Dairy CSD 12, Lesha Witmer

This is a personal report from the women representative on the Dutch governmental delegation and Chair of BPW International Taskforce “Women for Water” on the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development nr. 12 meeting, held from the 19th of April – 30 of April 2004 in New York, USA.

First of all: this report is in English, because friends from around the globe are reading this, so it’s not only aimed at the women organizations in the Netherlands. Secondly, it’s also the basis for our report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, who were gracious enough to fund part of our activities. Thirdly, you might find information in the report, that is not so much of interest to the women organizations I am proud to represent, but also information that is hopefully of some use to the process for sustainable development as a whole.

Day one: 18 April. If you are travelling, expect surprises. So: no problems with carrying 25 extra kilos’ of handouts for the side – events and more than an hour’s delay leaving Schiphol-airport because of an extra security check: His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange is travelling on the same flight to address the opening of the CSD 12 in New York. Feels very safe…

Since the World Water Forum 2 in The Hague, which was chaired by the Prince, the involvement of the Prince and the Women Organizations in the Netherlands seem to go along parallel routes to enhance integrated, sustainable and gender mainstreamed ways of managing our precious water resources in the world. One could wish for no better champion…

I am travelling to New York as a member of two delegations: the Netherlands government Delegation and the Women for Water-delegation. It is unique – as far as we know - that since the World Summit on Sustainable development in Johannesburg there is a women delegate on the Dutch delegation in a “quality seat”, which enables us to follow what is going on from the inside and give direct input from our expertise and ideas to the process. The two women representatives up till now where Alice Bouman in Johannesburg and Sigrid Bollwerk in Kyoto. Thanks to this phenomenon and the support of the Foreign Office of the Netherlands, we could be “where the action is” and influence the thinking on sustainable development and the role of women in that process.

Marina van Koten – member of the Commission on Sustainable development of the Netherlands Women’s Council - and I are flying together. We shared the experience of being part of the NGO-delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable development in Johannesburg, South Africa, and are looking forward to working together again. On arrival at our hotel in downtown Manhattan New York, we have to take care of (the first) little crises: Our friends from the Ukraine, Svetlana and Rumania, Michaela Vasilscu arrived shortly before us and were confronted with “business the America way”. How can one explain to an American that you do not have a credit card and that the deposit asked for is more than a month salary? How do you explain to a East European, that this is a normal way of doing business and has nothing to do with you as a person? Culture shocks.. At 9 o’clock p.m. local time (3 o’clock in the morning in the Netherlands) things had been sorted out, Marina and I had a late dinner at the suite at Murray Hill with stuff bought at the local supermarket and “lights went out”.

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 1 of 13 Day two: Monday 19 April Accreditation day and the official opening of the CSD. I arrive at the Dutch “Mission” – the permanent representatives of the Netherlands to the United Nations – at 8 o’clock in the morning. They know who I am, but the papers that should be there to get my pas to get into the UN-building are not there. Also the “pouch” – the mail from Amsterdam – has arrived without our hand-outs for the Fair on Wednesday. For some reason the Mission was led to believe I am staying at the Plaza 50 – where most of the members of the Dutch delegation are staying – and my papers are there. So another stiff walk through Manhattan and then to the accreditation office of the UN.

While the sun is getting blazing hot outside (25 C in early April) I have to stand in one line to get registered and another line to get my picture taken and to get a pass. One hour later I emerge from the building again and cross the street into the UN-building to get my other pas as a NGO-representative (non governmental organization: BPW International). The “red” pass, that I get as a member of the Dutch governmental delegation turns out to be very useful and in no time I am standing next to Rita Assogna from Germany and Anna to get my picture taken yet again. In the same line are two friends from Surinam and Uganda, who are surprised to see me. We agree to meet up later this week and discuss the project in those countries that are supported by the “Women for Water, Water for Women” partnership.

The UN building is huge, but the area where we will spend the next two weeks is not too big, efficient and cool. Marina, Rita and I go into the main conference room 1, just miss hearing the Prince of Orange give his speech as part of the opening ceremonies.

