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p. 4 of 8 BACK | NEXT Purpose of the checklist Why is gender important in urban development and housing projects? Key questions and action points in the project cycle Gender analysis Project design Policy dialogue Appendix: Terms of reference for gender specialist Selected references

Gender Checklist: Urban Development and Housing

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Gender analysis³

Gender analysis for a project is usually done as part of the overall ISA or SA. One to three person-months of consulting services could be required for gender analysis and preliminary project design during PPTA implementation, depending on the scale and nature of the project. Attention should also be paid to the methodologies to be used. Key actions to be taken and questions to be asked during the analysis are listed below:

Methodologies

Desk review

• Review available information (e.g., statistics, poverty analysis, gender analysis, documents from previous donor-funded UDH projects) on the UDH services in the project area and the socioeconomic profile of the target population.

• Review the relevant legal (e.g., inheritance law, family code, credit regulations), policy (e.g., water, waste disposal, or housing fee subsidy policy), and institutional framework (e.g., current administrative system for concerned urban infrastructure services) and the gender implications.

Household surveys (see “Data to be collected” for more details)

• Draw up gender-disaggregated socioeconomic profiles and identify the target population’s UDH practices, constraints, needs, and willingness to pay.

• Collect quantitative information.

Participatory methodologies (e.g., participatory rapid appraisal, focus group discussions, random interviews, walking tours)

• Collect qualitative information which cannot be collected through surveys.

• Define ways in which men and women beneficiaries and other stakeholders, especially poor women, can participate in the project.

• Map out the target areas. Which are the most disadvantaged areas in terms of access to services and poverty level?

• Identify major stakeholder groups and their stake.

Staffing

• Ensure adequate gender balance in field teams.

• Select field team members who have gender awareness, local knowledge, and cultural understanding and are willing to listen.

Data to be collected

Macro institutional framework

• Gender impact of sector policy and legal and institutional framework

• Executing agency’s capacity and commitment to gender focus

Socioeconomic profile

• Demographics

  • Composition by subregion, gender, ethnicity or caste, age, etc.
  • Religious affiliations and differences
  • In- and out-migration trend (male and female)
  • Percentage of households headed by females
  • Household size, dependency ratio, and composition patterns (e.g., extended family vs. nuclear family)
  • Age at marriage, by gender

• Poverty and employment

  • Household income level and individual sources, by gender and age
  • Household expenditure patterns and decision making, by gender
  • Poverty profile (e.g., percentage of population below the poverty line, income distribution, geographic distribution of poverty, nature and causes of poverty, coping strategies of the poor)
  • Gender dimensions of poverty (e.g., link between female-headed households and poverty level, burden of poverty on women)
  • Percentage of women working in the home and the kind of work performed
  • Percentage of women employed outside the home and, if possible, an analysis of occupational categories
  • Unemployment rate, by gender

• Land use and tenancy

  • Tenancy or ownership profile (percentage distribution of dwellings owned or rented)
  • Community groups based on tenancy or ownership, if any (e.g., tenants’ association)
  • Percentage of women owning dwellings or registered as the principal tenant
  • Number and location of squatters (male vs. fe-male)
  • Length of residence in the current place

• Health

  • Population growth rate
  • Infant and maternal mortality rates (male vs. female)
  • Service availability and geographic coverage
  • Fertility level and decision making
  • Food allocation and nutrition level within households, by gender
  • Incidence of domestic violence

• Education and children

  • Literacy and school enrollment ratios, by gender
  • School dropout ratio, by gender
  • Incidence of child labor and street children, by gender

• Status of women

  • Extent of violence against women (e.g., domes-tic)
  • Political representation and awareness
  • Sociocultural perceptions and practices of men and women
  • Gender-discriminatory policies and laws
  • Women’s access to law and justice, especially in relation to violence and crimes

• Gender roles and responsibilities

  • Broad gender division of labor in productive (e.g., agriculture, income-generating activities) and reproductive (e.g., household chores, child care) responsibilities, and time allocated for each responsibility

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding urban utilities and services

• Formal access to UDH infrastructure and services (e.g., water supply, waste water and solid waste management, access roads or paths, electricity, shelter, housing plot, recreation facilities, public lighting, transport)

  • Who provides the services (e.g., local government, NGO, private company)?
  • What percentage of households has an access to each service?
  • Are there gender differences in such access?

• Quality of UDH services (for each type of service)

  • Are the services regularly available?
  • Are there seasonal differences in availability, quantity, or quality?
  • Are the services satisfactory? How are they improved?

• Costs and willingness to pay (for each type of service)

  • Is there a fee for each service?
  • Who pays the bills (men or women in the house-hold) to whom (e.g., user committee, local government, private company)?
  • How much is the fee? Is this fee level satisfactory?
  • If the services are improved, would people be willing to pay? To what extent?

