African Water Association (AfWA) accords great importance to the promotion of gender in its current and future major reforms. Giving more power to women, especially in the top management of Water, Sanitation and the Environment, requires a stronger policy of awareness-raising, to stimulate this needs among current African leadership of the utilities on the one hand, and promote a greater contribution for the emergence of a generation of women leaders in the WASH sector.

An ambition strongly supported by the network of professional women in the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Environment sector, with the setting up of two local committees in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. However, a hindrance to a greater promotion of gender in Africa is the socio-cultural context. Fortunately, an increasing number of voices are speaking out to bring about a change in mentality.

Efforts to promote gender are also being made within the most powerful international organisations, supported by a global view in terms of Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 5 of the SDGs “Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls”. The AfWA was encouraged to continue efforts in its drive to promote gender during an exchange in Atlanta with representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.