Women’s Water Fund – career advancement for women in the water sector

The objective of the Women’s Water Fund is to support women from developing countries in advancing their career opportunities in the development and management of water resources. The Women’s Water Fund has been created at the initiative of DHI and has initially been funded by the “King Hassan II Great World Water Prize” presented to Professor Torkil Jønch Clausen of DHI at the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico in 2006.

Target groups are women in (or on their way into) middle management positions and the Fund seeks to provide programme participants with insight and inspiration that can help them advance into more senior management positions. The Fund’s career programme builds upon Danish expertise in water and environmental management, its international applications, as well as in organizational management in the water sector.

The Fund supports short capacity building visits to Denmark. The visits will include a combination of formal training and inspirational “hands-on” interaction with managers in public authorities and in the water industry. All travel, accommodation and living costs are covered by the Fund. It is the intention that the Fund will contribute to a longer duration contact and support to the selected candidates. 

The capacity building visits include: i) participation in short courses on water resources and environmental technologies and management; ii) inspirational visits to Danish organisations in the field of water and a one week internship in one of those organisations; and iii) a subsequent mentoring component that includes a senior Danish manager as mentor for each candidate. The mentoring function is intended to be continued for at least one year after the visit in Denmark in a long distance support relationship.

A Diploma will be issued by the Governing Board of the Fund at the end of the visit to Denmark.

The present Call comprises: 

A two weeks Training and Management Internship
Programme in Denmark, 10-25 April 2010

The present Call/study visit for April 2010 is intended for women from developing countries in Africa, Asia or Latin America who meet the following criteria:

• Professional background in a water related discipline, at least at Master’s level
• Minimum 5-7 years of working experience
• Fluency in English
• Present employment in managerial or leadership positions in government, private company or NGO (academic careers are not supported by the Fund)

Applications shall include:

• Background of candidate, including full bio-data/Curricula Vitae
• Motivation for application
• Indication of first, second and third priority amongst the four host organizations for the internship component of the programme
• Possible letters of recommendation

Applications shall be submitted to wwt@dhigroup.com:
 the Secretariat of the Fund at DHI (www.dhigroup.com), Attention Ms. Winnie Wingaard Thrane (wwt@dhigroup.com), no later than 1 December 2009.

The selection of successful candidates, and replies to all applicants, will be made by the end of January 2010.