Publications

Box 1: Bangladesh Third Rural Infrastructure Development Project, 1997: Addressing women’s needs in markets and shelters

The Third Rural Infrastructure Project in Bangladesh is a good example of how physical infrastructure designs can address women’s special needs and their participation. The project involves the improvement of the infrastructure in small towns and rural areas en-compassing feeder roads, bridges and culverts along rural roads, flash-flood ref-uges, and markets and ghats (boat landing facilities) in growth centers.

Among the many gender-specific features of the project design, the following two aspects should be highlighted here:

Women’s corners (WCs) in growth-center markets

The project supports the construction of 279 WCs to promote the businesses of women traders. The specific locations of WCs in each market were decided by the women themselves in consultation with the project authorities. Toilet and water facilities for women have also been built. Selection criteria and terms and conditions for women traders who are eligible to use the space have been developed. Such criteria ensure that men do not use women’s names to get additional spaces in the WCs.

With the help of women’s NGOs, women vendors have been trained in shop management, trade licensing, taxes and tolls, and operation and maintenance of facilities. Further, to ensure that there is enough demand for WC services, motivational activities targeted to women and girls as consumers are being carried out to encourage them to use the WCs.

Women’s space at flash-flood refuges

Women have participated in the selection of sites and the design of the refuges. The refuge design took into account the identified need for private spaces and toilets for women and for emergency medical-care facilities and services especially for pregnant women.

Box 2: Assistance to community-based financing institutions and NGOs in India: Meeting poor women’s demands for decent shelter

India has a severe housing shortage: in the urban sector alone, the demand-supply gap is about 17 million units. The slums prevalent in many Indian cities manifest this fact. Slum dwellers are increasing in numbers by about 9 percent to 10 percent each year. Women and children are the most affected by poor living conditions such as lack of shelter and basic services. In response, the government has encouraged the establishment of market-oriented housing finance institutions (HFIs) and poverty-targeting community-based finance institutions (CFIs). There are also private housing financing companies, which target middle-income households. Moreover, NGOs and CBOs sometimes assist low-income communities in organizing thrift and credit societies to provide finance to the poor, usually women.

The Housing Finance Project in India (1997) supports all of these diverse housing finance channels. It has tried to promote onlending by HFIs to more community-based and poverty-targeting CFIs and NGOs/CBOs. Another innovative approach is the so-called “slum networking” in which a joint effort toward slum improvement is made by government, private industries responsible for environmental management in communities, and NGOs/ CBOs.

In Ahmedabad, for example, the government-assisted Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), nearby private industries (such as a milling company), and the communities served by NGOs/CBOs all contribute to the costs involved. The slums were grouped into convenient packages, and consortiums of reputable industries and NGOs were asked to bid for works on behalf of the communities within the design framework established by AMC. Slum communities are represented by neighborhood committees or NGOs/CBOs or both. Before a slum becomes eligible for improvement, each family must contribute Rs 2,100. If the household does not have enough savings, credit is made available from such financing NGOs as the Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Bank and Friends of Women’s World Banking. As the community agents of such women’s microfinance institutions, women from the low-income households play major roles in mobilizing the resources from individual households.

Box 3: Housing Finance Project in India, 1997: Support for home-based female workers through shelter improvement and integrated poverty reduction

The Housing Finance Project mentioned in box 2 also provides in-come- generating opportunities for low-income women and men. It adopts two approaches to this end. The “workshed-cum-shelter” approach supports the poor, mainly women, who operate cottage industries at home. Hand-loom or handicraft societies or corporations nominated by the state provide subsidized funds for shelters or worksheds to their female and male members. The state government provides the land for the shelters or worksheds. To avoid the sale or rental of a given land title to a third party, the project grants a tenure of at least ten years, which gives slum dwellers enough time to find better housing and employment.

Another approach is the “productivity-cum-shelter,” whereby funds are provided directly to low-income women to enable them to establish income-generating activities outside their homes. As mentioned in box 2, innovative community-based financing institutions such as the Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Bank are being tapped to encourage group lending for income generation. This is especially important for women because families rarely acquire assets in the name of women family members. The creation of assets such as shops, carts, lands, or houses in women’s name is therefore crucial in empowering them, as is the acquisition of capital, bank accounts, shares, and savings certificates. The productivity-cum-shelter approach also supports the capacity building of borrowers through skills development training, assistance in identifying sources of raw materials, provision of better tools and equipment, and assistance in establishing links to the market.

Box 4: Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project in India, 1999: Focus on women’s participation and poverty reduction

The Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project, a comprehensive urban development project in India, provides for specific measures to promote women’s participation and combat poverty, for which women bear a disproportionate burden.

