From September to November 2020, SaciWATERs, with the support of Cap-Net, hosted a series of training sessions on two interdisciplinary topics in climate and water research: research methods and gender and water.
The series of lectures is part of the work coordinated by SaciWATERs: the SAWA (South Asia Water) Leadership Program of Climate Change. The programme is organised jointly with four universities across South Asia – Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Dhaka), Anna University (Chennai), Nepal Engineering College, and University of Peradeniya.
The series of lectures targeted Integrated Water Resources Management students and professors with the intent of providing multidisciplinary insights to the technical faculties and doctoral students (SAWA Fellows) of the four universities to ensure higher interdisciplinarity in IWRM research. The lectures included modules on approaches and frameworks on how to think and do research about water from an interdisciplinary perspective, paradigms in social science research, diverse qualitative research methods, data collection and analysis, and tools for community participation. The lectures on gender and water covered concepts, arguments and frameworks to gender research, including methods for the integration of the gender angle in water research.
The interactivity of the lectures encouraged engagement between lecturers and students and facilitated training in practice, along with easy access to content, including language, understandable illustrations for complex social theories. Building leadership skills in water and climate is a vital objective of this project, and an interdisciplinary perspective that includes not only understanding of water resources and climate change but also social inclusion is crucial to building this socially sensitive voice of the students.
