Interviews with:
Raya Al-Masri, International Consultant, Jordan
Vera Noon, Maritime Spatial Planner / Architect, Lebanon
Safaa El Yacoubi, Senior Manager, National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Morocco.
Background: The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and the Geneva Water Hub joined forces at the beginning of 2020 and initiated a collaboration on strengthening the role of Women in Water Diplomacy with emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa region. At the centre of the initiative is a Comparative Study on the challenges to the attainment of more women decision makers in water diplomacy and transboundary water cooperation settings, in five Arab countries in the MENA region, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco. The 3 professionals interviewed here were among the nearly 100 professional women responding to the study questionnaire aiming to map the main challenges facing women that hold them back from having more major roles in water diplomacy and decision making.
Interview with Raya Al-Masri, International Consultant, Jordan.
- How can water diplomacy help address the implications of water related risks and facilitate cooperation within and across countries?
With about two-thirds of the global surface water resources being transboundary, water management has evolved into a political matter as much as a technical one. This comes with evolving and pressing challenges that demand innovative tools to effectively respond to water security challenges in a way that bridges the gap between science and policy. This is what water diplomacy does. It shifts transboundary water management from a dispute-driven practice into a cooperative one that allows finding the shared values among the relevant stakeholders to develop satisfactory solutions, driven by common goals and co-benefits. To thrive, nonetheless, a holistic approach for water diplomacy, based on knowledge, science, and inclusivity, is the means to ensure a constructive and conducive dialogue is reached among all related actors. This also entails a thorough consideration of the socio-economic contexts, in which the participation of women as key players in the social and economic structure of communities is fundamental.
- What are the main obstacles that women face in their equal participation in water diplomacy/leadership positions in the water sector? What are the gender stereotypes, norms or institutional practices that need to be challenged in order to empower women to equally participate and use their full potential?
In most regions, women’s participation in decision-making and leadership, particularly in the natural resources sector, is generally obstructed by many barriers. The lack of opportunities in higher education and training, wavering peer support, and traditional social and cultural norms for women’s representation are just examples of these obstacles. But the most importantbarrier is the lack of realization of women’s power that has long gone unappreciated and unseen until just recently. Therefore, ensuring fair education and capacity building is a major step in challenging the status quo. This requires enhancing the competencies of water professionals and other political participants about the essence of water diplomacy and its significance, and the multi-faceted nature of it that requires collective participation of the key influencers in the society including women alongside men in the process. Showing the successful examples that prove women’s positive impact in leadership at all levels of management in several areas is vital to equip water professionals with the knowledge to realize the potential of women; therefore, ensure more inclusion of women in driving and making change.
- Can you think of examples where the inclusion or, conversely, the exclusion of women, in water diplomacy and decision making at the national or local level has positively or negatively affected outcomes?
There are many powerful examples for women assuming leading roles in international organizations addressing natural resources and water challenges such as the UN and the UN-SDG group, and in national institutions. Globally, women’s role in advancing several successful collaborations over shared resources is also proven (e.g., the cases of Chu-Talas river basin between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and Brahmaputra Basin between India and Bhutan), where women used their skills in gathering several actors and starting and sustaining a conducive dialogue at the interstate and intrastate level, which is a key feature of water diplomacy. On a personal level, as a part of my scholarly work on resources governance and management, I have reviewed and noticed the impact of women scholars on advancing the theory of water policy and management, where among the most impactful papers are those authored and/or co-authored by female scholars specialized in the field. That, in fact, encourages me to take the challenge, as a female scholar exploring the theory and practice of the management of resources, to expand on their successful work and translate theory into practice to further highlight women’s potential in this regard.
Interview with Vera Noon, Maritime Spatial Planner / Architect, Lebanon
- How can diplomacy help address the implications of environmental risks and facilitate cooperation within and across countries?
The natural environment and its ecosystems provide us humans with several services: some are here to protect us from extreme weather events, others purify the air we breathe and the water we drink, and many provide us with the food and materials for shelter. When we talk about environmental risks, we are talking about a defect in this entire system, a failure to deliver these basic needs for survival. Among the many ways humans affected their natural environment, limiting access to these ecosystem services is the most serious.
How was this done, you ask? Boundaries. Although the natural environment has certain rigid features that were used to separate nations or territories, all its components remain intertwined, and exist in perfect harmony and balance. But the political and physical boundaries were established by humans severed this connection.
Diplomacy, in my opinion, is here to momentarily erase these human boundaries, and to picture this environment as one entity that should be able to provide equally and fairly to its users; providing means, food, water and shelter, among many things.
Environmental diplomacy objectively looks at a shared ecosystem, be it a watershed, a sea basin or a disputed land, and confront it with the true exploitation/consumption needs, in order to fairly allocate its resources to the end users, all whilst considering the long term effects to the ecosystem itself.
- What are the main obstacles that women face in their equal participation in diplomacy? What are the gender stereotypes, norms or institutional practices that need to be challenged in order to empower women to equally participate and use their full potential?
I regularly debate this matter with male colleagues and acquaintances around me. While I naturally revolt demanding equal opportunities and blame it on the “system”, I am often faced with the same answer, which actually turned out to be true to a certain extent: 'Women are simply less interested in dedicating their time to their careers, especially demanding ones such as diplomacy, and men are often more willing to sacrifice their private lives to push it further'.
The question is, why is that? Why does a woman often “choose” having a family rather than chasing her career goals, such as diplomacy? I believe the answer is threefold:
Firstly, and particularly in the MENA region, women often “choose” being mothers over being leaders because to this day, it’s still a choice. Being able to balance both should be facilitated and even encouraged by employers (and national level employment policies), and providing flexibility for a working mother is a must if one really seeks to increase women’s participation in high level decision making processes.