It will invest in urban infrastructure and services required to meet basic human needs and facilitate policy reforms to strengthen urban management in ten urban towns in west Karnataka. The project has six components: (i) capacity building for local government staff and community participation through a community awareness and participation program (CAPP) and a slum improvement program to reduce poverty; (ii) water supply rehabilitation and expansion; (iii) urban environmental improvements through wastewater management, storm water drainage, and solid waste management; (iv) street and bridge improvements; (v) coastal environmental management; and (vi) project management and logistical support.

The social assessment identified that women and children are especially adversely affected by poor living conditions and poor access to basic urban facilities. Women who are exposed to smoky and unsanitary conditions at home and have low access to medical facilities bear an extra burden and are more prone to disease. Children are highly vulnerable to water- and vector-borne diseases. Women and girls in households without piped connections spend as much as one hour collecting water.

Improved hygiene and sanitation through infrastructure investments in the project is expected to greatly benefit women’s health and productivity. However, the project’s benefits will not stop there. The CAPP component will allow women and men beneficiaries to participate in project design, implementation, operation and maintenance (O&M), and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) through awareness raising and a feedback mechanism. This will be facilitated by a consortium of NGOs in each district. The CAPP acknowledges that women’s representation in decision making is crucial. A network of women decision-makers, involving female municipal council chairpersons and female members of concerned municipal governments, women’s NGOs, and female community representatives, will be formed through the CAPP. The CAPP will also provide various training and awareness activities, including women-in-development training.

Furthermore, poor women will benefit from the slum improvement program, which will involve not only infrastructure improvement (e.g., potable water, sanitation, drainage, adequate pathways) but also group savings and credit activities, skills development and entrepreneurship training, and labor opportunities provided by the project. To ensure that poor women get equal benefits, such activities will be monitored by local NGOs and community-based organizations.

Box 5: Bangladesh Secondary Towns Infrastructure Development Project II, 1995: Strategies for gender mainstreaming

The Secondary Towns Infrastructure Development Project II was a comprehensive urban development project that supported the government’s decentralization policy through the following components: (i) rehabilitation of physical infrastructure (e.g., roads and bridges, drainage, solid waste management, water supply, sanitation, town center development); (ii) slum upgrading; (iii) pilot projects for low-income housing, land use planning, and privatization of solid waste management; and (iv) institutional development of a pourashava (urban municipality) support unit, the National Institute of Local Government, and regional training centers in four model pourashavas.

Midway through project implementation, it became clear that women’s participation was confined to the activities under the slum improvement component, such as health, education, water supply, environmental training, group formation, and income generation through credit provision. While the component has been instrumental in flagging gender issues and women’s participation for the project staff, gender as a cross-cutting concern was not mainstreamed into all the other components.

With the assistance of ADB’s Resident Mission GAD Specialist, a project-specific GAD action plan, which included gender mainstreaming activities, was developed to rectify the course of the project and give it an appropriate gender focus beyond a mere “women’s component.” Workshops and consultations between ADB and the executing agency, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) of the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives, were held to formulate the plan. The plan had the following features:

• Institutional arrangement to support GAD mainstreaming: appointment of a senior member of the consulting team as a GAD focal point to coordinate all GAD activities, including the preparation of GAD guidelines for LGED

• Support for GAD in local governance: advocacy for the establishment of gen-der and environment committees within pourashavas to be chaired by women ward commissioners; capacity building of women ward commissioners; and recruitment of women as tax assessors, collectors, and officers

• Infrastructure design modification: design of markets and bus terminals to include facilities for women (e.g., waiting room, security measures, toilets, booking counter)

• Employment: advocacy to urge contractors to hire women construction workers, and advocacy for the principle of equal wages for equal work between men and women

• Training for women: ward-based training of women and men beneficiaries and women ward commissioners in the environment, sanitation, solid waste management, health and hygiene, and the maintenance of pit latrines, tubewells, and public toilets

• Gender awareness training for senior project staff: training to increase awareness of ADB’s GAD policy, the national policy for the development of women, the government’s national action plan for GAD, and basic GAD concepts

• Gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation: adoption of gender-disaggregated indicators; redesign of the household survey questionnaire; updating of the pourashava yearbook to rectify its gender focus

In addition, while the GAD action plan was being prepared, it was learned that women ward commissioners in pourashavas did not have clear terms of reference and that the recent local government reform bill had bypassed pourashavas. This issue was taken up at a higher level between the government and ADB as a policy dialogue issue.