Mainstreaming GESI for transboundary water resource management

Vimbai Chasi is a Program Manager passionate about delivering change to communities in southern Africa. Working in international development for over 10 years, Vimbai is the Program Coordinator and Gender Advisor of the USAID Resilient Waters Program, which aims to build resilient, water secure communities across Southern Africa through improved livelihoods, management of natural resources, increased access to safe drinking water, and improved sanitation services. Vimbai’s work in GESI has supported the integration of female and youth empowerment in projects, the training of technical/operations staff, development of Monitoring and Evaluation and Learning protocols, the design of assessments and Action Plans, and the implementation of mainstreaming/transformation activities.

Nadia Sitas is a sustainability scientist working within the science-policy interface on issues related to social-ecological resilience, with a focus on equity and gender. Her research interests span both the social and ecological spheres and much of her experience comes from engaging in research and practice in the global south. Nadia has experience in leading and working in large transdisciplinary teams and is committed to research that can have transformative impact. For over a decade, Nadia has been involved in applied research where she has focused on understanding knowledge exchange processes linked to mainstreaming the environment into various decision-making contexts.

Litumelo Mate-Sievers is a gender specialist for the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa, where she supports the implementation of the African Water Investment Programme (AIP) - Water Climate Development and Gender Transformation (WACDEP-G) at the regional and continental levels within the Africa Coordination Unit. Her key role includes supporting and promoting gender integration using the gender transformative approach in water security and climate change policies, strategies, and implementation plans in key mandated government ministries and other development actors in the WACDEP-G pilot countries in Africa.

Caroline Solik has nine years’ experience in the planning, design, and delivery of regional water and climate programs in southern and eastern Africa. With a core interest in gender equality and sustainable livelihoods, Caroline conducts research, develops writing strategies and funding proposals, and engages stakeholders from local through to regional scales. Caroline’s technical engineering skills are coupled with a strong understanding of gender equality, social inclusion and climate issues associated with infrastructure interventions, and she has led the research and development of bespoke climate change risk and vulnerability assessments, livelihood hotspot mapping analyses, and gender guidelines for the FCDO-funded Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF) since 2014.

Lindsay Harris is a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) specialist with a background in human rights, who has worked predominantly within the development sector. Lindsay has considerable experience in designing and implementing MEL frameworks, training implementing partners, facilitating strategic planning sessions, building reporting structures to meet donor/investor compliance, and collecting, analyzing, and presenting qualitative and quantitative data in compelling ways to support evidence-based decision-making. Lindsay is currently part of the MEL team on the USAID Resilient Waters Program implemented by Chemonics International.

Jamie Robertson is a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) specialist with USAID Resilient Waters, with an interest in applying behavioral science to development challenges. She has expertise in large-scale program design and evaluation, qualitative data collection, and analysis, in the fields of climate change, WASH, enterprise development, infrastructure, and public sector interventions. She also lectures in Monitoring and Evaluation Data Generation, Management, and Analysis.

Batanayi Gwangwawa is an experienced program manager, expert GESI strategist, qualitative researcher, evaluator, and published author who is passionate about inclusive development. Batanayi has 13 years’ experience in long-term program implementation, and monitoring and evaluation across Southern and Central Africa in various fields such as: infrastructure development; water and sanitation; food and water security; biodiversity; surface and groundwater management; natural resources management; microfinance; women, youth, and persons with disabilities empowerment; governance; and leadership.

Joy Waddell is the learning and design coordinator for this online training course. She is as Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University. Joy has a background in human geography and disaster risk science, with a research interest in exploring how to strengthen collaborative governance processes in the global South as a way to strengthen resilience and reduce risk. Joy has experience coordinating multi-country research projects, designing and facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops, and designing online, in-person, and hybrid learning experiences for diverse audiences.