What it is his main message? Integrated Water Resource Management is the key to make sure that all the stakeholders are involved and to ensure sustainable development for all. In achieving the Millennium Goal on water and especially sanitation most countries are behind the planning. Investment in hardware is needed, but also programmes to raise awareness of and improve hygiene and sanitation, particularly in schools. Women need to be involved in the entire planning and decision making process, since they are directly responsible for securing domestic water supplies and for family hygiene. There is an important institutional and human challenge to raise the managerial and professional capacities by greatly increase support for training and education. Water use, especially in agriculture should be diminished (more crop per drop). The goals from water and sanitation must especially be achieved in human settlements where the 100 million dwellers live. The Prince stressed the importance of building partnerships to address the following key challenges in the process: - increase knowledge exchange also with others than water specialists - improve policy and legislation to increase the effectiveness of water and sanitation governance - build capacity to bring the knowledge to those who need it for implementation - seek new sources of investment in the water sector. Everything depends on human effort and willingness, and the creativity and innovative thinking of all stakeholders. How can a solution that works in one part of the world be applied in other regions? Global Networks have to be extended to grassroots level. The CSD should inspire us to go beyond signed agreements, conventions and protocols and inspire us to take actions required to bring about sustainable development and a better life for all, especially the poor.

Off course we were happy about the Prince stressing the importance of the involvement of women. We also heard the echo of our own motto as “Women for Water. Water for Women”: act locally, join forces globally.

So what is the CSD12 about? The UN and it’s member States adopted in 2000 what is known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG); these 8 goals – and a lot more targets

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 2 of 13 - cover a wide range of issues, all having to do with fighting poverty, access to water, good sanitation, health care, education etc. In 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg the goals and agreements about Sustainable Development were set.

During this kind of big (UN) conferences, every Major group (9 in all including women, Unions, indigenous people, Young, NGO’s, Civil society, business, Science and technology community) has a caucus. Here the participants from that Major group meet every other day to discuss developments, talk about the statements they are going to give etc. The Commission on Sustainable development is unique in that the Major groups play an active part in the proceedings (more than just being observers).

The CSD 12 is the first part of a new cycle of two sessions and as said is mainly aimed at review. The ensure the meaningful participation of all sectors of civil society a new model of dialogue, experience sharing and capacity building has been adopted at CSD, with a suit of activities taking place everyday. These include interactive sessions on water, sanitation and human settlements, partnership fair – which the WfWfW Partnership is going to take part in on Wednesday – the learning centre, exhibitions and side events – everything running parallel. That draws a lot on the energy and it means we have to make choices and divide tasks to take part in us many activities as possible.

An extra women Caucus meeting is held at 5 o’clock to discuss the draft of the prepared statement for tomorrow in one of the main counsel rooms on water. One of the issues we are going to address is the fact, that the panels and the advisory board are not gender mainstreamed. Off course we are going to stress that Integrated Water resource management is not integrated as long as women are not actively involved as participants on every level. We will stress that women are a powerful force for change and that we will show lots of good, successful examples of women initiatives and gender mainstreamed projects in the coming days.

In the evening the Ambassador invites us for a reception in honour of the Prince and I get the chance to speak to him personally for a while.

Day three: Tuesday 20 April Sanitation (how do we cope with hygiene, toilets, etc.) seems to become THE theme at the CSD12. Countries seem to look at water problems and habitat problems a lot, but seem to be forgetting about sanitation and hygiene. Eco sanitation gets more and more attention because of its easy application (no big infrastructure needed) and the large involvement of civil society.

I start the day by following an hour of the discussion in Conference room 1. Most speakers state that the progress towards reaching the Millenium Goals is not on target, especially regarding sanitation. The big question here of course, is how to get back on track.

It is extraordinary how many delegations stress the importance of women getting really involved in the process as agent of change and the attention that is given to gender friendly facilities. This also means that the women major groups and others can focus more on how to implement / the “ how” this time!

It is also clear, that the delegations have to get used to the fact, that this a review session and that it is important to give a realistic report on the problems and workable ideas and methods. It is fair to say that a lot of delegations get better at it as the week progresses.

