DIALOGUE BRIEF | WRITTEN BY EUPHRESIA LUSEKA
Africa’s water challenge is no longer simply an infrastructure gap. It is a leadership and institutional challenge: who makes decisions, who controls capital, who governs water systems and who has influence over the agreements that determine how Africa’s water resources are managed. In recognition of Africa Women’s Day 2026, this Strategic Leadership Dialogue brought together African women leaders and experts to address a central question: what will it take to position African women as decision-makers shaping the continent’s water future, rather than primarily as beneficiaries of water systems? Convened by African Women in Trade, the Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO) a specialised agency of the African Union (AU), the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN), the African Water and Sanitation Association (AFWASA) and other partners, the dialogue was led by Euphresia Luseka, with contributions from Dr Pedi Obani, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Bradford; Bethlehem Mengistu, Executive Director of Agenda for Change; and Ndeye Kebe, President of WIIS Senegal. The discussion focused on four levers that will determine Africa’s water future: leadership, governance, capital and partnerships. The strategic opportunity is to ensure that African women have meaningful influence across each of these levers, from policy and utility governance to investment decisions and transboundary diplomacy. This is critical to delivering the Africa Water Vision 2063. The ambition must be not simply to improve women’s access to water, but to increase women’s influence over the decisions, institutions and capital that determine Africa’s water future.
The Opening Perspective
Euphresia (Moderator):
Welcome to our Leadership Dialogue: African Women Shaping Africa’s Water Future: Leadership, Governance, Financing, and Partnerships for the Africa Water Vision 2063.
Earlier this year, African Heads of State adopted the Africa Water Vision 2063, recognising that gender equity is a prerequisite for water security. Yet according to UN Water, Sub-Saharan Africa faces an estimated $30 billion annual water investment gap, while women and girls spend 250 million hours every day collecting water.
So, today’s conversation is about a fundamental shift: How do we move African women from being disproportionately affected by water insecurity to becoming the leaders shaping Africa’s water economy?
Foundational Context
Euphresia (Moderator):
I want to anchor us in the powerful framing shared by Ndeye Kebe, President of WIIS Senegal.
She reminded us of Ole, 12-year-old girl who dreamt to be a doctor but never returned home after setting out to fetch water. Ole did not die because of war or disease but water access. Behind every statistic on water insecurity is a life constrained.
Imagine what Africa could achieve if those 250 million hours were redirected toward education, entrepreneurship, research, innovation and infrastructure? Water scarcity threatens livelihoods, intensifies resources competition, conflict vulnerability in communities, displacement, and gender-based violence.
However, transboundary cooperation demonstrates that shared water resources can become platforms for collaboration rather than confrontation.
Therefore, there will be no Agenda 2063 without water security, and there will be no water security without women.
She challenged us to position African women as negotiators, investors, and decision-makers. When women participate in mediation and natural resource governance, peace agreements become more durable and communities more resilient. The ambition she set before us is; ensuring that by 2030, women hold at least 30% of decision-making roles in water governance and transboundary negotiations.
From Representation to Institutional Power
Euphresia (Moderator):
Ndeye’s challenge brings us directly to the first question: if women are to hold greater influence in water governance, what needs to change inside the institutions where decisions are made?
Bethlehem, across Africa, many policies already recognise gender inclusion. However, women remain significantly underrepresented in executive positions. What is the single most important leadership decision African governments and institutions must make today to move women move women from representation to real decision-making power in Africa’s water sector?
Bethlehem:
Across our continent, women already manage water daily in households, agriculture, healthcare systems and communities. They understand the realities of water insecurity deeply. Yet they remain underrepresented in the rooms where policies are designed, budgets are allocated and investments are prioritised.
We cannot build Africa’s water future while excluding the people who understand the challenge most directly. But this is not simply about inviting more women into existing structures. Leadership is not about participation alone but about sharing power.
Women should be intentionally placed in positions where they can influence policy decisions, investment priorities and institutional reform. Representation alone is not enough. We need women to have authority, resources and accountability. The strongest reforms I have seen happen when leadership is collaborative and locally driven. When different perspectives shape decisions, institutions become stronger, more responsive and more resilient.
The Africa Water Vision 2063 will not be achieved through infrastructure alone. It will be achieved through leadership that reflects the diversity, talent and ambition of Africa’s people. The question is no longer whether women are ready to lead; it is whether our institutions are ready to give women the authority to lead.
Euphresia (Moderator):
Thank you, Bethlehem. That distinction is key. This is not simply about increasing the number of women in leadership positions.
Representation without authority and decision-making power does not transform institutions.
