The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), through the Professional Women for Water and Sanitation (PW4WATSAN) Uganda network, continues to shape the conversation around gender inclusion in the WASH sector, this time on a continental stage.
At the recent Women’s Leadership Workshop in WASH, hosted by the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda was represented by Ms Annette Kukunda, Chairperson of PW4WATSAN and Senior Manager of the Kampala Central Business District Zone-NWSC. The gathering brought together women professionals from 13 African countries to discuss how institutions can shift from positive intentions to tangible progress in promoting women’s leadership across the sector.
While the infrastructure of water and sanitation continues to grow, gender representation within that framework still lags, which imbalance the workshop tackled head-on, and offered participants practical tools to build influence, navigate policy spaces, and lead with purpose in environments that have not always made room for them.
Ms. Kukunda’s participation reflected an internal culture at the NWSC that recognises and actively supports the advancement of women professionals. This it has done through platforms like PW4WATSAN, where talent is nurtured, women’s voices are amplified, and where the conversation around leadership happens not just at the top but everywhere decisions are made.
AfWASA Executive Director Olivier Gosso challenged sector players to stop treating gender equity as a checkbox and instead embed it into the DNA of institutional operations. “We need frameworks, accountability, and a shift in mindset,” he said during one of the keynote addresses. “Women belong at the table, and not as guests, but as architects.”
The week-long sessions blended strategic learning with deeply personal exchanges as participants unpacked the realities of leading in male-dominated spaces, shared lessons from their journeys, and committed to fostering more inclusive work cultures back home. Strong emphasis was also placed on the power of mentorship and structured networks like PW4WATSAN, which continue to provide a platform for growth, collaboration, and sisterhood in the sector.
This experience adds another layer to NWSC’s long-term effort to build a gender-responsive workforce, one where leadership is not defined by gender, but by one’s ability, voice, and action. And as more women rise, so does the standard for what true inclusion should look like in the water and sanitation space across Africa.