Today the Major groups represented at the CSD12 get a chance to meet with the Prince of Orange. The meeting is taking place at the Mission and is informal, educational and worthwhile for all of us. Caroline Veldhuizen (National Commission on Sustainable

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 3 of 13 Development) gives a short overview of the issues that have been brought to the attention of the Dutch government. The civil society groups stressed that: - In formulating and implementing policies on Water, Sanitation and Habitat the importance of and the need to look at these theme’s combined and in using the method of IWRM is often overlooked - In daily practise the needs and ideas of the local actors and governments are not taken into account enough; the methods of working should be more actor/ people specific and centred - The central role of women and their participation in the process is hardly facilitated; women and grassroots organizations should be supported more - Training in problem solving and integrated project – and process facilitation and coaching should be geared up - The property rights and access rights of the local community including women must be safeguarded.

On overview of the points discussed:

Irene Dankelman (WEDO) commemorates that the Major Groups stress that: Water is a human right and a public good and the importance of an “enabling environment” for local / major groups to be able to implement projects on the three themes. The Prince draws attention to the fact that getting water into the Human Rights is going to be a very long political struggle; he is of the opinion that the right to life implicates the right to water: no water, no life.

I talk about the complexity of the process: governments on al levels are involved and so are nine major groups, al wit their own outlook. Local actors are not enough involved; project concept as such are not always applicable in all situations – “made to measure” should be the norm with input of and attention for the specific involvement of all relevant stakeholders and actors (local groups: civil society, women, local government) in the process. The creation of networks, creating trust, infrastructure etc., certainly on local level, is a long process. Project cycles of donors often do match with that.

Sayida Vanenburg, the youth representative, advocates two priorities: basic education for all and theme-specific education; more attention should be given to IWRM at the schools. Miriam Anne Frank (indigenous people) explains that indigenous people bring a unique perspective to the table: their systems of water management are based upon principles and practices, balancing immediate needs with the needs of all living things and always considering the sustainability for future generations. The Prince asks what should take precedent: water or education and mentions that the fact that there is no water makes that children do not go to school and teachers do not want to work in the area.

Eric van Herel tells about the research that Globus is doing especially into factors they play a role in involving the private sector in partnerships for water and sanitation.

Sascha Gabizon (WECF) – speaking from experience in Eastern Europe – draws attention to the fact that the bigger private companies in the water sector usually only operate in the cities, which means that the privatisation does not bring solutions for the rural areas (or against to high a cost). She recommends that the Netherlands during the EU presidency develop a strategy for the rural areas in Eastern Europe. Gabizon also remarks that the EU water legislation is not sufficient for the problems in Eastern Europe: the private wells in the villages are not subject to the legislation. The water is polluted with bacteria and nitrates from the latrines, especially in the bigger villages (3 – 5.000 inhabitants). Eco sanitation could be a solution for having better sanitation, reduce pollution of groundwater and develop local entrepreneurship. The same mistakes are being made again and again: the fees are to high so installations are not being used, the local population was not involved. The financial structures and programmes are usually such that there is no funding for participation

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 4 of 13 processes and/ or the project has all ready ended by the time civilian support for the changes has been mobilized. In this context I mention the project BPW is developing together with other women organizations with the Army. Apart from the fact that the army looks into ways of implementing resolution 1325 and involve women more in all the peacekeeping processes, a project is on the verge of being developed to use eco sanitation for the peacekeeping forces.

It’s easy, cheaper, does not pollute the environment as much, uses less or no water, is gender friendlier and gives a good example. It would be feasible to build the toilets on location – and so stimulate small business - and so involve and introduce eco sanitation also with the local population.

Marina van Koten elaborates on the Call for Action of the Ministery of foreign Affairs (DGIS). The women organizations can never comply with the condition that they have to bring 50% of the funding to the partnerships themselves. Boon van Occhsee replies that Minister Van Ardenne sees an important role of private enterprise in the PPP’s (Public Private Partnerships) and called for ideas. With the call the Ministery tries to find out how the private sector can and will be involved. Apart from that partnerships have their own dynamics and other actors should and will be involved.

Lily Hutjes (Huairou Commission / Habitat) states that funding often stops at the national and regional level or is spend on consultants from the “North”. The local people never see the funding and or not enough involved.

The Ambassador to the UN, Van den Berg, wraps up the meeting by saying that he has the strong impression that there is a clear distinction being made between the process and the project approach and that the mechanism in place do not address that. He also concludes that we know that we have the technical knowledge needed, but that we should create an enabling environment so knowledge can be transformed into durable projects.

The Prince graciously gives permission to take a couple of group photo’s.

