By: UKOM
State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan addressed the High-Level Conference on Water and Gender Equality, which aimed at exchanging good practices, opinions and ideas on how to achieve gender equality in the context of water. The conference was organised by Slovenia, the current Chair of the Council of the European Union, together with the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme and the Women for Water Partnership organisation.
Water is among the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the field of development cooperation. Slovenia has been striving for a unified position of the member states on water in the EU’s external action.
“Sustainable goals on clean drinking water and clean sanitation and gender equality are key to achieving all sustainable development goals”, emphasised State Secretary Raščan. “It is imperative that women and girls around the world, who spend 200 million hours a day on acquiring water, get the opportunity to devote part of this time to education and work that generates income for a decent life,” added the Secretary of State. He also stressed that despite progress made at the level of gender equality policies related to water, their implementation has remained weak. Financial resources for the planning of campaigns and projects in the field of gender and water are still scarce and dispersed.
In the context of the conference, State Secretary Raščan supported the call for action by UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the water sector and urged other EU member states to add their voices.
The Conference was attended by EU member states, numerous high-level guests and other important participants.