WSF Steering Group meeting, 12 June 2024

The Women for a Sustainable Future (WSF) Steering Group convened online on 12 June. The WSF Steering Group represents the diverse membership of the network and guides the group’s strategic direction and activities. The meeting was attended by parliamentarians, senior diplomats, and a senior health official from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the UK.

The meeting’s objective was to assess outcomes of recent WSF online meetings on the challenges faced by women in Gaza and the impacts of droughts in southern Iraq on women’s livelihoods, and for the Steering Group to decide how to take these dialogues forward.

Themes of discussion included: the urgent need to tackle water scarcity in the Gulf-MENA region, engaging with relevant experts and government officials on this issue to ensure that a gender lens is applied to water management strategies; opportunities to engage further European parliamentarians in discussions on the impacts of the war in Gaza on women; and the need to tackle increasing racial discrimination towards women. Moving forward, the network will work to broaden the participation of relevant experts in the WSF’s activities.