Taking place soon after the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to observe the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (expected to regenerate commitments from governments towards tackling barriers to gender equality), this virtual event will:

• Share key recommendations from the responses to the e-consultation, with a wider audience, to inspire concrete action to fulfil the Beijing PfA commitments on water and sanitation for gender equality.

• Explore on-ground examples of how women’s and girls’ rights can be fulfilled through universal access to quality, gender-responsive water, sanitation and hygiene services, particularly with reference to reducing and redistributing gendered burdens of unpaid care work.

• Call on governments to ‘build back better’ from COVID-19 through implementing WASH services in ways which are accountable, publicly funded, publicly delivered, and gender-responsive.

The virtual event will take the shape of a round table in which questions will be posed to the participants by the moderator. Webinar attendees will also have the opportunity to share comments and questions, both through the chat feature on Zoom and by intervening in the discussion.

When

7 October 2020, 8:30AM BRT | 11:30AM UCT | 17:00 IST

90 mn duration - Click here to see the webinar start time in other time zones

Simultaneous interpretation available Spanish-English

Programme

Opening remarks and welcome

• Wangari Kinoti, International Policy Advisor, Women’s Rights, ActionAid International

Roundtable

• Dr. Pedi Obani, Senior Lecturer, University of Benin and Visiting Researcher, POLIS at Leeds

• Margarita Lopez, CONTAGUAS (Confederation of Water, Sanitation and Environment Workers of the Americas), member of Public Services International’s World Women’s Committee

• ActionAid Myanmar (TBC)

• Young Urban Women representative, India – gender-responsive toilets (TBC)

• Memory Kachambwa, African Women’s Communications and Development Network (FEMNET) – Beijing+25, COVID-19 and WASH, from a feminist lens

Respondent

• Léo Heller, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation

Closing remarks and thanks

• Abdul-Nashiru Mohammed, West Africa Regional Director, OR Mariame Dem, International Programmes Director, WaterAid (TBC)

2020 has been a watershed year in more ways than one – both the year of the devastating pandemic and the year that marks 25 years of Beijing Platform of Action. 25 years ago, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) – the foundational global agreement on women’s rights – called on all governments to ‘Ensure the availability of and universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation and put in place effective public distribution systems as soon as possible.’ In 2020, as the international community observes the 25th anniversary of the BPfA as well as the tenth anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s recognition of water and sanitation as human rights, the right to gender-responsive WASH facilities has become even more urgent in view of the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic has made even more visible the importance of safely managed, accessible, affordable, and available water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased women’s and girls’ burdens of unpaid care and domestic work, including by increasing their responsibilities for water collection in constrained and dangerous circumstances to meet heightened demands for water for handwashing to prevent the spread of the virus. Gender-responsive water and sanitation services are required to decrease women’s and girls’ burden of unpaid care and domestic work and ensure all women and girls can enjoy their rights to health, education, economic security, political and civic participation and leisure.

To develop a nuanced analysis and chart a path forward for collective advocacy on WASH and gender as part of this foundational year of discussion and action, ActionAid and WaterAid launched an e-consultation over June and July. The e-consultation aimed to identify areas for further advocacy and programming around WASH, gender, poverty, public services, climate change and equitable COVID-19 recovery, as part of global efforts towards achieving gender equality and the SDGs. In all, 67 responses were received from various grassroots and national organisations, trade unions and women’s groups that deliberated on seven guiding questions (detailed in the annex). A draft brief of the e-consultation outcomes will be shared with participants ahead of the webinar.

To disseminate the responses from the e-consultation to a wider audience and to generate views on advancing its recommendations, ActionAid and WaterAid will host a webinar on 7 October. Taking place soon after the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to observe the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (expected to regenerate commitments from governments towards tackling barriers to gender equality), this virtual event will:

• Share key recommendations from the responses to the e-consultation, with a wider audience, to inspire concrete action to fulfil the Beijing PfA commitments on water and sanitation for gender equality.

• Explore on-ground examples of how women’s and girls’ rights can be fulfilled through universal access to quality, gender-responsive water, sanitation and hygiene services, particularly with reference to reducing and redistributing gendered burdens of unpaid care work.

• Call on governments to ‘build back better’ from COVID-19 through implementing WASH services in ways which are accountable, publicly funded, publicly delivered, and gender-responsive.

Next steps

A policy document/position paper will be jointly developed by ActionAid and WaterAid post the consultations which will bring together the key findings from the e-consultation and the key issues raised in the webinar. This policy/position paper will be launched during the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2021 and will be followed up with accompanying communication products (case studies that exemplify BPFA on WASH) for Generation Equality Forums in 2021.

E-Consultation on WASH and gender

The webinar will address primarily the questions in purple text (1, 4, 6). A draft outcomes brief will be shared with all participants ahead of the webinar, with detailed summaries of responses received for each question.

The e-consultation, held June-July 2020, invited answers to the following questions:

1. What are some examples of how women’s and girls’ rights can be fulfilled through universal access to quality, gender-responsive water, sanitation and hygiene services, particularly with reference to reducing and redistributing gendered burdens of unpaid care work?

2. What changes need to happen at policy, programming and budget investment at national level to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for women and girls?

3. What is the role of international actors, including international financial institutions, in ensuring the rights to water and sanitation?

4. How can COVID-19 response and recovery be geared towards increasing access to water, sanitation and hygiene especially for women and girls?

5. How should women’s and girls’ access to WASH be protected in the face of an increasing climate crisis?

6. What should the 25-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action prioritise in terms of women’s and girls’ rights to water and sanitation?

7. What actions can civil society and allies take leading up to the Generation Equality Forum and CSW65 to link water, sanitation and hygiene and women’s and girls’ rights?

Read the e-consultation blog in English - Español - français - português