The Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit has embarked on an initiative to certify 500 employees and consultants of the Barbados Water Authority in Gender, Climate, and Infrastructure.
The training is one component of the multifaceted Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados (WSRN S-Barbados), which is funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
The main objective of the WSRN S-Barbados project is to transform Barbados’ society into one that is more aware of the water cycle, and the climate change impacts which are threatening the island’s drinking water supply; create resilience to severe weather impacts; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; reduce consumption; promote appropriate uses of diverse water sources and encourage legislation to support climate smart development and water sector resilience.
According to the Project’s Gender Action Plan (GAP), WSRN S-Barbados will mainstream gender into all activities – foster utility/university/community/private sector partnerships, promote stakeholder engagement, exchange knowledge, build workforce and support entrepreneurship opportunities – to increase resilience of people and the water sector of Barbados to climatic natural disasters like droughts, tropical storms and hurricanes.
At the October 8, 2020, launch of the certificate programme, Lecturer at the IGDS:NBU, Dr. Tonya Haynes, underscored the importance of gender justice as a cross-cutting theme of the overall initiative, due to the differential impacts of climate change.
“Climate variability poses an existential threat to Small Island Developing States, with more frequent and severe storms, as well as drought. Unequal relations of gender mean that the effects of disaster, the capacity for resilience and participation in decision-making are different for women and men, boys and girls,” she said in her remarks.
“As staff of the BWA and citizens and residents of Barbados, you have intimate knowledge of the country’s water woes. Your presence here today attests to the BWA’s leadership in the region on addressing gender in infrastructure services and planning. It reflects an understanding that infrastructure planning and development requires an analysis of power
dynamics underlying resource allocation and use. Beyond this, it demonstrates a commitment to redress pervasive and unequal relations of gender.”
Acting Project Manager, Shelley Parris, underscored the BWA’s commitment to gender equality.
“This commitment is demonstrated through persons like me being given opportunities to run departments and be involved at the senior management level…,” she noted.
GCF FP060 National Project Coordinator, Dr. Elon Cadogan, added that he was pleased that the project will have meaningful impact on BWA employees as well. “One of the things about this project is that it focuses on the employees of the BWA. We want to make sure that the BWA employees are at the forefront of beneficiaries of the [WSRN S-Barbados] project.”