The workshop set out to spark a regional debate on gender and water around the following question: how much of the progress recorded reflects recognition of the problem, and how much reflects an effective narrowing of the gaps?

To address it, the Latin America and Caribbean Women in Water Group (MALAC)—together with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mexico, CONAGUA, GIZ, the IDB, Rotoplas, and Spanish Cooperation—convened a Strategic Planning Workshop aimed at participatorily updating the Regional Water and Gender Agenda drawn up by MALAC in 2023, signed by 56 women from 9 countries, and translating it into a Roadmap with a 2027–2030 horizon.

ECLAC's contribution

Dr. Silvia Saravia Matus, Economic Affairs Officer in the Water and Biodiversity Unit of the Natural Resources Division of ECLAC, presented the analysis "Water and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean: from Awareness to Substantive Equality," based on the ECLAC document "Gaps, Challenges, and Opportunities in Water and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean."

The central argument rested on the premise that water operates as a "superconnector" that deepens inequalities of income, territory, ethnicity, and gender. On this basis, water insecurity does not affect everyone equally.

The regional diagnosis was structured around four persistent gaps. The first concerns access and infrastructure: 25% of schools in Latin America and the Caribbean lack drinking water, and 39% have no handwashing facilities. This infrastructure deficit translates directly into time poverty, diminished employment opportunities, and interruptions to education—particularly for girls. In 63% of the lowest-income households in Panama, it is women who fetch the water. The second gap concerns time and unpaid work: the shortfall in water infrastructure amounts to an invisible transfer of costs onto women through the care economy. A rainwater-harvesting project in Indigenous communities in Mexico cut collection time by 88%, with immediate effects on health, food production, and economic autonomy. The third concerns access to productive resources: fewer than 30% of women in the region hold title to agricultural land, and without land title there is no access to irrigation, credit, or technology. The presentation drew a distinction between participating—working the land—and controlling—holding rights and deciding over water—citing Chile's Irrigation Law, which incorporated a concrete allocation of resources for projects led by women farmers, as a replicable policy model. The fourth concerns governance and decision-making power: in Central America, only 27% of the members of local water committees are women. Numerical representation does not guarantee control over budgets, water allocation rules, or technical and leadership functions. Representation is necessary, but equality demands effective decision-making power.

The most uncomfortable finding of the analysis comes from a review of 54 water and gender policies in the region: 57.4% of their actions concentrate on capacity-building; 28% on advocacy and awareness-raising; a mere 11.1% on direct investment; and 3.7% on monitoring and evaluation. The paradox here is clear: while progress has been made in recognizing the gaps, there has been no substantial progress in financing their reduction. No training course, for instance, can substitute for a drinking-water connection.

In response to this pattern, ECLAC proposes working in four strategic directions for the Roadmap: (1) focus financing on closing access gaps in rural communities, schools, and settlements; (2) integrate gender criteria across the entire water-project cycle—design, credit, and implementation—rather than in isolated initiatives; (3) ensure that women occupy technical, regulatory, and leadership positions, not merely advisory spaces; and (4) measure what actually changes—connections achieved, collection hours reduced, and water rights granted, rather than workshop attendees, among others.

The analysis concluded by summarizing ECLAC's institutional position: gender equality is not a complementary component of water policy, but a condition for productive, inclusive, and sustainable development in the region. Brechas, desafíos y oportunidades en materia de agua y género