Virtual Workshop:
Knowledge as the Basis of Change
July 3, 2020
This workshop was the first in a three-part series for the virtual Asia Women and Rivers Congress. Presenters gave an introduction and overview to the concepts of women's leadership in river governance, as laid out in the released report, State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region. The State of Knowledge study was recommended by Congress participants in 2019. It recognizes and values women’s knowledge of their rivers and resources, and explores how to bridge the divide between academic, economic and science-based knowledge and that of local riverine communities. We heard directly from the authors of the report about their research and findings, followed by reflections from a panel of women leaders in river governance issues. Time was allowed for plenary discussion, and prompts and exercises for the subsequent webinar sessions were introduced.
Workshop participants are invited to fill out the evaluation survey.
During the workshop, participants were asked to use a few words to describe a river that they know. The answers formed the word cloud below.
July 3, 2020 | 3:00 - 4:30pm Bangkok Time (GMT+7)
Presenters
Dr. Pichamon Yeophantong is an Australian Research Council Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales (Canberra). Her expertise is in China, transboundary rivers and water governance in the Mekong region. Dr. Yeophantong is one of the co-authors of the "State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region" report.
Karen Delfau is an independent consultant working in Europe and across the Asia Pacific to support water governance, gender equality and social inclusion, and climate resilience through research, knowledge management, and facilitation. Karen Delfau is one of the co-authors of the "State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region" report.
Mueda Nawanat was born as a stateless person in a border province of Thailand and as an ethnic minority Karen, she struggled for nine years to demand Thai citizenship. She studied law at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand and worked as a volunteer human rights lawyer at the Thai Volunteer Service Foundation. Later she was a Legal Status Consultant in the Development Center for Children and Community Network working to protect the human rights of stateless children. Mueda attended EarthRights International’s (ERI) Mekong School for local activists, and the Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute Class in 2012. She later founded the Mekong Youth Assembly to advocate and promote the rights of the child and participation of children and youth in claiming their environmental rights in the Mekong region. Mueda strongly believes in the power of law and the power of people to protect human rights and environmental issues. Mueda works as a Bertha Legal Fellow at ERI’s Thailand office. She speaks Thai, Skaw Karen, and English.
Dr. Bernadette P. Resurrección is a Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Asia. Dr. Resurrección’s research expertise includes gender, livelihoods, socio-political dimensions of climate change and disasters, migration and displacement, and natural resource management in developing Southeast Asia. At SEI, she was involved in research initiatives that sought to include complex gender, political and social realities in sustainable development policy agendas. Babette was formerly an Associate Professor of Gender and Development Studies at the School of Environment, Resources and Development of the Asian Institute of Technology, a regional post-graduate institution in Thailand. She received her masters and doctoral degrees in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Pham Thi Dieu My serves as the Director Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) in Hue, Vietnam. My obtained her Masters in Natural Hazards and Disasters at Australia National University (ANU) and this has shaped her holistic approach to social research that has proved essential in the work of CSRD where a range of research approaches is needed to identify interventions. My has a strong background in research methodology, survey design, data collection and analysis in the field of environmental management and using different tools for comprehensive gender analysis. She is committed to working for environmental and social change, empowerment and community development. For the past 18 years she has been working with communities on natural resource management and is passionate about communities knowing their rights.