AquaFed is proud to be organising a webinar about women leaders in urban wastewater utilities in Africa and succeeding in their careers.

The session will be informal and relaxed, but cover serious issues and the practicalities of overcoming barriers to career progression. Attendees can expect a lot of practical advice on how to thrive in a utility.

Skills and capacity building and developing local, talented workforces, is a major priority for Aquafed.

The webinar will be held on 21 February. More details [here](https://www.susana.org/en/news-and-events/sanitation-events/upcoming-events/details/614). Aya Mohammed, who works for one of AquaFed's members as a procurement coordinator in Egypt, will be one of the speakers.

The webinar is the last in a series of sessions focusing on aspects if urban sanitation in Africa. AquaFed is part of a group of organisations that has developed the series - The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, UN GWOPA, AFWASA, German Water Partnership and GIZ. 

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Women leaders in urban sanitation

To celebrate International Women’s Day, AquaFed is issuing a call to utility managers on behalf of their women staff and leaders, to take three specific actions that will increase gender equality in the workplace.

The recommendations for actions come directly from a group of leading women working in African sanitation and wastewater utilities. They are:

•	Mentoring – more male mentors are needed to step up and help women in a structured and systematic way, focused on women’s work and career objectives.

•	Continuous development – give women equal opportunities to train and develop their careers.

•	Focus on the simple practical steps – for example, ensuring equipment and clothing come in women’s sizes, or organising safe travel for women staff to and from work. These things make a huge difference.

There is also a really strong message from women in utilities to their female colleagues – to trust in themselves, believe in themselves and trust their instincts.

Sadly, none of these are new recommendations and are at what women working in utilities have been saying for many years. These actions have also been highlighted in various reports, including the [World Bank’s Women in Utilities – Breaking Barriers report.](https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/166011566504966480/breaking-barriers-executive-summary) However, this highlights the work the sector still has to do to ensure women are appropriately represented and get equal opportunities.

We will be promoting these actions to the World Water Forum and getting them heard wherever possible, including at a networking and mentoring event that AquaFed is organising for women in the sector. This event will be for the more experienced ones to pass on their knowledge and wisdom about career progression and leadership, to the up and coming young women stars we have in our sector. Look out for more details on the networking event soon.

The actions were recommended by a group of leading women in African sanitation utilities, who spoke at a recent webinar called: [Women in Utilities – the driving force behind urban sanitation](https://aquafed.org/news/47). This was organised by Aquafed and hosted by the GIZ. It was part of a series of webinars based on urban sanitation organised by a group of partners including GIZ, SuSana, GWOPA, AFWASA and AquaFed. 

During the webinar, the speakers gave very clear examples of how to implement the actions mentioned above.

The webinar about women utilities had the biggest audience of all the webinars – this sends a very clear signal that the issue of gender equality in utilities is extremely important.

A huge thanks to our speakers, our ‘Queens of Sanitation’:

•	Euphresia Luseka

•	Margaret Maina

•	Koena Mabitsela 

•	Aya Mohammed

•	Chadia Riahi

•	Henrietta Osei-Tutu


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Messages to utility managers on International Women's Day

AquaFed has set out critical factors to African finance ministers on how to mobilise more finance for utilities ahead of a crucial meeting on water and sanitation being organised by the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership (SWA).

[The Finance Ministers Meeting ](https://www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/2023-finance-ministers-meeting-0#about )will focus on how ministers of finance together with other government and development partners can transform access to water and sanitation in their country and unleash economic and social benefits.

In a[ letter](https://www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/news/how-swa-partners-are-preparing-2023-africa-finance-ministers-meeting#comment-3416) from AquaFed President, Fred Van Heems, he has urged finance ministers to focus on the building blocks of a strong national WASH system. In particular, he highlights the need for strong control from public authorities – but calls on ministers to help ensure officials are given the skills and capabilities to do the job. 

On utilities specifically, Mr Van Heems also urged renewed focus on the ‘fundamentals’ – using existing knowledge and tried and tested programmes to support utilities to be more credit-worthy and make progress towards being able to recover costs.

At the SWA meeting, participants will be presented with inspiring and aspirational examples of countries that have benefited from prioritizing water and sanitation to achieve their development and climate goals. 

The examples will show how investing in water and sanitation supports economic development, sustainable climate action, and effective public health preparedness, building from the discussions held in 2022 at the [SWA Sector Ministers' Meeting.](https://www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/2022-sector-ministers-meeting) 

Mr Van Heems will also address the ministers at the meeting next week, during a discussion on how private operators can help mobilise domestic finance.


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