Dr. Pedi, let me bring you into the conversation. You have written and lectured extensively on law, climate justice, and governance. What needs to change in how we frame women’s participation in water governance?
Dr. Pedi:
I think one of the most important shifts we need is how we frame vulnerability. Most conversations around water begin with the image of women walking long distances, carrying water, and providing care. Those realities are important, but when they become the dominant narrative, they limit how we see women’s potential. African women are often framed through what we lack rather than what we bring.
We need to move from a vulnerability-based approach to an agency-based approach. Women are not inherently vulnerable. Vulnerability is created by the systems within which people operate, systems that restrict access to resources, decision-making spaces, finance, and legal protections.
“If you think about a fish taken out of water, that fish becomes vulnerable because the environment does not support it. The issue is not the fish itself; it is the system around it.”
The same applies to how we understand women’s leadership. African women are not one single category. Women differ by age, education, income level, geography, and experience. So, policy responses cannot simply be about ’empowering vulnerable women’. We must ask: how do we remove the structural barriers preventing women from exercising their agency?
Moving forward, water governance must recognise women not only as beneficiaries of services, but as experts, professionals, entrepreneurs, regulators, and leaders.
Euphresia (Moderator):
Thank you, Dr. Pedi. Both of you have brought us to a central point: the challenge is not a lack of women’s capacity but whether institutions are designed to recognise, enable and use that capacity.
Moving women from carrying water to governing water requires a shift in mindset, but also a shift in systems. It requires changing who has decision-making authority, who controls resources, and whose expertise shapes outcomes.
Accessing Capital to Shaping Capital
Euphresia (Moderator):
Let’s move to the second challenge: finance and investment.
Africa faces an estimated US$30 billion annual gap in water infrastructure financing. Yet women are often directed towards small-scale microfinance, while the larger financing architecture, including public finance, sovereign financing, climate bonds and infrastructure investment, remains largely disconnected from women-led solutions.
So the question is not simply, where is the money? It is how is the financing system designed, and who has the power to shape it?
Dr. Pedi, let me start with you. What structural and legal barriers prevent capital from reaching women-led water enterprises and creditworthy utilities, and what needs to change?
Dr. Pedi:
This question connects directly to our earlier discussion on leadership and agency. Many financing systems were not designed around the realities of African women. We often ask why women are not accessing finance, but we rarely ask whether the systems themselves are accessible.
For example, financial institutions may introduce products labelled as ‘Women-focused’, but these are often existing products with a new label. We need to examine the underlying barriers: collateral requirements, documentation, ownership structures and access to assets.
In many African contexts, women do not own land or property because of legal or cultural barriers. Yet financial institutions require those same assets as collateral. If women do not control assets, they cannot use them to unlock capital.
The solution is therefore not simply to create more loans or grants. It is to redesign financial systems around the realities of women’s economic participation and ownership.
Euphresia (Moderator):
This extends beyond commercial finance to public budgets and procurement. If governments are serious about transforming water systems, they need to examine who receives contracts, who participates in supply chains and who benefits from public investment.
Legal barriers also affect access to basic services. In many water utilities, for example, obtaining a domestic water connection requires a title deed, which many women do not hold. These are not simply financial constraints. They are institutional and legal barriers that determine who can access services, participate in markets and build assets.
Thank you, Dr Pedi. The point is: the barrier is not always a shortage of finance. It can be the design of the system through which finance flows.
Bethlehem, from your experience working on national water systems and institutional reform, what needs to change in how investors assess and invest in women-led solutions?
Bethlehem:
The first shift is in the investment narrative. Women’s leadership should not be viewed only as a social inclusion objective. It should be recognised as a strategic investment in Africa’s development.
Too often, women-led organisations and local institutions are perceived as higher-risk investments. Yet the greater risk may be failing to invest in women who are already leading change across communities and countries.
When women shape governance decisions and investment priorities, institutions can become more responsive, services more resilient and benefits can extend beyond the water sector into wider economic and social outcomes.
The second shift is in the question we ask. Instead of asking, How do we fund women-led projects? we should ask, How do we enable women to shape the institutions and financial systems that determine where investment goes?
Women need more than a seat at the funding table. They need a voice in designing the financial architecture itself.
If women remain recipients of capital decisions made elsewhere, the underlying system has not changed. Delivering the Africa Water Vision 2063 therefore requires moving beyond financing individual projects towards investing in leadership, institutions and governance systems that can deliver lasting transformation.
The goal is not to treat women-led solutions as exceptions or pilots. It is to make them part of the mainstream investment landscape.
