What is Gender? The World Health Organisation refers to Gender as "The socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

The Water Research Commission of South Africa, in partnership with the Department of Water Affairs of South Africa, AMCOW, SADC and the Women for Water Partnership will address this topic and several others during the Gender, Water and Development conference to be held in East London from 7 – 14 July.

South Africa is the ideal platform to debate the intersecting issues of gender, water and development and meaningful ways will be pursued at the conference to influence policy, evaluate available resources and explore what steps need to be taken to strengthen the capacity of women to more effectively participate as decision makers.

Gender is a term that is often misinterpreted in the development context. In order for us to advance the debate on gender mainstreaming and equality, we must first have a common understanding of the terms used to describe these concepts. According to UNWomen, Gender refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys. It is not a concept intended to be divisive or exclusionary, but instead brings focus to the idea of cohesive and equal societies where roles and responsibilities are equitably shared between men and women. In the context of water, the roles assigned to men and women are socially constructed and typically learned and carried out as part of cultural norms and practices. In traditional Africa culture, women and girls are traditionally assigned the task of collecting water for the household, whereas, men are typically responsible for decision making through male-headed tribal councils.

By promoting gender equality, we are ensuring that women and girls have equal opportunities to pursue education, advance their business interests and participate in decision making that will have a direct impact on their social and economic wellbeing. The concept of gender traverses all boundaries of class, race and ethnicity and it is only through a collaborative dialogue that brings diverse stakeholders together from different cultural backgrounds, social groups, disciplines and sectors that we will begin to build a common understanding of how these relationships can be transformed. Contact: Mr Adriaan Taljaard, Manager Marketing and Communication (WRC) ataljaard@wrc.org.za  w.r.t more detail or visit the conference web site http://global-water-conference1.com/  for information on the event and programme.