| Just as other environmental issues must be viewed in a holistic manner,
so water issues have to be tackled in an integrated fashion and co-operation between other
sectors and organizations must be encouraged . The UNESCO Special Project advocates an
open dialogue between water resources, social sciences and gender specialists in order to
develop a gender approach to the management of water resources. Part of the strategy to
achieve this goal is the creation of a network to facilitate the sharing of information,
available data and methodologies.
However, gender issues should not focus on women alone, the sharing of responsibilities will benefit men as well as women. Just as women need to be more involved in decision making, management and maintenance, so men should participate in hygiene education and sanitation, and should be encouraged to take a fair share of the time and labour which is so often expected of women. There should be a moving away from the usual assumption that, when executing projects, men are responsible for the "public sphere" and women for the "private sphere" . |
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Experience has proved
that when Ministries of Water Resources and Environment implicate the Ministries of
women's Affairs in their projects, problems are considered from different angles thereby
adapting them to the real needs of the community. With this in mind, IHP has brought
together, for