Gender, Water and Equity: Training Programmes by TISS
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai -
- April 27-May 1, 2009 and end Oct-early Nov, 2009 -

Organised by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, South Asian Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), Hyderabad, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune, and the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA).

The political-economic-social environment globally is in a flux due to numerous interlinked changes. Many of these changes are evident in the water sector. In rapidly changing countries in the South Asian region, water is becoming the source of conflicts at the national, regional, and local levels.

The processes of liberalisation and globalisation, growing inequalities, global environmental changes and water scarcities are all interconnected contexts within which an understanding of gender, water and equity needs to be located. These processes particularly affect the lives of women, often the primary informal managers of water, for whom access and rights to water are mediated through their social and economic position in society.

Women's central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water has been reiterated in UN conferences. The resultant conference documents emphasise the need for policies to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resources programmes.

Policies, projects, programmes and research in India and the rest of South Asia have attempted to integrate women, with varying degrees of success, in countering the multiple processes that contribute to inequalities. However, not everyone is equipped to understand the complexity of the water sector as it relates to gender and concerns of equity.

The proposed training programmes will address some of these gaps, both in terms of conceptual and contextual knowledge, as well as in building practical skills to negotiate concerns of equity and the principles of gender mainstreaming in the water sector.

The objectives of the training programmes are:

• To understand the larger political context of water distribution and reforms
• To strengthen participants' perspectives on gender, water and equity issues
• To examine analytical frameworks that could incorporate gender in the planning and implementation of programmes in the water sector
• To build a preliminary set of skills to incorporate gender and equity issues in the participants' work situations

• We invite applications from diverse mid-level professionals—individuals working in development organisations, activists, academics, researchers, and officials working in state and central government departments of water and sanitation.
• Applicants can be from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan. For the first programme, from amongst applicants from India, preference will be given to persons from the north, north-east and east India; and for the second, applicants from the south and west India will be preferred. For applicants from the other South Asian countries, there is no regional criterion; they may be from any part of their country.
• The medium of instruction during the training will be English, and participants must be able to clearly comprehend and communicate in English. The organisers are not in a position to provide for translations.

• Applications must include all the details listed from item 1 to 22 in the following application form.
• Hardcopy applications may be sent to: Dr. Lakshmi Lingam, Dean, Research and Development, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai 400 088, INDIA.
• Softcopy applications may be sent to: [email protected]
• The last date for receiving applications is March 15, 2009.
• All applicants have to give, along with their applications, the name and contact details of a reputed referee, whom we may contact.
• A participation fee of (Indian) Rs. 2,500 will be taken from each selected applicant. Further details about making this payment will be communicated upon selection.
• By March 30, we will contact applicants who have been selected. Inquiries in the interim, or later by applicants who are not selected, cannot be answered.

• Download the whole write-up and application form here (30 KB)