Session Description
Women are shaping the future of impact assessment as practitioners, regulators, researchers, community engagement and safeguards specialists, project managers, mentors and leaders. Yet their professional journeys continue to reflect both opportunity and challenge.
Guided by the IAIA27 theme, “Ka mua, ka muri: Looking back for the future of impact assessment,” this interactive World Café will create a respectful, reflective and solutions-oriented space for women to share stories from across the impact assessment lifecycle—from policy and project development, screening, scoping, studies and decision-making to implementation, monitoring, compliance, closure and post-implementation learning.
Through the lenses of progress, barriers and uncomfortable truths, participants will consider where women have expanded their influence, what continues to limit their participation and leadership, and what the profession may be reluctant to confront. Stories may address technical credibility, access to fieldwork and leadership, community relationships, institutional culture, career progression, care responsibilities, safety, harassment, tokenism, exclusion, unequal recognition and mentorship.
Participants will rotate through guided discussion tables to identify lessons that should be preserved, barriers that must be removed and practical actions for individuals, institutions, professional associations, regulators, employers and development partners. The session will conclude by prioritising actions to strengthen gender equity, safety, leadership and meaningful inclusion in impact assessment.
Session Summary
An interactive World Café centring women’s stories across impact assessment development, implementation and post-implementation. Participants will look back on progress, barriers and uncomfortable truths, then identify practical actions to build a safer, more equitable and inclusive profession.
Additional Information
Four hosted tables—Progress, Barriers, Uncomfortable Truths and Moving Forward—will use guided storytelling in approximately 15-minute rotating rounds. Participants may contribute anonymously through written reflections, and hosts will record themes without attributing personal stories. The session will produce a “Looking Back, Moving Forward” action agenda with priority actions for individuals, institutions, IAIA and its affiliates, employers, regulators and development partners.
Session Chair
Mwelwa Nsaka Sata-Haruperi
Zambezi River Authority
Zambia