The 11th Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) Consulting Partners meeting will be held from the 13th to the 14th of October 2015 in Pretoria, South Africa. The meeting that is held after every two years brings together the GWP Partners in Southern Africa, GWP SA Board, Regional Technical Committee (RTEC) and the GWP SA Secretariat staff. Also invited are the Strategic Partners with whom GWP SA has programmatic alliances, but these are self-funded.
Jharkhand is a new state, established in 2000, to support the rights of indigenous people to have a separate state for themselves. Jharkhand is home to many of the country’s poorest people, despite the city being located in one of the richest areas of India in terms of minerals and natural resources. Agriculture, as the sole economic activity in the area, has not been properly developed (e.g. water facilities are poor and access to upgraded and modern agriculture-based knowledge is limited) and the land is prone to severe droughts, marked only by erratic rainfalls. Therefore, starvation and malnutrition of its citizens is widespread.
From December 14 to 16, 2015, the “Regional Workshop on South-South Cooperation in Flood Management” was jointly organized by GWP China and GWPO in Guangdong, China.
Name: Maria Amakali
Occupation: Director of Water Resources Management
Country: Namibia
Country of Work:           Namibia and SADC
What would you say are the main challenges in your work as a woman?
I started working as hydrologist in the Department of Water Affairs in the early nineties. I had studied in the US and was ready to come and work in a newly independent Namibia. My responsibilities included planning and execution of research and investigations regarding sustainable development of water resources; and providing advice on the effective utilization, protection and conservation of such resources. At a time I found a lot of males, in the department. Except for the two women scientist in Hydrology Division, most women were doing mostly secretarial or office administrative work. I remember one day standing outside, waiting for my ride home and this man came to me asking whose secretary I was. In an independent Namibia, I was quite shocked that the old stereotype mentality that women can only be secretaries still exists. Those days there were not many women or black hydrologists, but I was still offended.
This article is part of a wider coverage of the “MENA Focus” events, a set of four regional sessions dedicated to the Middle East & North Africa, officially launched at the Stockholm World Water Week 2016, alongside the Regional Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) had been selected and serves as the overall coordinator for these “MENA Focus” events. The sessions were organized in partnership with a number of international regional institutions and organisations. “Seeking answers to the MENA water crisis” was the first out of the four sessions, held on the 30th of August.