Unfortunately I am not able to attend the meeting of the Women of Europe for a common Future regarding sustainable solutions to rural water and sanitation in NIS and CEE, with a focus on Eco sanitation and Water resource Protection, presented by Anna Tsvetkova, Gulbachar Izentaeva (Aral sea region), Mihaela Vasilescu (Medium & Sanitas, Rumania) and Sascha Gabizon (WECF Germany).

The rest of the afternoon I follow the discussions in the main conference room.

Day four: Wednesday 21 April We start the day with rushing to the Mission to get all the hand-outs for the Information desk Fair, that has finally arrived. One of the chauffeurs of the Mission is very helpful in helping Annelie and me carrying all the stuff to the UN building. The stand looks oke with the nice posters designed by Esther Mosselman and we get a lot of interest, people stopping by etc. during the day. We also invite people in person for the presentation tomorrow.

Today I spend most of the time in the different Partnership Presentation sessions. The partnership sessions are very different in terms of quality and level.

“Partnership networks” / IUCN gave a very technical presentation at which mainly their project management approach was highlighted. For support at local level it looks like a long, complicated and expensive road to go. I can see it being useful for national governments and international bodies.

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 5 of 13 Interesting is the partnership “Community Water Initiative”, where e.g. WaterAid, Gender & Water Alliance and UNDP are participating. Sweden and Japan are donor countries. This is one of the very few partnerships (off course Women for Water is also such a partnership) where the local communities are actively involved as equal partners.

The “Community Water Initiative” tries to combine traditional knowledge about water management and sanitation with new approaches e.g. by setting up voluntary water users associations. Equity of distribution, indicators for local governments, better planning, participatory approach, capacity building and empowerment (using the Sarar-method) and including “gender roles” are part of their way of working.

Day five: Thursday 22 April 2004 One of on-going activities is the “learning centre”. Rita Assogna has visited most of these up- to-date (22nd of April):

One of the weaker points of governmental services to the “public” is making information about the financial facilities accessible to the local communities. These learning centres do provide for that to a certain extend.

Simultaneous with the 12th Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD12), learning courses have been offered in the learning centre. The courses are designed to train on the aspects of sustainable development regarding water and sanitation at a useful and practical level so as to enable a better implementation of the Agenda 21 and of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. Jumping from one meeting to another, Rita had the opportunity to participate in several of those courses. She personally – as a new comer to this circuit - found the following courses interesting for the ‘”Women for Water” mission.

“How to apply for GEF (Global Environmental Facility) projects”: The GEF has been established to forge international cooperation and to finance projects about global environment. We have received a couple of practical examples when and how to apply for GEF resources. We hope that partners in the WfWfW are able to make use of them soon. More information under: www.gefweb.org

”Investing in Communities”: Tri-sector partnership (private sector, civil society and government) and how to work together. The reason of the success of the partnership was investigated. The importance of the NGOs (non governmental organisations) in providing leadership, in mobilising local community participants was stressed. The major risk was individuated in the loss of independent credibility status (trust) of the NGOs. More information under: www.wordbank.org/wbi/communityempowerment/iic

“Learning about Water Management and Environmental Education Network” The course was about how to build an effective and well-functioning national network for education on sustainable development in which scientific institutions support and guide schools, based on lessons learned from 20 years of experience in Norway. At the end of the course 6 Norwegian students (all girls) presented two projects on water management.”

In the afternoon, Alice Bouman and I have a meeting with Belinda Calaguas of WaterAid, to talk about among other things, · their concept of the Water User Associations – which would be very interesting for local women groups to serve as a concept for establishing their influence on the way water is management in local communities · Working together on the Stakeholder Forum of the European Union Water Initiative (EUWI) and the financial working group

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 6 of 13 · Their possible participation in the working conference to be organized by WfWfW in the spring of 2005 · Funding issues especially for the preparation phase of projects and building infrastructure for that. We will continue our conversation later this year.

The main event of the day is off course the Partnership presentation of “Women for Water, Water for Women”. Marina van Koten (Netherlands Council of Women), Anna Tsvetkova (WECF) and I (on behalf of BPW International and NetWwater) give brief presentations (see leaflets on the website) about the partnership and a couple of projects that we have worked on together and/ or as combinations of women organizations. (for the background paper, see the website). Ton Boon van Occhssee, the Dutch Ambassador for Sustainable development, and Gerry Cunningham (senior Development Specialist of the development cooperation Directorate of Foreign Affairs of Ireland) are respondents. The room is full with representatives - to name a few - of the governments of the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Columbia, Suriname, Sri Lanka,NGO’s like WaterAid and Care, women organizations from Mexico, Brazil, and organizations like the World Water Council.

