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WaterWoman Stands Up for Gender at Clinton Global Initiative

WaterRising Institute, supported by WaterWoman Project Founding Partners SUEZ and Xylem, put gender at the center of conversation in water management at Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)’s first gathering since 2016.

Led by President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton, CGI brings together leaders from business, government, and philanthropy to commit to taking action on pressing global challenges. The event took place on September 19, 2022 in New York City during the 77th meeting of the UN General Assembly.

WaterRising met up with NGO and technology leaders working to solve the water crisis, including Water.org co-founders, Matt Damon and Gary White, and Kando’s CEO, Ari Goldfarb. WaterRising CEO and Founder, Alicia Douglas, took the opportunity to reaffirm WaterWoman Project’s role in the context of CGI’s theme for 2022, “take action together.”

“There is an unprecedented water workforce crisis. To ‘take action together,’ we must solve the gender barrier in water management.”

Alicia Douglas, Founder of WaterRising Institute

“From developing countries across Africa, to right here in U.S. cities like Flint, Newark and Jackson, it is urgent that water managers continue ratcheting up efforts to be gender-inclusive. With record-level retirement, new infrastructure and a digital transition underway, we need to attract and retain a skilled, diverse and sustainable workforce directly from the communities our sector serves. Those closest to the source, women and non-binary, must have equal access to water jobs and decision-making at every level of employment,” Ms. Douglas stated.

WaterWoman Project is the first women-led, diplomacy-driven initiative working to increase gender inclusivity to solve the water workforce crisis and accelerate progress toward United Nations SDGs 5, 6 and 14 by 2030. WaterRising Institute is a Detroit-based 501(C)3 nonprofit organization born out of the Flint water crisis. To learn more, visit WaterRising.org.