Euphresia (Moderator):
Thank you both. Indeed, financing is not only a question of capital availability. It is a question of system design, decision-making and power. If women are absent from shaping financial systems, procurement structures and investment priorities, even well-intentioned financing mechanisms can continue to reproduce existing inequalities. The opportunity is therefore to move beyond financing women as beneficiaries towards enabling women to shape where capital flows and how Africa’s water economy is built.
Overcoming Tokenism & Reallocating Power
Euphresia (Moderator):
The next challenge is power in practice.
Women carry much of the responsibility for managing water across Africa, yet remain underrepresented where policies are designed, budgets allocated, tariffs set and investment decisions made. Responsibility for water does not necessarily translate into influence over the systems that govern it.
Bethlehem, how do institutions move beyond token participation towards genuine decision-making power for women in water governance?
Bethlehem:
This question goes to the heart of whether women have real influence over Africa’s water future.
Across the continent, women are far more likely to be found at a water point than in the boardroom of a utility, ministry or financing institution. Those closest to the challenge are often furthest from the decisions that shape the response.
Women bring deep knowledge of water systems, including community needs, service gaps and the realities of water insecurity. Yet that knowledge is too often disconnected from the spaces where policy, investment and governance decisions are made.
“The answer is not simply increasing participation. We need to move beyond numbers and focus on redistributing power. Representation without authority is not enough. Women need the ability to influence decisions, access resources, and shape institutional priorities. Governance systems must measure not only who is present in the room, but who has the ability to change outcomes.”
The hands that carry water should also have a role in shaping the policies that govern it. This requires governments, utilities, river basin organisations and financing institutions to create deliberate pathways into leadership and decision-making, rather than relying on representation alone.
When leadership becomes more inclusive, institutions can draw on a broader range of expertise, make better-informed decisions and respond more effectively to the communities they serve.
Dr. Pedi:
I agree, and I would add another dimension: we need to change how institutions understand vulnerability.
Too many discussions begin with the challenges women face: the distances they walk, the burden of collecting water and their responsibilities as caregivers. These realities matter, but they can also create a limited view of African women.
The risk is that women are treated primarily as recipients of support rather than as leaders with knowledge, expertise and the capacity to shape outcomes. Vulnerability is not an inherent characteristic of women. It is often produced by the systems around them.
We also need to recognise that African women are not a single category. Their experiences differ by age, geography, education, income, profession and lived experience. There is therefore no single solution that applies to all women.
The leadership challenge is to move beyond assumptions about vulnerability and design institutions that strengthen women’s agency and ability to influence decisions.
That means asking a different question. Not only, How do we support women affected by water challenges? but How do we ensure women shape the policies, institutions and investments that determine water outcomes?
Euphresia (Moderator):
And that’s an important distinction. Inclusion cannot only mean presence. It must translate into influence. Delivering the Africa Water Vision 2063 will require governance systems in which women have meaningful authority over the policies, investments and institutions that shape water outcomes. It is no longer whether women are ready to lead but whether institutions are ready to share power. And sharing power means changing who has a voice in decisions, who controls resources and who is accountable for results.
Reimagining Africa’s Water Future
Euphresia (Moderator):
As we turn to the next generation of African water leaders, we move from addressing today’s institutional barriers to considering what a different model of water governance could look like.
Young women across Africa are entering the sector as climate advocates, engineers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and digital innovators. They have an opportunity not simply to inherit existing systems, but to redesign them around the realities of a changing continent.
If the younger you and your peers then were shaping the Africa Water Vision 2063 today, what would If young African women were given the opportunity to rewrite Africa Water Vision 2063 today, what radical changes would they introduce? Would they wait until 2063, or would they demand transformation now?
Dr. Pedi:
One of the most important shifts would be visibility. Young women need to see African women already transforming the water sector because people are more likely to aspire to leadership when they can see examples of it.
The 100 African Women Leading Africa’s Water and Sanitation Future compendium is a good example. Highlighting women’s achievements in water governance, entrepreneurship, engineering and advocacy is not simply recognition. It helps build a visible leadership pipeline for the next generation.
Young women would also challenge how we define water challenges. They understand that water cannot be separated from climate resilience, sanitation, menstrual health, education, economic opportunity and public health. These connections are not theoretical. They are part of their lived experience.
Their leadership is therefore likely to be more systems-oriented, moving beyond isolated water projects towards integrated solutions that connect water with climate, health and economic development.
Technology will be an important enabler, but not an objective in itself. The priority should be using technology to strengthen governance, improve service delivery and develop solutions that reflect local realities.