Day six: Friday 23 April

Thematic discussions on Human Settlement continue; this time from the perspective of finance and urban governance including the role of local authorities and civil society groups. I am in the Dutch Chair all day. One of the points highlighted by Iran, Pakistan, India and Indonesia is the fact that ODA money can not be used for human settlements – they are clearly “upset” about that. It looks like it might be wise to communicate again, that also regarding Human Settlements a integrated approach combined with water and sanitation is the way to go as far as The Netherlands are concerned.

Belgium presents a brochure with interesting best practices and experiences on the subject of Human settlements and regional projects.

In between sessions, I visit the presentation of the “Helena Z Benitez Global Forum on Women, Power and Sustainable Development”, organized by the Philippine Women’s University and the Philippine Women’s Network in politics and governance. WEDO and the Asian Women’s network on Gender and development are participants in this Forum. Part of the discussion evolves around really having / getting women in functions where they are decision makers themselves. Part of the solution is quota-setting, which has been helpful in the past and can be so again especially when looking at the position of immigrant-women. I bring to the discussion, that looking into gender stereotyping in relation to culture (stereotyping) as (implicit) “basis” of the way functions and profiles are being described – and as a result are a barrier for women to qualify especially for management positions – should be part of the subjects covered in the discussions.

Sharing a short break in the open air with David Boys of the Unions Caucus and later with Irene Dankelman (Women Caucus), one of the topics of conversation is the membership and the task of the Advisory Board on water and sanitation, that was instituted by the UN. It is not clear how the process of selecting members was conducted, what their relationship is with the CSD and what they are specifically supposed to be doing. The women Caucus on the first day all ready commented on the fact that the Advisory Board – and for that matter the panels of experts during the sessions - are not gender mainstreamed. The Major groups have started a discussion on the subject with the secretariat of the Secretary General of the UN and suggested that the task of the Advisory Board (TOR: Terms

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 7 of 13 of Reference) will be directly linked with the outcomes and constraints that come out of CSD12. A lot of countries also have questions about the role of the Advisory Board.

The end of the week was marked by a very sociable event hosted by the permanent mission of the Netherlands: the Dutch delegation and all the Dutch Major group/ NGO representatives assembled in New York got together for an Indian meal at the “Maharaja”. Nice food, a very good atmosphere and lively discussions send some of the delegation off back to the Netherlands and others into a short weekend.

Day seven: Saturday 24 April:

This morning we had the first chance of having a “founding members – meeting” with all the women groups that are represented in New York and are members of the “Women for Water, Water for Women” Partnership (WfWfW). The group from Women of Europe for a common Future - including the women from Mama 86 (Rumania) and Bulgaria – the Netherlands Council of Women and Business and Professional Women International are there and so is a representative of a large women group from Mexico and the middle American States. Topics discussed include the way we want to facilitate the partnership in the future, the division of roles and tasks between the partnership as such and the individual partners, the management of funding and the criteria for groups and partnerships we want to work / associate with and the further development of our aims and goals. It is clear that facilitation of the women groups is terms of communication, knowledge management and the role of “broker” are important parts of the function of the Partnership. The meeting will continue tomorrow.

A second meeting is held between a delegation of WfWfW and the Gender & Water Alliance is held, to establish working and cooperation relations and division of tasks for the future. The purpose of the meeting is planning to work together towards organizing side-events during the CSD13 in 2005 and the World Water Forum 4 in Mexico in 2006, and setting up a couple of projects regarding documenting and exchange of knowledge. GWA offers a “quality-seat” on the board of the GWA for the WfWfW. Very positive and great developments!

In the margin of that we also discuss the developments around the Advisory board and the CSD Bureau (see above). The women groups would very much be in favour of the nomination of the (female) Brazilian Minister of the Environment as chair of the CSD13.

