The quest for development has led to a consensus that participation by both men and women - not as objects of development but as equal partners - is essential for sustained interventions. This has encouraged the promotion and use of gender-sensitive approaches in water and sanitation programmes and, more recently, in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Forums such as the International Drinking Water Supplies and Sanitation Decade Review (1990), the Dublin Conference (1992), the World Summit on Sustainable Development (1992), the Beijing Conference (1995) and the World Water Conference (2000) have endorsed these concepts. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has developed a new strategy, drawing on such global thinking on issues of IWRM. The strategy is linked to four UNDP focus areas: poverty alleviation, livelihoods, environmental protection and gender equality. As part of its ongoing efforts to support both IWRM and gender mainstreaming strategies, as well as contribute to more effective integrated water resources management initiatives, UNDP's Environmentally Sustainable Development Group (ESDG) has prepared this 'Resource Guide for Mainstreaming Gender in Integrated Water Resources Management'. Launched under the ESDG-wide Global Programme (as part of the Bureau for Development Policy's (BDP) efforts to develop programmes and policy tools to be used primarily by country offices to enhance UNDP programming), this initiative of the water programme is closely integrated into an overarching strategy on gender and environment within UNDP