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SuSanA Secretariat International Women’s Day 2026: Stronger Together! Women Shaping the Future of Water and Sanitation

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women who keep water and sanitation moving forward - designing, negotiating, governing, financing, managing and delivering services that people rely on every day. Despite barriers, women in water and sanitation jobs thrive to make a difference for water at all levels, from global to local. Over the past year, the Stronger Together! Coalition has turned momentum into action: building community, opening doors, and making sure water and sanitation decision-makers hear women’s voices. There is a lot to celebrate and we want to showcase a few 2025 highlights in bringing women’s perspectives onto global stages and holding conversations to elevate them and raise their voices.

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SuSanA Secretariat SuSanA Secretariat

SuSanA, Germany

The SuSanA secretariat is hosted by the Sector Programme “Water Policy – Innovations for Resilience” of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which is commissioned by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. GIZ currently contributes 2.5 full-time positions to the SuSanA Secretariat. The following people work for the SuSanA secretariat: Arne Panesar, Alexandra Dubois, Maren Heuvels, Daphne Manolakos, Teresa Häberlein, and Bettina-Sophie Heinz.

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Throughout the year 2025, the Stronger Together! Coalition actively contributed to the UN 2026 Water Conference process to ensure women’s voices influence and a diverse workforce is recognized as the foundation for progress (UN DESA Summary Report).  Our work included:

    • Contributing to the themes for the six Interactive Dialogues
    • Positioning our key messages about the need for a diverse workforce
    • Contributing to shape the conference’s participatory process
    • Inputting into consultations by the UN system

  • We were active at Stockholm World Water Week 2025: 
    • Over 200 women attended our networking mingle 
    • We co-convened a learning event with indigenous women and our members
    • At the closing ceremony, we highlighted the message that inclusion is not charity, but an investment in the future, presented by Sara Dia from the Stronger Together! Coalition

  • We met with the UN Special Envoy on Water in Geneva to raise the need to ensure women are meaningfully participating and conveyed the message that the Stronger Together! Coalition stands ready to contribute with our expertise and strong member base of amazing water and sanitation women.

  • At the Global Water Operators' Partnerships Congress in Bonn in October, we hosted both a peer learning breakfast and an evening mingle with the South African Minister of Human Settlement. 

  • Critically, we did not just focus externally; we worked in 2025 to build the sustainability and reach of our Coalition. We formalized how we work together by launching our Governance Structure and Code of Conduct, so that our collective action is transparent, inclusive, and effective. 

  •  The strength of our regional voices grew with the addition of the Arab Women in Water and Sanitation Network, bringing our women’s network total to four regional and four global networks.

  • We are grateful for the ongoing support by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and are excited to have the support of the Hilton Foundation to strengthen water women’s networks, offer mentoring and peer-learning, and jointly advocate for women in the workforce in international fora since mid-2025.
    All of this is critical progress and we’re starting with high ambition into 2026. We will share on World Water Day our plans for 2026, but today, on International Women’s Day, we ask YOU to help us make a difference. 

As the 2026 UN Water Conference approaches, we’re calling on co-hosts, co-chairs, member states and partners to make participation real: give stakeholders time to organize, provide resources to coordinate, and ensure women’s expertise is part of the main program. We’re asking for ambition on the workforce agenda - because without a diverse, skilled workforce, financing and services won’t reach the people who need them.

International Women’s Day is a celebration, but also a call to be ambitious, visible, and vocal. 

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