About
Community for Women in Water
“Water Goddess” by catwommn is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Mission Statement
The Community of Women in Water seeks to enhance effective and sustainable solutions to water challenges for improved health and environmental outcomes globally. Creating these solutions will require stronger participation and leadership of women in the sector. Therefore, we aim to amplify women’s contributions by strengthening their learning and networks to lead, support, and teach others.
Find out more about those in CWiW Leadership here.
Why We Need CWiW
Water issues are cross-sectoral; water availability is inextricably linked to climate change, food security, governance, poverty, agriculture, energy, education, ecosystems, and gender equality. Water issues often require local solutions for communities but also have impacts at the national, regional, and international levels.
According to the World Bank, water sector projects that included women were at least six times more effective than those that did not. But by 2014, women made up just 17 percent of the WASH labour force on average and were a fraction of managers, regulators, policymakers and technical experts.
To successfully address water challenges from local to global levels, the water sector needs more women to participate and to lead. Women need support to take on these roles and become a bigger part of those working in the water sector. This support needs to come from both men and women to expand and maintain the number of women in the water sector, and yet there is a special type of support that women can give each other that is also critical to keeping women in the water sector.
The Community for Women in Water provides this special support by fostering meaningful connections and continuous learning and sharing among women professionals working on water issues.
Ganga, Hindu goddess of the Ganges River
How We Work
CWiW brings together women working on or studying water issues to build connections and promote professional growth and development—and in doing so, we advance viable solutions for the water challenges we work on.
Through our events and conversations, we aim to build a vibrant network of women professionals to share experiences, resources, advice, and ask questions. Our events include Learn and Shares (designed to focus on a particular topic with truly interactive, engaging conversations among participants and experts), public events on women in water, and networking events (both in-person and virtual). Community members share events, resources, and other opportunities through our LinkedIn group, this website, Twitter, and our monthly newsletter.
Mural of Salacia, ancient Roman goddess of the sea
Who We Are
CWiW is a diverse, international network of over 1,000 women working on water issues whose expertise range from PhD students and recent graduates to internationally recognized experts. Some members work in industry or at non-governmental organizations (NGOs) while others are academics or field researchers. Some are engineers or chemists while others are program managers or gender experts.
CWiW members represent various backgrounds, countries, and practice areas. We share a passion for water issues and believe we can make a difference. And so we do.
The water supply and sanitation sector will benefit greatly from increased gender equality translated into more women being active in service provision in order to improve communication with women and foster the identification and adoption of best practices.
International Water Association, 2014 Report
CWiW is a global community of women supporting and empowering one another to advance viable solutions for the water issues we work on.