SaciWATERs in partnership with Nepal Engineering College (NEC) organised a workshop on ‘Leadership and research methods for interdisciplinary water research’ from 24 August to 5 September 2018 in Nepal.
The workshop was conceptualized under the ‘South Asian Water (SAWA) Leadership Program on Climate Change’. It is a leadership program that awards fellowships to women pursuing Masters in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in South Asia. The participants of the workshop were the fellowship awardees from four south Asian countries and the program coordinators. The training was co-funded by IDRC and Cap-Net.
The aim of this workshop was to impart training to the SAWA students in the areas of leadership building, climate change, gender, theoretical and methodological frameworks for interdisciplinary water research. In order to achieve this, there were three phases of the workshop.
The first was lectures and practical exercises on interdisciplinary, climate change, gender, and methodological approaches, all of which were delivered by experts from the relevant fields.
The second was field exercise where, the participants applied classroom learning in the field, with a three day field trip to Bhotechaur village, in Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal. The students were divided into three groups and they worked on three themes: Gender roles in accessing and managing common property resources; Role of women in agriculture as a result of male-selective outmigration; and Climate change perceptions. Through the field trip the students received hands-on training of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Thirdly, the students were trained in both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. This was followed by presentations on the last day of the workshop where the three teams made a presentation of their work and were evaluated by external evaluators on the basis of their conceptual understanding and application of interdisciplinary research methods, and gender lens. ')}
