UN-Habitat’s GWOPA launches the podcast series WOPcast
The UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) launches a podcast series, WOPcast, presented by UN-Habitat’s Chief of Communication, Susannah Price.
In this series, water and sanitation professionals reflect on the challenges and successes in the sector – from gender mainstreaming to implementation of partnerships – with the aim to help operators and water and sanitation professionals share, learn, and inspire one another in the walk towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the Human Right to Water and Sanitation.
The two first episodes of WOPcast focus on two global issues: increasing access to safely managed sanitation and gender equality in service delivery and utilites’ workforce.
The first ever WOPcast episode reflects on why advancing sanitation is essential. Experts and utility staff explain why five years into the SDGs, still one out of two persons lack safely managed sanitation in 2021, and how sanitation operators’ partnerships are a helpful mechanism to address this by strong utilities harnessing the skills, knowledge and goodwill within a beneficiary utility to build its capacity and improve its performance.
Women and girls carry the heaviest burden of responsibilities around water collection and caregiving. Access to these basic services directly affects their health, education, income, and safety. The second WOPcast episode focuses on the urgent need to mainstream gender in service provision, and to address the gender gap in operational, technical and managerial positions in water and sanitation utilities. Experts and utility staff explain the numerous benefits of including the gender perspective for utilities, their allies, and the communities they serve, and how Water Operators’ Partnerships are contributing to make it happen.