The three conversational articles formed the basis for interesting and thought-provoking conversations amongst civil society organisations and other researchers at the first Water for Women Fund Learning Event which took place in Bangkok in March 2019. ISF-UTS led the development a workshop focused on women’s empowerment, including in the private sector. The articles on women’s empowerment, women’s leadership and intersectionality prompted many questions around, which women, who is represented, who has voice, and how to go beyond assumptions that increased participation of women will necessarily lead to transformative change in gender relations.
Three presentations were made on women’s entrepreneurship, with ISF-UTS sharing recently completed research in Cambodia and Indonesia, Thrive presenting on their further work with water enterprises and women in Cambodia, and iDE sharing their efforts working with female latrine business owners. The learning will feed in to ongoing work in the Fund on the Gender and Inclusion ‘Towards Transformation’ strategy and further work across the Fund on private sector engagement in WASH.
Lastly, we also presented on the development of a measure for changes in gender equality associated with WASH programs. This included the five ‘domains’ that the measure will cover, namely: agency, structures, resources, critical consciousness and well-being. Participants provided excellent feedback and engagement on the measure- watch this space as we continue its development!
