Gender and Development

Nepal

Loan 1755 - NEP: Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project, 2000

Small urban centers along the major national highways in Nepal have been growing rapidly in the past decade as a result of rural migration. The inadequate water supply and sanitation systems in these emerging small towns have adversely affected the quality of life and health conditions of the people living in them, with women spending more than two hours a day fetching water during the dry season. The small towns serve as the economic links between the rural areas and the country’s urban economy. They are the immediate markets, transportation depots, and processing centers of agricultural products in the districts. Their development will help absorb the rural migrants and reduce pressures on the urban environment, infrastructure, and employment in the urban centers of the Kathmandu valley. ADB’s Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project was designed to improve water supply and sanitation conditions in 40-50 small towns to contribute to poverty reduction in urban areas.

Objectives and Scope

• improve the health and quality of life of the people living in project towns by constructing water supply, drainage and sanitation facilities, and providing health and hygiene education
• support community participation by developing the institutional capacity of community based water users and sanitation committees, and requiring the beneficiaries to make contributions in cash or kind to cover partial project costs
• promote community based water quality monitoring

The Project comprises 4 components:

1. Public Awareness Campaign and Hygiene Education: The public awareness campaign focuses on community awareness on the project including
• the roles and responsibilities of the Water Users and Sanitation Committees (WUSCs,) local governments, Town Development Fund, and the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS)
• the need to share the capital cost of the of the water supply systems
• the linkage between the desired level of services, cost contribution and operations and maintenance expenditure and water tariffs
• the availability of Town Development Fund loans and the need to pay back the borrowed funds
• women’s representation in the decision-making process
• land acquisition and resettlement issues. The public awareness campaign will lead to developing a Community Action Plan by WUSC representatives. Health and hygiene education will include
• school hygiene education
• community education
• focused training including latrine construction, solid waste management, animal waste management and training of community health workers


2. Water Supply and Sanitation Facilities:
   • piped water supply with private yard connections
   • community taps for poorer areas adjacent to the distribution systems
   • collective or household-based rainwater harvesting materials provided to poor communities where accessing the piped water supply systems is neither technically nor financially feasible


3. Technical Support to Water Users and Sanitation Committees:
• technical training to WUSC representatives on system operations, preventative maintenance and water source protection
• financial training covering tariff planning, billing, collection and basic accounting
• fee-based training based on request such as on engineering and other technical support and water quality monitoring and testing


4. Project Implementation Assistance: consulting services for project implementation, feasibility studies, engineering designs, construction supervision, training as well as administrative equipment and expenses

Framework for Gender and Development Activities

A survey conducted during project design indicated that on average 12% of the households are headed by females in project towns and higher among poorer households. Females are less educated than males and mothers are responsible for hygiene education of children. Women’s roles in water hauling is very high. Females represent 84% of the water carriers in households that do not have water on the premises. Their participation in water carrying peaks between ages 15-39 when they make up about half the water-carrying force overall. To keep the household supplied, each female water carrier must reserve 1 1/3 hours per day during the monsoon season and an average of 2-3 hours per day in the dry season. Women and girls are expected to benefit from this project both in terms of reducing the physical burden of hauling and the opportunity cost of time that could be utilized more productively in attending school and income generating activities. Public health and hygiene education program will also help improve the health and quality of life for all household members. Women’s participation in WUSCs will also include them in the decision-making structure regarding the planning and management of domestic water supply and sanitation systems.

Gender-Inclusive Design

The Project design included gender provisions to sensitize the DWSS staff on women’s active participation in WUSCs; to involve women in socio-economic surveys, public awareness campaigns and health and hygiene education programs; ensure one woman out of two representatives of WUSC in the Town Project Office on a full-time basis and one female social mobilizer in town project offices (TPOs). The project consultants also included a gender and community development specialist and a health and hygiene education specialist to implement the Project’s gender and development objectives.

Based on ADB’s mid-term loan review mission, an agreement was reached with the project implementing agency to systematically implement the Project’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) with specific features, benchmarks and resources to promote women’s participation and benefits. The GAP included the following features and targets:

• Initiate policy dialogue to increase women’s representation to 33% in the sector
• Assign female staff to the Project Management Office and at least one worker in the TPO.
• Increase women’s representation and participation in TPO meetings
• Require NGOs to recruit at least 50% female field staff
• Undertake gender sensitivity training for NGOs, DWSS, Project Management Office, and TPO staff conducted by ADB Nepal Gender Specialist
• Sensitize WUSC and consumers to work towards achieving more gender balanced representation in project activities
• Administer household surveys jointly to heads of households and their spouses as women provide more accurate estimates on water related tasks
• Provide gender-disaggregated data and information in project progress reports to monitor the level of participation and differential access to project benefits
• Integrate gender trainings in the project training plan
• Provide gender-sensitive monitoring indicators

Achievements

The Project has complied with agreed gender actions in the GAP as evidenced by significant progress in mainstreaming gender concerns by 2005:

• 23 towns met the Government requirement of 33% women’s representation in the reconstituted WUSCs
• training programs for project staff, NGO and WUSC included sessions on gender sensitivity
• 57% women and 43% men participated in health and hygiene education, and technical trainings
• gender-disaggregated baseline data is available for monitoring project performance and outcomes
• the water user association is represented by a male and female members in the Town Project Office
• project supported school latrines have separate toilets for girls and boys
• women’s participation in public meetings and decision-making have increased considerably
• women increased their technical knowledge vis-a-vis system cost, upfront cash contribution, tariff, and water quality issues with linkages to family health and hygiene
• women water user association members’ request for income generating activities will be supported with small grant funding from the Water Cooperation Fund
• strong linkages are made between health and hygiene, social mobilization, public awareness campaigns and gender mainstreaming to secure increased participation of poor men and women

Guidance on Gender and Development Activities

The ADB Nepal Gender Specialist has provided continued assistance to address gender concerns throughout the design and implementation phases of the Project. Particularly, her assistance in training project stakeholders on gender issues in the water supply and sanitation sector and reaching agreement on Project GAD objectives, and providing consistent support and monitoring for effective implementation of the GAP have been critical in achieving the Project’s GAD objectives.