• Private, individual, or illegal access

  • Water supply: What are the sources of water besides formal services (e.g., public streams, rivers, tanks, privately owned tanks, communal wells)? How far away are these? Who (men or women) collect, transport, and store the water and how? How much time is spent?
  • Waste disposal: What are the informal arrangements, if any, for solid waste and sewage disposal? Who (men or women) play the primary role?
  • Electricity: Is there illegal access? How?
  • Shelter and housing plot: Is there illegal squatting? For how long?

• Gender division of labor in UDH management

  • Who in the household (men or women) play the primary role in managing UDH facilities?
  • Who in the household (men or women) decide the use and allocation of water, electricity, and shelter?

Sanitation and environmental knowledge, attitudes, and practices

• Hygiene and environmental education: Are hygiene and environmental issues taught in the family, at school, or in the communities? Are there information campaigns? To what extent do women and men understand the messages?

• Sanitary arrangements

  • What are the sanitary/latrine arrangements for men and women?
  • How is privacy ensured? Are there any taboos on latrine sharing between men and women, and among family members?

• Treatment of solid waste and sewage

  • How is solid waste collected and disposed of? By whom?
  • Is the waste recycled? If so, who are the waste collectors (e.g., community, small and medium recycling enterprises)?

Constraints on access and control (non-UDH issues)

• Access to productive resources or services

  • How do men and women differ in their access to employment and income-generating opportunities, credit, and markets?
  • Is external assistance being provided to improve access or control? By whom?

• Availability and accessibility of social services (e.g., health and hygiene, literacy program): Is external assistance available?

Needs, priorities, and expectations

• Needs: Do current practices and constraints create different needs for men, women, the elderly, and children regarding the design and location of UDH facilities and services? What are those needs and what are the reasons for the differences?

• Priorities: How do women and men differ in the priorities they set among the various UDH services? What are the reasons for these differences?

• Expectations from the project, by gender: How do women and men differ in their expectations with respect to the following:

  • Participation in further planning, designing, construction, and M&E
  • Employment opportunities in civil works, waste collection or recycling enterprises, manufacture of building materials, project-related offices, etc. How is labor divided between men and women in these activities?
  • Credit for housing development and for small and medium enterprises and other income-generating activities

• Willingness to contribute, by gender: How do women and men differ in their willingness to contribute the following:

  • Labor in construction, bookkeeping, supply inventory, meal preparation, periodic maintenance, etc.
  • Small parcel of land, space, locally available materials

Project impact

• Gender-differentiated effects

  • What are the likely positive and negative effects of the project? How differently will women and men be affected? For example, is it possible that the zoning regulations negatively affect women who are running a business in their homes?
  • Are the benefits likely to be distributed equitably between women and men?
  • How can negative effects be mitigated?

• Disadvantaged or vulnerable groups

  • Are there any disadvantaged or vulnerable groups?
  • Who are they? Where do they live? What are their socioeconomic characteristics?
  • How will the project affect these groups?

• Land acquisition/Resettlement

  • Is any land acquisition or resettlement expected? To what extent?
  • What are the implications specific to women and to men?
  • Do women and men have different preferences regarding resettlement sites and housing and facility designs?
  • Is additional support for poor female-headed households necessary?

Neighborhood/Community

• Nature of a community

  • Is there a closely knit community in the neighborhood? What is the basis for its organization?
  • How old is the community?
  • Do beneficiary women and men believe that a community-based approach is suitable for the delivery of the specific UDH service? Why?

• Intracommunity conflicts over the use of UDH services

  • Are there conflicts regarding the distribution of utility services (e.g., water distribution) or the allocation of responsibility for utility management within the community (e.g., waste collection responsibility)? If so, are the conflicts based on differences in gender, income level, ethnicity or caste, etc.? How can these conflicts be resolved? Do women take part in conflict resolution?

Participation

• Factors affecting participation

  • What factors affect the level of men’s and women’s participation?
  • What are the incentives and constraints?

• Modes: Which modes of participation in project activities do men and women favor (e.g., participation in planning decisions or in infrastructure design, cash contribution, labor contribution for construction, training, operation and maintenance, financial management, organizational management)? Why?

• Community-based organizations (CBOs) and NGOs opportunities for

  • Are there CBOs, formal or informal, such as tenants’ associations, property owners’ associations, water user groups, or waste management neighborhood groups? What are their roles and responsibilities? Are they suitable for the project activities?
  • Are women sufficiently represented in these groups?
  • Are there international or national NGOs that support poverty reduction and gender initiatives? How can the project link up with them?
  • What mechanisms can be used to ensure women’s active participation in project activities?
  • Which organizations can be used to mobilize and train women in the project activities?

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