A big portion of the day than goes into writing reports and reorganizing my papers. With Prabha I spend part of the day shopping including getting myself a new rug sack – the one I was still using from the WSSD 2002 finally gave way under the weight of so much paper! An other purchase is a new laptop; my “old and faithful” wanted to “retire” and did a “pre-retirement” crash this morning. End of the day was a nice drink and vegetable starters at a terrace on the streets of New York and – returning to the hotel – a more reporting.

Day eight: Sunday 25 April: 8.30 a.m.: would you believe – but yes: another meeting with the partners of the WfWfW, triggered by the fact that most of the East-European Women are leaving today for home and we want to make the most of it. We discuss a lot of topics concerning the way we want to be organized in the near future, the membership criteria for new members, etc.

An Interim Steering Committee 2004 – 2005 gets elected: Kusum Athukorala (NetWwater), Alice Bouman (NVR), Sascha Gabizon (WECF), Mihaela Vasilescu, Lesha Witmer (BPWI).

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 8 of 13 The tasks of the Steering Committee is: Organize the reporting, monitoring and quality control, appoint coordinating office, fundraising, budgeting, allocation of money policies and issues, Membership, PR and communication in- and externally mainly at international level, representation at international bodies etc. Also a foundation will be set up to manage funding for the Partnership and act as administrative office for funds to be allocated to members and collective projects. The Board of the foundation is the same as the Steering Committee with the addition of a professional accountant / controller.

It looks like the next meeting will take place in Stockholm in august this year during the Water Week. WECF and BPW are planning to stage a workshop during the Water Week.

After the meeting, I say goodbye to Alice and Sascha, who are going back home again. After they have left, I start my computer for the first time and get it going. Off course some more work on my reports and diary. The weather is not very inviting (grey and raining), so a limit myself to a short walk and get two more parts for the new laptop. Dinner is a salad and Sushi from the local deli around the corner. Lights out: late.

Day nine: Monday 26 April: I overslept! I decide to go straight to the UN and arrive there cold and very wet.

First activity of the day is talking to Ethné Davey, Chair of the Gender & Water Alliance. We are both happy about the new plans for working together that have emerged in the last few days here in New York. We also talk about our shared conviction that more should be done about the water and sanitation problems in Eastern Europe; a point of concern is the fact that the Danes are resigning as lead country of the NIS program of the European Union and so far nobody seems to want to take over. Ethne thinks that local communities in the East European countries could benefit from the experience of women groups and local civil society in the last few years in South Africa.

After that I visit the presentation, organized by the SARD initiative: Sustainable agricultural and Rural development. The initiative is a civil society-led, government supported and FAO facilitated initiative that was officially launched in Johannesburg in 2002. The SARD initiative is a great idea, that for some reason is very slow in coming of the ground – to my very personal opinion because FAO is still working with procedures (and language) that do not fit this initiative. The FAO wants to facilitate the Initiative by: · Building on common objectives among different stakeholders e.g. by developing a code of conduct for partnerships · Mediating (on the outset) unequal stakeholders for common efforts · Facilitating a transparent structure for implementation and improve accountability · Improving indicators and ability to assess good practise.

The Initiatives aims at a full participatory process with commitment and ownership, agreed mediators, values, actions and goals. They would like to identify successful cases that can be “scaled up”. (this term is heard a lot around the corridors and in the meetings – meaning that you should use experience and methods from small scale projects somewhere else or make it into a bigger project. It’s meanly the donors, who are asking for this, making funding easier (less paperwork).

Apart from a few reports on small-scale projects by representatives of the groups themselves (sustainable livestock working group; linking local learners/produce-consumer link), one of the best things I hear during the meeting - presented by Paul Osborne - is the existence of a communication consortium that assist farmers in exchanging knowledge, communicate etc.

