Global Water Challenge (GWC), an international coalition committed to universal access to clean water and community empowerment, is announcing accelerated action via new and widespread partnerships under its women for water™ platform in honor of the World Water Day 2020.
Core to its focus on building sustainable communities, women for water works to meet increasing and urgent context-driven needs resulting from climate impacts on water access and to address sanitation and hygiene requirements – now even more vital to help mitigate the surging COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, women for water is scaling its reach and impact with leading implementing partners. By 2021, these efforts will support over 50,000 people with critical interventions ranging from traditional WASH to smallholder farmer capacity building and home water systems to help close the widening water access gap in the US.
Examples of women for water’s high-impact program collaborations include:
- United States – In partnership with DigDeep, a non-profit focused on ensuring all Americans have access to safe water and sanitation, women for water is delivering water services to Navajo Nation communities, with an initial focus on impact in New Mexico. It is estimated that 40 percent of people living on the Navajo Nation are without a water tap or toilet.1
- Tanzania – With WorldServe International, a leading provider of clean water systems, women for water is helping to transform entire rural communities by providing WASH access in health clinics across North Central Tanzania which will improve general healthcare and maternal health for more than 23,000 people, including 19,000 women and youth. According to the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, there are more than 1 million deaths each year are associated with unclean births.2
- Rwanda – Working with Global Grassroots, a pioneering community-based organization that operates a social venture incubator for undereducated women in post-conflict Africa, women for water will reach 8,000 people with improved WASH access and mobilize hundreds of women as change agents via entrepreneurial business skills training that helps to build effective water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) enterprises.
- Kazakhstan – With the UN Development Programme (UNDP), women for water is now supporting thousands of rural women farmers in the Almaty and Turkistan Regions of Kazakhstan to access innovative irrigation technologies, agricultural markets and resources for increased income and decision-making opportunities. This is one of several women-centered New World Program initiatives that women for water is also championing.
Additional women for water partnerships are underway in Armenia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and South Africa. Since launching in late 2019, the platform has already seeded investments in nearly 200 communities across 13 countries.
women for water also supports programs that bolster climate resilience. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, vulnerable community members, particularly women and girls, experience higher risks and more significant burdens from the impacts of climate change as a result of traditional gender roles and community norms.3
“With less than a decade to achieve the SDGs, women for water is accelerating clean water and sanitation access for women and their communities,” said Monica Ellis, CEO of Global Water Challenge. “We know that when you invest in empowering a woman through clean water, you invest in the well-being of her family and her community.”
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ABOUT GETF
The Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF) serves as the executive secretariat of Global Water Challenge.
ABOUT GWC
Founded in 2006, GWC is a coalition of leading organizations committed to achieving universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). With leading companies, civil society partners, and governments, GWC accelerates the delivery of safe water and sanitation through partnerships that catalyze financial support and drive innovation for sustainable solutions. Through GWC’s innovative public-private partnerships, over 1 million people have been reached with clean water access.
ABOUT WOMEN FOR WATER™
women for water was launched by GWC as a data-driven action platform to advance gender equity and transform communities by empowering women and girls in 10,000 communities through WASH and life skills programs by 2030. Grounded on the pathbreaking Ripple Effect research, women for water galvanizes global collective action at the intersection of water and women’s empowerment.
By leveraging GWC’s network of partners and expertise, women for water brings together best-in-class implementers to provide community interventions at scale. To learn more about how you can get involved with the women for water platform, please visit the website here. You can also follow the movement on social media through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
[1] Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States
[2] https://www.unwater.org/who-and-unicef-launch-report-on-wash-in-health-care-facilities/
[3] https://unfccc.int/news/5-reasons-why-climate-action-needs-women