7 July 2017: The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) launched a photo competition to raise international awareness of women’s roles in managing water. Domestically, SIWI is cooperating with national actors to highlight issues in forestry, pharmaceutical emissions and water shortages.

SIWI’s #WaterWomen photo competition aims to highlight images of women as decision makers, managers, users and stewards of water resources. Participants are invited to upload photos of women playing these roles and invite their networks to vote for them on social media. Winners will have their photos displayed at Stockholm Water Week.

The photo competition is organized in the context of SIWI’s ongoing work to promote equitable participation by both men and women in water governance. The Institute highlights the value of including both men and women in planning and management of water services, and has sought to promote this through: support for democratic governance of water and sanitation through a knowledge management initiative and study of gender mainstreaming; collaboration with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote gender-disaggregated indicators and gender-sensitive methodology in the World Water Assessment Programme; creation of a toolkit on ‘Gender, Violence and WASH’ (water, sanitation and hygiene services); and support for a Gender and Water conference in South Africa in 2014.

In the first week of July, SIWI took part in Almedalen Week, a forum that takes place annually on the island of Gotby, off Sweden’s east coast. The forum brings together politicians with civil society and private sector actors, and will have its 50th anniversary in 2018. SIWI hosted a number of forums with partners at Almedalen.

With the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Institute hosted a forum on how international development policy can address the need for restoring degraded forest lands around the world, so as to protect watersheds for the future.

With the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, the Institute discussed developing sustainability criteria for the pharmaceutical industry, to reduce wastewater emissions.

With the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SIWI discussed water shortages in Sweden. Concluding the series of events, Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director of SIWI, emphasized the role of water as a connector among states, people and actions, noting that, “The same questions affect us all.” [SIWI Press Release on #WaterWomen Competition] [SIWI Webpage on Gender Work] [SIWI Press Release on Almedalen Events]