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 9 of 13 They are all media specialists that “report and transmit” and promote the involvement of farmer’ media. As far as I know, this is really new, being directly linked to a initiative like this. FAO is organizing a session in Rome in September to do some more thinking about communication, transfer of knowledge etc. I have told Ethne about the very good things I have seen and heard during the WSIS in Geneva last December about NGO-networks in rural/ farming areas in Africa and South America, using combinations of ICT for communication among farmers even in very remote areas and promise to send her the information. SARD is also looking for exchange of experience and training south-south and south-north. ZijActief, the Catholic rural women organization in the Netherlands all ready in 2002 wanted to work together in exchanging knowledge and experience 1 on 1 at local level, but requests for more information were not answered. I have a chat with the coordinator Eve Crowley and decide to have a meeting tomorrow to talk about how to get things going- the idea is still to valuable not to explore further. Since the Dutch Government, Ministry of Agriculture is going to host a big conference together with the FAO in 2005, we will also talk about involving women’s organizations (agricultural, rural) in that. I have all ready talked to the two advisors from the Ministry, that are here, about involving the 4 rural women organizations from the Netherlands and their partners in developing countries in that. At 13.15 a meeting starts, organized by UN-Habitat. Mrs. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, executive Director, chairs an impressive session, one of the best and informative one’s I have been to so far. A short video was shown with stories of women in developing countries living in slums. Then four students from developing countries told tales about the dangers of being a women in the slums with bad sanitation and not enough water. One of the stories introduces “the flying toilets”: because of lack of sanitation facilities that work and also give some privacy, women suppress their sanitary needs until the evening – which causes constipation – and at night time they than use plastic bags and bottles as toilets, wrap them up and throw time away as far as possible (all though they know this it not a good idea). Toilets – including in schools - have no doors and there is no private place where (young) women can change their sanitary bandages during their period. Again and again these stories “get to me” in a big way.

One of the things that is continuously being stressed, is that women need other, better and safer sanitation facilities than men to stay healthy and dignified. The Women’s Major group and the Netherlands delegation have put this into statements during the official sessions more than one’s and we hope that it will get a prominent place in the speech of the deputy Minister and the report of the Chair of the CSD.

There are also presentations of f.i. mrs. Nesreen Berwari, Minister for municipalities and public works in Iraq; mrs. Margaret Catley-Carlson, chair Global Water Partnership; mrs. Maria Mutagamba, Minister for Water of Uganda, mrs. Bience Gawanas, commissioner of the African Union. One of the things that come out of the panel discussion is, that - in order for women to be able to keep fighting for better conditions and further the development of their communities - they need: be able to keep their dignity, have motivation, “anger” and courage, and security, health, education, and economic development in their community. In this context it is important that - women leaders stand up and are empowered to take all the expertise, knowledge and questions of women to the right level - women get title of their house and land (however small) to be able to build assets and gain a “voice” - vocational training get’s available for women to enable them to (primarily) maintain and repair water and sanitation facilities themselves - gender mainstreamed water and/ or sanitation committees are set up with women in the lead - local communities/ municipalities get the opportunity to borrow money for development

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 10 of 13 - local communities will support the paying for user costs (by tax) provide they are equal partners in the decision-making and management process - we redefine the concepts and working methods that we are so used to.

A good example are the sanitation committees in local communities in Uganda, where a women is the chair – and most of the time – a women is the “treasurer”.

In Iraq for the first time in history there are now municipal councils set up; women are being elected to these councils. 40% of the Iraqi population at the moment has no safe drinking water and there are all most no waste disposal systems.

After the meeting – in the context of developing the “dry-toilets” project of the army and BPW among others - I exchange a few words with the Minister of Iraq about ideas for eco- sanitation in peace keeping operations. She is very interested and we will talk some more later or by email very soon.

Meanwhile, Marina van Koten, Annelie Hubach and other are attending the session, organized by WEDO, the Heinrich Boll institute, the World Resources Institute and the Gender & Water Alliance about “water through women’s eyes”: Gender, water and poverty connections. Irene Dankelman (WEDO, University of Nijmegen, Netherlands), Ethne Davey (GWA, South Africa), Elisabeth Peredo (Fundacion Solon, Bolivia) and Svitlana Slesarenok (Mama 86 Ukraine/ WECF/ Women for Water, Water for Women) are the presenters. This side event – as so may others - aimed to make a case for the participatory approach and strong involvement of women in water management. Three cases were presented. One on rural water supply in South Africa, showing the need to empower communities. This does not happen overnight; it takes ample time to involve (rural) communities in design and management. The key message was: listen to communities and take (your) time. The urban case showed the failure of privatization through big multi-national companies and the need to return the right to manage water to the consumers – a plea was made to respect the rights of indigenous people and incorporate the rights of indigenous people and incorporate the traditional vision on water management into the practise of water service delivery. Finally the women from the Ukraine through the NGO Mama 86 have taken successful action against industries neglecting their environmental responsibilities in a situation where the government fails to play its role as law enforcer. The key message: legal rights of (local) communities / civil society should be clear and enforced. The discussion further focused on the issue of privatization which seems to be on of the most debated concerns in this CSD by the Major group’s participants.

