Gender mainstreaming and conflict resolution in Central Asia’s water governance in focus at OSCE regional workshop in Almaty

ALMATY, 10 July 2015 – A three-day regional training workshop on gender mainstreaming and conflict resolution in water governance, jointly organised by the OSCE Gender Section and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) in co-operation with the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), concluded in Almaty today.

The workshop trained more than 30 water professionals from state agencies, NGOs, research institutes, water users associations and donor organisations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in gender-mainstreaming and gender-sensitive conflict resolution with a focus on water.

“Good water governance is an important step towards preventing water-related conflicts, and taking into account the interests of all stakeholders, including women, is a crucial element of that,” said Jenniver Sehring, Environmental Affairs Adviser at OCEEA.

During the workshop, international and regional experts shared with the participants their experiences on how to practically integrate a gender perspective in water governance at local, national and trans-boundary levels so that the different water needs and priorities of women and men are taken into account and women’s representation in decision making is enhanced.

The participants also had a full day training exercise in conducting gender-sensitive mediation and conflict-resolution related to water, based on selected cases from their own work.

Hedda Öhlberger-Femundsenden, OSCE Adviser on Gender Issues, stressed that “increasing the participation of women in water governance by including women and men equally, not only makes water management work better for women, it also benefits society as a whole through more efficient and better targeted water resource allocation. It can also help resolve tensions over water use more peacefully.”

One of the participants, Bakhtul Mamadgoziyev, Head of the “Ob Umed” Water User Association in Tajikistan, said that due to migration of many men from rural areas, there was an urgent need of engaging more women in water governance.

Ekaterina Strikeleva, Manager of the Water Initiatives Support Programme at CAREC, emphasized that applying a gender-responsive approach to conflict resolution in water governance can open new doors to reach consensus in regional water cooperation in Central Asia.

This workshop, which was funded by the Governments of Finland, Norway and Switzerland, is to be followed by a career development course with a mentoring component in Denmark for up to 12 female water professionals, organized by the Women’s Water Fund.