Africa must also avoid creating stranded water assets: infrastructure that cannot be maintained because it does not account for local capacity, indigenous knowledge or long-term sustainability. The next generation has an opportunity to combine technology, local knowledge and African context to design systems that are both innovative and sustainable.
Bethlehem:
Africa’s young women leaders represent one of the continent’s greatest opportunities. They are entrepreneurial, digitally connected, collaborative and increasingly willing to challenge traditional models of leadership. Across the continent, young women are already creating businesses, influencing policy and developing solutions.
If young women were shaping the Africa Water Vision 2063 today, they would likely start with a different proposition. Rather than asking, How do we deliver more water projects? they would ask, How do we build water systems that are inclusive, resilient, innovative and future-ready?
This generation sees the connections between water infrastructure, climate adaptation, economic development, health and technology. They are also well positioned to work across traditional sector boundaries and identify opportunities that siloed approaches can miss.
The responsibility of today’s leaders is therefore not to design the future on behalf of young people. It is to create the conditions for them to lead.
That means investing in mentorship, access to networks, opportunities and decision-making roles. Mentorship alone is not enough. Established leaders need to create pathways through which young women can gain experience, authority and visibility.
If every leader committed to opening one meaningful pathway into leadership for a young woman, the collective impact across Africa’s water sector could be significant.
Dr. Pedi:
The final priority is accountability, beginning with data.
Gender-disaggregated data is essential to understanding who experiences water insecurity, who benefits from investment and who participates in decision-making. Without this evidence, inequalities can remain invisible. With it, governments and institutions can design more targeted interventions and track whether they are delivering results.
But data alone is insufficient. The second requirement is implementation and enforcement. Africa has developed policies, strategies and frameworks, but translating commitments into outcomes remains a persistent challenge.
Communities need to understand their rights. Governments need to understand their obligations. Institutions need mechanisms that turn commitments into action and hold decision-makers accountable for results.
The third element is access to justice. Rights have limited value if people cannot afford to enforce them. Expanding access to legal support and effective remedies for water and environmental issues is therefore essential to ensuring that governance systems work for the people they are designed to serve.
Leadership Commitments
Euphresia (Moderator):
Africa Water Vision 2063 requires leadership that converts ambition into results. What is the one commitment leaders should make today to accelerate women’s leadership in Africa’s water future?
Bethlehem:
Invest in the next generation of African women leaders.
Mentorship is important, but opportunity is decisive. Leaders must create pathways for young women to lead, take decisions and shape institutions. That means giving women responsibility, visibility and access to the rooms where decisions are made. If every leader commits to advancing one woman into leadership, the collective effect will be significant. We should not simply prepare women for leadership. We should create the conditions for them to lead.
Euphresia (Moderator):
“Yes, Mentorship remains important, but Africa’s young professionals are increasingly over-mentored and under-sponsored. I would take that one step further. Young professionals need leaders who will advocate for them, create opportunities, and back them when decisions about appointments, promotions, and leadership roles are made. Sponsorship is how we build a stronger pipeline of women leaders across the water sector.”
Dr. Pedi:
My call to action is accountability.
First, we need better gender-disaggregated data to understand who benefits from investments and who is being left behind. Second, we must strengthen implementation of the policies and commitments we already have. Finally, access to justice must become a reality so that people have the means to enforce their rights to water and related services. We cannot deliver accountability without evidence.
Turning Commitments into Sustainable Impact
Africa Water Vision 2063 comes at a defining moment for the continent’s water future. The priority is not simply to close the infrastructure gap. It is to transform the leadership, governance and investment systems that will determine whether water security is delivered.
The scale of the challenge is substantial. Sub-Saharan Africa faces an estimated US$30 billion annual water investment gap, while women and girls spend approximately 250 million hours each day collecting water. These are not only water-sector challenges. They represent lost time, constrained economic participation and foregone opportunities for education, enterprise and innovation.
Africa’s most important asset is its people. Women across the continent already bring deep knowledge of water systems, communities and local solutions. The leadership challenge is to convert that expertise into decision-making authority, institutional influence and access to capital.
Delivering Africa Water Vision 2063 requires a shift from commitment to execution: have merited women in positions of decision-making authority, direct finance towards solutions that deliver measurable impact, strengthen institutional accountability, and build the next generation of African leaders.
The measure of progress will not be the commitments we make, but the decisions we take, the capital we deploy and the results we deliver.
Africa’s water future will be shaped by who has the authority to decide, who has access to capital, and who is held accountable for delivery. The question is no longer whether women belong in Africa’s water leadership. It is whether Africa’s institutions are prepared to give them the authority to lead.
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