After these interesting presentations, a couple of us talk about the developments around the chair of the CSD13 again: the chair of CSD 13 has to be elected and by roster will come from the South American countries. We are trying to lobby for a women chairperson, the Minister of environment of Barbados. Whether her country and she want to be nominated and this idea can succeed, is still unclear. In the end it is off course up to the countries in the region (south America and the Caribbean) to decide.

I head for the hotel and try to write parts of the report again. Marina and Annelie call to give the last “ instructions” about the boxes that have to go back to the Netherlands and last pieces of information. They will leave tomorrow to go back home. That also means that most of the NGO delegation (and what feels as my “support team” have left) Lights out late.

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 11 of 13 Day ten: Tuesday 27 April:

8 o’clock meeting of the delegation to divide tasks and speak about the speaking points for the deputy Minister. I am satisfied with the fact that the necessity of involvement of women in general is mentioned and that the need for safe, gender-friendly sanitation in secure surroundings is mentioned. We are brought up to date about the conversations within the EU delegation about the draft text of the report about the first week of the Chair of the CSD12. All of us will read the more than 35 pages report and give points that should be commented on by the delegations.

I finally manage to access my email and spend time to read the most important messages and send part of the report and pictures to the webmasters in the Netherlands.

During lunch time, part of the time together with Marcel van Nijnatten (Ministry of Agriculture of the Netherlands), I speak with Eve Crowley, the FAO coordinator of the SARD program. I mainly explain about the Women for Water Initiative and the organisation and activities of the 4VO, the 4 rural women organizations in the Netherlands. We come up with an idea for a “twinning” program between local women groups from the Netherlands and the developing countries. The aim amongst other things is exchange of experience and knowledge (especially about marketing products, empowering the community, etc.). I will take the idea back to me to the Netherlands to discuss with 4VO and the FAO will put a short proposal in writing in the next few weeks.

The end of the afternoon sees the presentation of the draft report of the Chair of CSD 12 about the first week of the CSD12. The Major groups find that the report is unbalanced:

- most of the information exchanged in the side events and partnerships presentations is not in there. This has to do with the way formal reporting in the UN is done: only what is said during the official sessions in the conference room gets recorded – and we will suggest to change that, especially in a review year - the practise of reporting about the number of delegations and major groups (without naming who) that intervened about a topic, does not do justice to the importance of their ideas and suggestions – here the risk exists that a lot of valuable ideas and comments does not get into the final report of the Chair and is not taken into account when setting the work plan for CSD13 (here the fact that reporting is all ways done in the context of negotiations shows; this also is a point of attention for the next review session)

A short meeting of the delegation, during which we give suggestions for and comment on the speech for the deputy minister for the environment Pieter van Geel, who is arriving today. His first speech will focus on “ building trust” and how to advance with the challenges and possible solutions towards CSd13 and off course what the steps and actions in between.

I rush back to the hotel to change and off again to the reception of the Seed Initiative, hosted by the German Permanent Mission to the UN.

The Seed Initiative is an award scheme, set up by IUCN, UNDP, UNEP and the Stakeholders forum with support (so far) of the German Government. It is one of the very few partnerships that is actually stimulating to bring up new ideas (not projects) and will try and facilitate the 10 best ideas to develop by giving them tailor made support in the pre-project phase. The talk themselves about “social venture capital” investment. The ideas should be entrepreneurial (not necessarily business), locally driven and entail new (combinations) of doing things, partnerships etc. It is very worthwhile for the Netherlands Government to look into this and for the partners in Women for Water to stimulate members to send in ideas!

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 12 of 13 The room is full and the presentation interesting. I meet Minu Hammati, who is one of the facilitators of the Seed Initiative and we make an appointment to talk a bit further tomorrow. I also get a chance of talking with Rosemary Rop from Kenia, whom I met before at the World Water Forum 3. We catch up and among others things discuss the fact that the European Water Initiative – program for Africa is not getting of the ground. Too much bureaucracy and sectorial thinking?

I get back in the Hotel by 23.00 hrs.

Diary CSD12 t-4-yy 13 of 13