In the period 10 – 25 April 2010 five women from Botswana, Colombia, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago and Zambia are invited by the Women’s Water Fund to a study visit in Denmark - 1 weeks Advanced Water Course at DHI and 1 weeks Management Internship at DHI, Grundfos, Cowi and Aarhus Water Ltd. The five women have been selected out of a hundred applicants.
The objective of the Women’s Water Fund is to support women from developing countries in advancing their career opportunities in the development and management of water resources. The Women’s Water Fund has been created at the initiative of DHI and has initially been funded by the “King Hassan II Great World Water Prize” presented to Professor Torkil Jønch Clausen of DHI at the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico in 2006. Target groups are women in (or on their way into) middle management positions in the water sector.
The Fund was established in 2006 and is managed by a Board of four members with Danish and international expertise in water, development and women in management. Until 2009 seven women (from Armenia, Cameroon, India, Iran and Morocco) at mid level managerial positions have so far benefited from the Fund’s water training and coaching programme in Denmark.
The programme has helped these trainees who have all expressed satisfaction with it, some of them even to the extent of attributing promotions or PhD scholarships to their experience in Denmark. The programme has at the same time proven successful in identifying some of the criteria for good career development. Based on the success so far, it has been decided to further strengthen the coaching and mentoring part of the programme and to offer tailor-made internships in water businesses and authorities in Denmark.
The Fund’s internship programme will draw upon Danish water expertise in a Danish and international context. Danish expertise covers a wide spectrum from research, academia, consulting companies to public and private businesses. There is a strong tradition in Denmark for linking knowledge generation to practical solutions to water problems. Denmark has demonstrated a global comparative advantage in this field.
The Fund offers the following three-component capacity building and mentoring programme:
- Introduction to Danish water knowledge and the Danish water sector - one week in Denmark
- Management internship - one week in Denmark
- Mentoring relationship - one year virtual communication
The Fund operates through Calls for Applications on the internet, and through Danish water networks around the world, from which a small number of candidates are selected for each training period.