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Women + Water Alliance

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Women + Water Alliance

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Amazon
Area: 5888268 km2
Countries:
Brazil; Peru; Suriname; France; Colombia; Guyana; Bolivia; Venezuela; Ecuador
Cities:
Santa Cruz; Manaus; La Paz
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Quick Info

Countries: India
Basins: Godavari, Yamuna
Project SDGs:
Includes Sustainable Development Goals from the project and its locations.
Increase Access to Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (SDG 6.1 & 6.2)
Water Quality (SDG 6.3)
Integrated Water Resource Management (SDG 6.5)
Stakeholder Participation (SDG 6.b)
Project Tags:
Includes tags from the project and its locations.
Hygiene
Safe, Affordable Water
Women & Water
Progress to Date: 2 million Number of people with access to climate resilient WASH
Services Needed: No services needed/offered
Desired Partner: Business
Language: English
Start & End Dates: Jan. 01, 2017  »  Jan. 01, 2022
Project Website: www.globalwaters.org/Women-Water-Alliance
Contextual Condition(s): PHYSICAL: Water scarcity or drought, PHYSICAL: Inadequate access to sanitation services, PHYSICAL: Inadequate access to hygiene services
Additional Benefits: Long-term partnership(s) created, Raised awareness of challenges among water users
Beneficiaries: Local communities / domestic users
Planning & Implementation Time: More than 3 years
Primary Funding Source: pool
Project Challenges: Other
Project Source: User
Profile Completion: 92%

Project Overview

Additional partner: Institute for Sustainable Communities

CONTEXT

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Gap Inc. share a common interest in improving the health and well-being of the women, families, and communities touched by the global apparel industry through improved water, sanitation, and hygiene services, and responsibly managing water resources.

Worldwide, the apparel industry provides a critical source of economic opportunity for women, w…

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Additional partner: Institute for Sustainable Communities

CONTEXT

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Gap Inc. share a common interest in improving the health and well-being of the women, families, and communities touched by the global apparel industry through improved water, sanitation, and hygiene services, and responsibly managing water resources.

Worldwide, the apparel industry provides a critical source of economic opportunity for women, who make up approximately 80 percent of garment workers. However, the industry also stands out as one of the largest and most intensive users of water; responsible for roughly one-fifth of freshwater pollution globally. For example, manufacturing processes such as dyeing and finishing garments are sometimes poorly regulated and can result in impacts to surrounding community water resources, with women and children bearing the brunt of the downstream impacts.

Many of the countries where apparel production is based also face underlying challenges in meeting the health, economic, and natural resource management needs of their populations. A significant factor that contributes to women’s disadvantages in many of these countries is the disproportionate burden that women bear for household responsibilities, particularly related to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Women and girls collectively spend more than 150 million hours collecting water and face serious health risks due to inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, and poor understanding of healthy hygiene practices. Addressing these issues provides an opportunity to strengthen women’s lives.

THE WOMEN + WATER ALLIANCE

USAID and Gap Inc. aim to draw upon their complementary strengths to improve the health and wellbeing of women, families, and communities in countries of shared interest, starting in India. These strengths include USAID’s technical expertise, strong bilateral relationships, and program investments at the community level, which will complement Gap Inc.’s experience in implementing its life-skills training program — Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) — and sustainability efforts across its global supply chain. Together, through this Alliance, USAID and Gap Inc. seek to ensure the sustained and scalable impact of WASH programming and advancement of women.

Project Results

The goal of the five year Women + Water Global Development Alliance is to improve and sustain the health and well-being of women and communities touched by the apparel industry. This goal will be supported by three objectives:

• Advance women’s self-efficacy and agency through P.A.C.E.

• Accelerate women’s access to sustainable WASH services

• Aggregate stakeholders to improve water supply and sanitation financing availability and management of community water resources

To further the impact and extend the reach of the partnership, USAID and Gap Inc. will actively share information, collaborate, and build partnerships across and beyond the apparel sector.

APPROACH

The Women + Water Alliance seeks to create impact by leveraging the following approaches:

• A systems-based approach which understands that a variety of interdependent factors can determine the behaviors of individuals and recognizes that changes at the individual, organizational, community, and systems levels are often needed to sustainably improve the lives of women, their families, and their communities

• A gender-sensitive approach that recognizes the pivotal role that women play in society and their unique needs and opportunities while engaging both men and women

• An adaptive and flexible approach that will enable the program to learn while doing, and adjust as the program evolves

Basin and/or Contextual Conditions: PHYSICAL: Water scarcity or drought, PHYSICAL: Inadequate access to sanitation services, PHYSICAL: Inadequate access to hygiene services
Project Benefits: Long-term partnership(s) created, Raised awareness of challenges among water users
Indirect or Direct Beneficiaries: Local communities / domestic users
Months & Implementing: More than 3 years
Primary Funding Source: Pool funding (i.e., joint funding of several partners)
Challenges: Other

Project Narrative

Challenges • COVID impacts: delays in in person programming, trainings, and village action plan development processes • Opportunity & a dependency: WaterAid’s activities are directly aligned with the Government of India’s priorities on water: the Jal Jeevan Mission. WaterAid’s activities therefore have a great deal of momentum and priority from government partners representing an opp ortunity for systems based impact for water access. This also means progress is dependent on government engagement / support. • Dependency on financial sector and loans to be catalytic

Partner Organizations


The Gap, Inc., commonly known as Gap Inc. or Gap, is an American worldwide clothing and accessories retailer. Our purpose is to be Inclusive, By Design. Gap Inc. includes apparel brands Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta. Learn More

The Water Resilience Coalition, founded in 2020, is an industry-driven, CEO-led coalition of the UN Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate that aims to elevate global water stress to the top of the corporate agenda and preserve the world's freshwater resources … Learn More

Alison Gilbert
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Lisa Hook
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