By Habiba Alambo, Representative to the United Nations, Women for Water Partnership (WfWP).
At UNEA7, water did not sit only in technical panels or policy documents. It surfaced in discussions on drying lakes and wetlands, climate-induced migration, governance, finance, nature-based solutions, food systems and technology. Across these conversations, one reality was repeated: there is no water security and no climate resilience without women’s leadership.
Water, Women, and Decision-Making
What stood out at UNEA7 was the growing recognition that the global water crisis cannot be solved without women, and that excluding women from decision-making is not a technical oversight but a structural failure.
Women were not presented only as those affected by water scarcity. They were recognised as leaders, knowledge holders, implementers and solution-bearers. For Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), this recognition matters. When women are acknowledged as agents of change, lived knowledge is valued and water governance becomes more effective and sustainable.
The Cost of Gender-Blind Environmental Agreements
These issues came into focus during the UNEA7 Green Room side event on gender-responsive, socially inclusive and participatory implementation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), convened by UNEP.
The discussion addressed how environmental agreements, including those governing water, fail at implementation when power, participation and equity are ignored. Climate and environmental policies are not gender-neutral in how they affect water access, sanitation and ecosystem degradation. Communities most affected by water stress are often bypassed when climate adaptation strategies are gender blind.
Speakers emphasised that women’s leadership strengthens climate and water outcomes. Participation is not only a rights issue but an effectiveness issue. Locally led, gender-responsive approaches reflect lived realities and deliver stronger results. The discussion also challenged institutions to move beyond consultation toward shared decision-making power. Women’s organisations were described not as stakeholders, but as actors already implementing MEAs on the ground.
The message was clear: when women are excluded from environmental governance, water policies lose relevance and credibility.
Water Scarcity and Women on the Move
Water’s role as a driver of displacement was addressed during the Green Room dialogue on environmental drivers of migration. Water scarcity was discussed as a trigger for movement, insecurity, and gendered vulnerability.
Environmental stress exposes women to heightened risks during migration, including loss of safety, increased violence and deteriorating health. Climate-driven migration remains under-examined, despite clear links between environmental stress, mobility, and gender inequality.
A central point emerged: when water systems collapse, women walk farther, migrate earlier, and take on greater care burdens. These realities are rarely reflected in policy frameworks. Water insecurity is therefore not only an environmental issue, but also a social justice and women’s rights issue.
From Policy to People
Another Green Room dialogue focused on governance of the hydrological cycle and the gap between global frameworks and lived experience. While policies address water at scale, governance structures often fail to reflect how water is used, protected and experienced at community level.
Women were repeatedly identified as essential actors in water governance, not only because they manage household water and sanitation, but because they connect water to health, food systems, ecosystems, and culture. Civil society and faith-based organisations, many led by women were also recognised for shaping local decision-making and water stewardship.
For WfWP, this discussion reinforced a long-standing position: effective water governance must be inclusive, participatory, and rooted in community leadership, with women’s networks recognised as partners rather than afterthoughts.
Why UNEA7 Mattered
Across UNEA7, three realities were evident. Women experience the water crisis in structural ways that affect health, safety, livelihoods, and mobility. Women are not passive victims but solution-bearers whose leadership strengthens outcomes. And policies succeed only when they reflect the realities of those who manage water every day.
UNEA7 showed that recognition of women’s leadership is growing, but gaps remain between recognition and power, financing and institutional change. As long as women remain underrepresented in decision-making, water insecurity will persist. Women for Water Partnership will continue to advocate for water governance where women’s leadership is foundational.
