Women for Water Conference attracts 120 participants from Africa, Asia, Latin-America, Eastern-Europe and NIS
Netherlands Minister of Development Cooperation receives concluding messages
07.03.2005 |Sascha Gabizon
The initiators of the Women for Water partnership present themselves
voor Nederlands persbericht, hier klikken
The women's organisations that initiated the WSSD partnership "Women for Water, Water for Women", invited to a partnership conference on 4 and 5 March in Soesterberg, Netherlands. WECF is one of the 3 initiators of the Women for Water partnership, and co-organised the conference with funding from the TMF project of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: Women for Water partners from Suriname and Sri Lanka
More than 120 participants came from Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Romania to work with partners from the Netherlands.
Photo: Round Table Discussion on Partnerships
8 concrete cases of villages without access to drinking water and sanitation were presented and together the partners developed a solution to their situation. In this way, the conference tested how the Millenium Development Goals can be implemented, using real-life cases.
Photo: Romanian case holders; the village Women's Club, the National Water Agency, the Mayor of the Village and the partner NGO "Medium & Sanitas"
In each of the working groups, the local partners - often including not only the local women's NGO, but also the mayor and the regional water technician - worked with representatives of Netherlands industry, water utilities, banks, universities, environmental NGOs and women's organisations.
Photo: WECF director facilitating the Romania Case Working Group
In this way, each case developed a master-plan for action, prioritising the most urgent steps to take.
In addition, it became clear, which role each of the partners from the different sectors could play, and in how far they could contribute to financing the solution.
Photo: Minister Agnes van Ardenne, giving closing speech
The Netherlands Minister of Development Cooperation, Agnes van Ardenne, listened to the results of the working groups and gave a closing speech, after which she joined the participants in a closing ceremony in the snow.
Photo: Minister Agnes van Ardenne with participants from Sri-Lanka and Ukraine
Photo: closing ceremony of the women for water conference, the participants put the 'problem' messages in a snowball and threw them away (Minister Agnes van Ardenne for Developing Cooperation participates, 2nd on left)
Photo: Giving Hands during the closing ceremony in the snow
Minister van Ardenne with representatives from Zimbabwe and the "Theater Embassy"
Photo: This year's Women's Representative to the CSD - Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga- with WECF board Member Kitty Bentvelsen and WECF's Eastern Europe officer Annemarie Mohr
Photo: The Ukraine Delegation with WECF's Director Sascha Gabizon
