From 23 to 26 May, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Water and Sanitation of Senegal organized the national workshop on Gender contextualization of SDG 6 "Promoting an inclusive and gender-sensitive analysis of water and sanitation data" in M’Bour, Senegal. The workshop was organized in the context of the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6).

IMI-SDG6 is a multi-agency initiative coordinated by UN-Water. IMI-SDG6 assists countries to increase their technical and institutional capacity to monitor, report, analyse and use the indicators related to the targets of Goal 6 "Ensure access to water and sanitation for all and ensure sustainable water resources management". 

The Initiative has now entered its third phase which seeks, among others, to refine the indicator methodologies, including the development of additional components and methods for further disaggregation and contextualisation of data. This also includes the disaggregation of existing data by sex and the development of additional gender-specific and gender-related indicators.

The workshop in M’Bour marked the official start of the pilot exercise on Gender contextualization of SDG 6 in Senegal which will last until September 2023. It is the second pilot globally after Brazil and the first one in the African continent. The official counterpart of the pilot exercise in Senegal is the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (Gender Unit and Planning Unit). FAO is implementing the pilot exercise on Gender contextualization of SDG 6 in Senegal on behalf of all the agencies, members of IMI-SDG6.

The 35 participants belong to relevant national actors involved in data collection, processing and analysis related to gender aspects and/or water resources management (institutions, organizations, associations). Presentations in person and from remote were given by FAO, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation of Senegal, WHO, ANA Brazil and UN-Water.

The workshop aimed at reviewing the methodologies for gender contextualization of SDG 6 developed by the custodian agencies and presented through a Testing framework. The general objective was to assess the feasibility of the proposed methods and their ability to support national and/or sub-national policy needs and to examine and/or identify potential mechanisms and pathways to effectively address the technical scope of the pilot exercise. 

For more insight on this topic, please join the FAO's session at Stockholm World Water Week 2023: “Promoting gender contextualization of the SDG 6 global indicators” organized by IMI-SDG6. The session will take place on 20 August from 9:00 to 10:30 am CEST online and onsite, with interpretation. Representatives of the pilot countries will participate in the panel discussion (Brazil, Senegal and South Africa). FAO is one of the convenors together with UNEP, UNICEF, UNECE, UNESCO, UN Habitat, UN-Water, WHO, and WMO. Register here >>>

For more information: Lucie Chocholata ([email protected]) and Riccardo Biancalani ([email protected]) from IMI-SDG6 in FAO Land and Water Division.

The pilot exercise in Senegal is being funded through IMI-SDG6 project.