Comparative Study of Australia and South Asian Southeast Asian Countries' Commitment to SDGs Goal 5: Gender Equality and Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation 

 

Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  However, the degrees of policy complementarity and/or inherent barriers to implementation between achieving joint goals is not fully understood.  This situation is true for two of these SDG's, in particular Goal 5: Gender Equality and Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Specifically at CSIRO we seek to understand how improvements to decision making in water resource management can improve gender outcomes at national scales.  This is particularly in a developing countries context where women make significant contributions to both formal and informal economies, rely on accessing clean water for their daily activities, as well as need for decision-making and leadership role at the water management level.

The proposed research will explore Australia's commitments to these two SDG's from within its legal architecture and frameworks (agreements and conventions) and then contrast this with corresponding frameworks in developing countries in our region (with emphasis on South Asia and Southeast Asia). The student will examine how our Australian frameworks fare in terms of commitments and implementation pathways, compared to approaches in counterpart nations in developing economies. Focus will also include whether countries have, at the national level, follow-ups and reviews which serve as monitoring of the country's progress. In addition, the research will examine if the countries are linking SDGs 5 and 6 with existing international agreements and conventions around gender and water (e.g. Dublin Principle, CEDAW).

Project Duties/Tasks

• Review of Australia and up to three other countries' SDGs commitments
• Mapping and analysis which will help to inform CSIRO's future gender and water research.

Relevant Fields of Study

• Law;
• International Studies;
• International Development;
• Gender Studies;
• Political Science.

Location:  Black Mountain (Canberra), ACT

Contact:  For more details please contact Joyce Wu by phone on (02) 6246 5617 or email.

Additional information can be found here.