Awareness and Communication Strategy 2.2.5 The Recognition of the Role of Women in Water Communicate that women are key custodians of water and their needs must be considered through their effective participation in decision-making and implementation. To who: Government technocrats, politicians and decision makers, Government communicators at national level, and the media. How: Face-to-face briefings, demonstrations (learning journeys, publications, mass media and public events. Women are most affected by water availability and their specific needs must be incorporated in water management policies and programmes. They must be empowered to participate at all levels in water resources management, including decision-making and implementation of such decisions. Efforts should be targeted at exploring different mechanisms for empowering and increasing women’s access to decision-making and widening the spectrum of activities and opportunities through which women can participate. In doing so, consideration should be given to challenging cultural, political and economical influences that hinder women’s involvement at all levels of water resources management. This may require scrutinizing the way different societies assign particularly social, economic and cultural roles to men and women.3 2.2.6 Economic and Social Value of Water Communicate that water has an economic and social value: Water users have the right to access water and also the responsibility to invest in water resources or pay for the services taking cognisance of their ability to pay. To who: Politicians and decision makers, Government communicators at national level, media and SADC citizens. How: Face-to-face briefing, dialogues such as the SADC Multi-stakeholder Dialogue, learning journeys, publications, mass media, presentations in non-water sectors and public events Like any other economic resource, water requires investments and entrepreneurship in its assessment, planning, development, allocation, utilization and conservation in order to sustain benefits accrued from its use. In its utilization, it must be recognized that users have the right to enjoy and - at the same time - the obligation to invest in or pay for the services. Many failures in water resources management are attributed to the fact that the full value of water could not been recognized thereby leading to wasteful and environmentally damaging usage of the resource. This should be avoided with exploration of appropriate uses, good planning and investment strategies.4 The value of water in alternative uses, therefore, should be recognized in the rational allocation of water as a scarce resource, whether by regulatory or economic means. Since 3 4 Cap-net IWRM Tutorial Cap-net IWRM Tutorial Page 14