Project Title: No Development Without Water: Gender, Water, and Climate Change in the Vilcanota–Urubamba Basin (Cusco Region, Peru)
Client: Organization of American States
Student Names: Lindsey Eiwanger, Amita Dias, Esther Nnorom, Julian Rogers
Faculty Lead: Cecilia Campero
Fieldwork Location: Vilcanota- Urubamba Basin-Cusco Region (Peru)
Year: 2025-26
About the Project: Peru has made substantial progress in recent years to promote inclusive, rights-based governance, such as developing the first gender and climate action plan in South America. However, opportunities remain to expand the political representation of women+ and other marginalized groups in water resource management and decision-making processes. Through fieldwork in the Cusco region, this study presents empirically grounded insights into how gender, intercultural, and intergenerational approaches can be meaningfully integrated into water governance. Focusing on the Vilcanota-Urubamba Basin, the qualitative analysis examines how climate change, gender, power relations, and sociocultural dynamics intersect to shape the lived experiences of alpaca-herding communities as they adapt to climate change-induced glacial melt. Through a case study of Phinaya, a small alpaca-herding town located nearly 5,000 metres above sea level, the research offers a grounded perspective on these dynamics. Collaborating with the Organization of American States (OAS), through the Department of Sustainable Development (DSD) of the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI), under the Americas Water Program, the project findings inform the advancement of gender-mainstreamed national water resource management and governance policy.
Watch the team’s presentation: