The International Workshop Women Leadership and Water Management: The Current Situation and the Way Ahead in the Arab Region

The international workshop on Women Leadership and Water Management in the Arab Region is organized by the UNESCO Chair "Water, Women and Decision Power" at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, the National Office for Potable Water in Morocco (ONEP), UNESCO, ISESCO and the World Bank Institute (WBI), and will be held on 9-10 October 2008 in Rabat.

This workshop aims at establishing a strategy to promote and strengthen the integration of women as leaders, senior managers, and executives within the water sector with the overall objective of sustainable development and growth in the Arab region.

The workshop participants are experts and leaders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region within and outside of the water sector, who will engage in active dialogue discussing perspectives and lessons learned with successful Arab women leaders based on scientific and leadership research, regional and cultural norms as well as best practices.

The expected outcomes of the workshop include:

1. To bring insight into the social influences and their impact on women and performance in leadership.
2. To understand women's ability to lead and share knowledge, and to define and discuss how female characteristics add value and contribute to successful leadership.
3. To profile the way forward and to determine next steps in order to incorporate women's leadership into the decision-making level, while taking into account the specificities of the MENA region. The workshop will aim to propose short, medium and long term strategies and actions such as relevant professional training, human capacity building programs and awareness-raising events.

The program of the workshop will include both face-to-face and video conference based sessions through GDLN (Global Development Learning Program) as follows:

• Thursday October 9^th (9:00am - 1:00pm GMT):

           i.      Opening ceremony and keynotes, followed by GDLN dialogues guided by questions with Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.  In each country, a local facilitator will moderate a group of 10-15 participants.

• Thursday October 9^th (2:00pm - 5:30pm GMT):

          i.      Further discussion and exploration on questions and answers received.

• Friday October 10^th (9:00am - 12:00pm GMT):

         i.      Recommendations, conclusions and follow up program.