When a woman can rest assured that her position will still give her room to raise a family, when a woman can rest assured that her partner can concretely support her career, I am pretty confident there will be more women choosing diplomacy and decision making roles. No ambitious woman would refuse being in a position of influence if she has the right environment to manage both a career and a family.
Secondly, being in diplomacy requires a lot of socializing, a lot of investing in connections and networking. While statistically speaking, men identify themselves as more “extraverted”, perhaps other social dynamics can justify why this can pose a problem for women? In my personal experience as a woman in the MENA region, being friendly may often be confused with other intentions. Additionally, women are more likely to face sexual harassment in such social spheres, rendering them – understandably- hesitant and less interested in building networks, deemed necessary in the field of diplomacy.
Finally, gender stereotypes and prejudices against women in decision making are also common obstacles: Women are judged more emotional and “neurotic” and hence less “adequate” to take up such challenging roles.
In order to face the above mentioned challenges, support should be provided on a national level through flexible and fair employment policies, and on a household level by turning tables on traditional gender roles to encourage men in supporting their female partners by taking up – shamelessly - some of the extra responsibilities they carry.
Sexual violence, to this day, remains present in most work environments. If women are to take up this challenge, they ought to feel safe from sexual harassment, requiring collective efforts.
Finally, global campaigns to fight gender stereotypes and encourage women to participate in diplomacy are resulting in a slow yet crucial change, however local interventions still need to penetrate every small community to try to fish the next female peace builder.
3. Can you think of examples where the inclusion or, conversely, the exclusion of women, in environmental diplomacy and decision making at the national or local level has positively or negatively affected outcomes?
Considering my gradual career advancement, my – rather humble – experience in diplomacy, as well as the context I grew up in, I would rather refer to small scale examples that I believe can be replicated on a higher level diplomacy context.
Take a look at households, objectively observe households led by women: Women can turn soul-less buildings into warm homes. I often tell my mother, “thank you for turning ingredients into food”. The transformative skills that women have in breathing life into any space they use, are innate instincts, that should be harvested on a bigger scale.
Now look at your local front row protests: When events turn violent, women take the lead, join hands and form a buffer. Then, look at international peace making processes: UN statistics report a longer lasting agreement duration when women are part of the peace making process. Women are negotiators, and bargainers by nature. They are scientifically proven to have more control on their behavior, allowing for a more flexible communication approach, a skill highly needed in diplomacy.
Now, the context I grew up in was rather oppressive (Saudi Arabia, Lebanon), and women have only recently begun to play roles in politics and foreign affairs, which is not yet sufficient to form a solid interpretation of their impact on outcomes.
But what I can note from the women I have met throughout my life, women in science, in education, in medicine, in engineering, in advocacy and in environmental activism, is the following: Given the opportunity, women are ferocious yet patient negotiators. They are hardworking, committed leaders. They are kind, considerate and they are good listeners.
I reflect back on the past couple of years, through my work with environmental NGOs and regional networks particularly in the MENA: I am seeing women everywhere, strong leaders who are defying the traditional norms, taking initiatives and fighting relentlessly.
Interview with Safaa El Yacoubi, Senior Manager, National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Morocco.
- How can water diplomacy help address the implications of water related risks and facilitate cooperation within and across countries?
Water risks remain at the centre of global political and economic concerns. Indeed, in light of climate instability (warming, drought, floods... etc.) the world faces risks that need to be studied and shared with experience in assessing, managing and controlling. Water diplomacy allows the establishment and maintenance of water security and therefore regional, national and international stability.
Morocco's water diplomacy strategy has enabled it to forge expertise and know-how to promote the interests of the African continent through agreements and several cooperation projects. I cite as an example the cooperation agreement signed during the royal visit to Bissau in May 2015 with Electricité and Eau de Guinea-Bissau (EAGB), the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) carried out work to install and connect equipment to strengthen the production of drinking water in the capital Bissau.
- What are the main obstacles that women face in their equal participation in water diplomacy/leadership positions in the water sector? What are the gender stereotypes, norms or institutional practices that need to be challenged in order to empower women to equally participate and use their full potential?
First of all, I would like to congratulate my country Morocco on the efforts made to reduce gender disparities. Despite the existence of patriarchal social norms, the promotion of women is constantly evolving and the effects of women's empowerment are increasingly noticeable. For example, I would highlight the gender-sensitive budgeting adopted by the water department, which has enabled studies on the institutionalization of gender integration strategy in water policy, programmes and projects. This is a national orientation focused on the human person and more specifically women, thereby ensuring equity between men and women in public policies on the water sector.
The decisions taken so far in favour of women are to be welcomed, but other areas of improvement can be proposed such as: the application of quotas to ensure the participation of women in strategic positions; the organisation of information sessions to highlight women's contributions to responsibility and decision-making; holding national or international forums, dedicated to the women experts in water diplomacy, for a better sharing of experience.
- Can you think of promiment examples of women leaders in water diplomacy who were catalysts in bringing about change?
Yes, I will first cite the example of the former Secretary of State to the Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, Mrs Charfat Afilal. During her two terms in office, she has repeatedly emphasized the importance of women's involvement in decision-making and in the management of water-related projects. Under Ms. Afilal's mandate, the strategy of institutionalizing gender integration in the water sector was developed. This initiative testifies to the determination of women for the benefit of women, especially in the field of water.
And as a second example, I would highlight Ms. Nawal Khalifa, Director of the Finance Division at UN-Water, who received the award in the category "Outstanding Achievements in Industry" of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Ms. Nawal Khalifa, was until 2014 the only African and Arab woman to receive this award. This showcases the new place occupied by Moroccan women as well as the measures taken by Morocco in terms of the emancipation of women. Emancipation rewarded with international recognition.