others (         )
Program Duration  & Location	•  15th of April, 2015  and  16th of April, 2015 •  ______Gyeongju HICO, South Korea________
Target Audience	• Civil society members, youth groups and National and International Decision-Makers participating at the 7th World Water Forum
Participants (Please mark ✓)	□ Under 20 people þ 20~50 people □ 50~100 people               □     Others: ____

 

 

 

▢ Executive Summary

Objectives	·         To share experiences and role of Women led organization in securing safe drinking water to rural communities of Nepal through case based approach. ·         To share people’s experiences of living with climate change across three ecological regions Terai, Hills and Mountains of Nepal.
Main Activity & Contents	• (Title of Activity) : Brief Description of Activity Role Play 15 April 2015   Role-play by the participants in the given case study by Women in Environment (WE)-Nepal on water scarcity. The role play revolved around situation analysis of rural community in post conflict situation and what roles could participants as community members, community leader, government officials, businessman, youth activist, and conservation activist would undertake for bringing about sustainable development in their respective villages. This was a very interactive session and participants in the session raised key highlights from conservation to policy directives.   Living with Climate Change 16 April 2015   Covering Thematic Process and Regional Process: The second day of the session focused to share experiences of communities from different socio-economic and diverse geographical conditions adapting to the impacts of climate change particularly on water, agriculture, gender roles and psycho-social wellbeing of individuals. Case studies from the three different ecological regions Terai, Hills and Mountain were presented and discussed. Participants in this discussion shared experiences in their respective country such as Pakistan and Korea. Lessons of adaptation were also discussed across the participant’s respective countries.
Main Achievements	• Greater participation in the WWF sessions (both for the role play and presentation on experiences of Living with Climate Change. •Through the role-play, a diverse roles of key decision-makers were highlighted for community development, an international perspective towards the role of government and youth groups were discussed. In the Living with Climate Change session, experiences of urban and rural communities in South Korea were discussed. These experiences were contextualized in Nepal’s situation for bringing about change. Impacts of climate change onto the women and marginalized groups and how gender relations were negotiated was discussed and appreciated by the participants as a take-away from the Living with Climate Change session.

 

▢ On-site Program Contents (photos)

(Group Discussion)	(Presentation on the Role Play)

 

(Interactive session)	(Presentation on Role Play)

 

(Presentation on the roles performed by participants)	(Group Photo of the participants)

 

 

 

※ Please attach any additional review reports for your program on Annex1 on page. 04; leave blank if none)

Annex1

Additional Review Reports

 

 

Title: Living with Climate Change: Mapping Impacts and Experiences in Nepal

Authors: Dr. Aditya Bastola and Mr. Sanjeev Poudel

Date: 16^th April 2015

Venue - Citizen’s Forum – 7^th World Water Forum

Abstract:

Climate Change has a multi-sectoral impact across ecological regions, socio-economic conditions, and gender and ethnic groups in Nepal. This impact varies to establish new social and economic order particularly in water and agriculture sectors. Drawing from people’s perception across the three geographical regions of Nepal and their understanding to the changing environment, the paper summaries the key insights to understand the sectoral impacts of climate change on water and agriculture. The paper highlights how scientific understanding correlates with people’s perception with change in precipitation and temperature. Case study on how women’s workload is contextualized to draw the linkage between gender and climate change policy initiatives of the Government of Nepal. The answer illustrates the emerging conflicts and social hierarchies with the changing nature of common resources across caste, class, gender and ethnic groups to determine rights and access over common resources. Adaptation through an equitable distribution of resources is essential both at community and policy level. The paper assesses the participatory strategies of Climate Policies in Nepal: a) National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA), b) Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) for an inclusive framework. This paper attempts to reflect on the convergence plan to address the sectoral impacts of climate change that require interdepartmental coordination. It delineate hegemonic masculinities and femininities to capture the differential roles and responsibilities of women and men in response to climate change impacts and highlight process, norms and power relations that exist at households and community level to measure gender processes and outcomes in policies and planning.