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Gender Checklist: Water Supply and Sanitation
Why is gender important in water supply and sanitation projects?1
Water supply and sanitation (WSS) projects undertaken by the Bank over the past few decades have suggested a strong positive link between a focus on gender and women’s participation, on the one hand, and the degree of project success and of WSS management sustainability, on the other. Among the major lessons learned are the following:
Women are the primary collectors, transporters, users, and managers of domestic water and promoters of home and community-based sanitation activities. Yet, in many societies women’s views are not systematically represented in decision-making bodies. WSS projects provide major opportunities to close this gap.
Focus on gender has multiplier effects
Focusing on gender leads to benefits that go beyond good WSS project performance as manifested in such aspects as better procurement, O & M, cost recovery, and hygiene awareness. Those other benefits include the following:
Economic benefit: Better access to water gives women more time for income-generating activities, the needs of family members, or their own welfare and leisure. The economy, as a whole, therefore also benefits.
Benefit to children: Freed from the drudgery of water collection and management, children, especially girls, can go to school. Hence, the impact can be expected to be intergenerational.
Empowerment of women: Involvement in WSS projects empowers women, especially when project activities are linked to income-generating activities and productive resources such as credit.
The participation of beneficiaries and focus on poverty reduction are two other key determinants of the effectiveness and sustainability of WSS management. A WSS project must address the constraints on women’s participation in project design, construction, operation and maintenance (O & M), training, and monitoring and evaluation (M & E). The project must also focus on the linkage between gender and poverty, by identifying, for example, households headed by females and those households’ special needs.
An adaptive, learning, and process-oriented approach works better than a blueprint approach; continuous dialogue between the project authority and the beneficiaries is therefore important
Project beneficiaries are likely to have a stronger sense of ownership when the project gives them enough time, design flexibility, and authority to take corrective action. In this way, they find it easier to incorporate their earlier learning and negotiate with project staff and service providers. Therefore, a mechanism must be built into the project to allow such two-way interactions between the beneficiaries and the service providers.
Box 1: Sector Projects: A Clear Institutional Framework for Subproject Implementation
A WSS project often takes the form of a sector loan, in which subprojects are selected in support of sector policy reform and a demand-based approach. In sector lending, it is not possible to define a detailed project design at the time of approval. It is therefore very important that clear rules and mechanisms are in place to ensure an appropriate response to gender needs and women’s participation during subproject implementation. Among the areas that require special focus during the overall sector lending project preparation are:
- Legal and sectoral policy agenda, e.g., incorporation of gender dimensions in new water legislation.
- Subproject selection criteria, e.g., equal women’s representation in water users groups and their executive committees.
- Capacity building of staff, consultants, and NGOs in sub-project social assessment and social preparation, e.g., identi-fication of good-quality NGOs, training of project staff and NGOs in gender awareness and participatory methodologies.
- Capacity building of beneficiaries in subproject planning and implementation, and M & E training for beneficiaries (men and women) on technical, financial, organizational and hygiene/sanitation matters.
- Decentralized decision-making structure, e.g., establishment of water users groups and, where required for cultural and other reasons, a separate women’s group.
- Clear division of responsibilities between central and local government, project office, and water users groups, e.g., cost sharing, land arrangements, labor arrangements, O & M, grievance mechanisms, M & E.
- (If a pilot approach is taken for the first few subprojects) Dissemination of the demonstration effects of gender-responsive WSS projects to other subprojects.
- Clear M & E arrangement allowing women’s feedback and gender-disaggregated indicators.
Some WSS sector projects are: PAK: Punjab Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (Sector) Project (1994, Loan 1349 PAK), IDO: Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (1994, Loan 1352 INO), PHI: Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (1996, Loan 1440 PHI).
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- This section draws heavily on Wakeman (1995) and Fong et al. (1996).
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