The Australian Water Partnership is proud to partner with the Australian Water Association in the new program Channeling Change – Driving Diversity Inclusion and Equality in the Water Sector. The program was officially launched at Ozwater’17 in Sydney by Association President-Elect Francois Gouws, and members of the water industry shared their stories of struggle, but also success.
With the goal of the program being to “lead by example and show how encouraging the right behaviours can galvanise support for a more diverse and inclusive sector” the program has three measures of success:
- Diversity of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age and disability, to name a few;
- Inclusion, which is the promotion of behaviours that welcome and embrace diversity; and
- Empowerment, especially in terms of empowering women in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific.
At the launch, AWA CEO, Jonathan McKeown said, “We want to spread the message across our national and international networks to share success stories of diversity in the water sector”.
The AWP will work in partnership with the AWA to link and grow its networks through the Kini program to deliver the program outcomes. Interim AWP CEO, Kaye Schofield, said “one key benefit of an initiative like Channeling Change is that it creates a body of evidence for these practices”.
The launch was a huge success and members of the water industry stressed the importance of such initiatives to model inclusiveness and diversity among the water sector.
For more information on the program and launch, please visit the AWA website.
The Australian Water Partnership hosted three tables at the OzWater’17 Gala Dinner. Thirty individuals from over twenty partner organisations attended the dinner, including recently appointed AWP CEO, Nick Schofield.
Partner feedback emphasised the importance of such events to engage with one another, “I found it a terrific opportunity to meet other partners and discuss shared work interests, and so I appreciate AWP taking the initiative.” The dinner provided an opportunity to showcase the value of partnering, “building these relationships at home results in greater and more successful collaboration between partners on projects abroad.”
