As many of you know, I have been heavily involved in the advocacy activities and projects from BPW and other women’s organizations in the field of sustainable development, environment, energy, water and sanitation since 2002.

Between 2002 and 2008, being the "waterlady"– an honour – and more specifically Chair of the Taskforce Women for Water of BPW international, co-founder and Steering Committee member of the Women for Water Partnership, delegate of BPW International to the World water Council and member of the Steering Committee of the EU Water Initiative on behalf of the European and African NGOs, but also delegate on behalf of BPW International, the Netherlands Women’s Council ánd member of my countries government delegation to the Commission of Sustainable Development of the UN and Chair of the Commission on sustainable development of the Netherlands women’s council, gave me a world of experience in these fields and the importance thereof for women.

I lobbied for and worked on active roles of women and incorporation of gender concerns in the fields of energy, climate change, water and sanitation.

The results of some of the work I have been doing together with a substantial number of other very capable women, can be found on e.g: www.womenforwater.org,www.bpwnl/nl/water and www.csd-women.blogspot.com.

Climate change is on the forefront of everybody’s minds these days; I feel it is all important to link adaptation to climate change e.g. in water management, sensible introduction of sustainable, renewable energy and energy saving, food security in the broadest sense and the importance for and involvement of (business) women and gender sensitivity policies.
These issues are equally important (being it in different ways) for the women in the developing and developed countries.

The standing committee of BPW can and should play an important role in this, creating awareness, exchange knowledge and experience and lobby and work together with other Standing Committees (e.g. UN advocacy and Agriculture) and Taskforces (water off course!) and our sister organizations for women’s solutions. We can not cover all ground, but together we can do more – there is influence in numbers.

Technology is an important factor in providing basic services (energy, water, health care, food and education) to women (and their families) all over the world (including reaching the MDGs). However, without capacity development in the broadest sense, vocational training of women and change of behaviour, this technology will not do the "trick" and will stay unsustainable. BPW women have a lot to offer in all these fields to others. As was the women’s caucus slogan during CSD 15: "If you energize a women, you energize a community."

My aim as Chair of the SC would be to involve as many women as possible in making our voices heard and get women at all levels involved (including as engineers, policy makers and managers) in finding solutions for the challenges in the field of sustainable development we are facing.