WaterAid Bangladesh organised a national event highlighting women’s contribution to the sanitation sector at a city hotel on Tuesday.
The event united leading voices from the sector to promote gender-inclusive sanitation services, foster collaboration, and address systemic challenges hindering women’s participation in decision-making to address the sanitation crisis in Bangladesh.
It created a unique platform to connect women professionals from diverse backgrounds, allowing them to share their experiences, insights, and challenges.
The event aimed to highlight women’s contributions in addressing sanitation challenges while proposing actionable solutions to drive progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6. By focusing on these pressing issues, the event leveraged toward inspiring systemic change and encouraging broader representation of women in decision-making roles within the sanitation sector.
Samia Rafa presented the current standing of women in sanitation despite playing a crucial role in managing sanitation issues in their communities. The presentation highlighted that women remain underrepresented in leadership and decision-making positions in the WASH sector.
The event emphasised breaking these long-standing barriers and empowering women to take on leadership roles, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to inclusive and sustainable sanitation systems.
The function featured an engaging panel discussion moderated by Tunazzina Hoque, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Expert at WaterAid Bangladesh.
The distinguished panellists included Hasin Jahan, Country Director of WaterAid Bangladesh; Farhana Rashid, Co-Founder and CEO of BHUMIJO; Salma Mahbub, General Secretary of Bangladesh Society for the Change and Advocacy Nexus (B-SCAN); and Dr Rozina Afroz Rana, Technical Specialist at WaterAid Bangladesh.
The event concluded with a strong call for collaboration to build gender-inclusive sanitation systems.
bd-pratidin/GR