Gender and Equity

If water and sanitation projects and programmes are to be sustainable, equitable and effective, they must be gender-balanced and provide access for all.

Photo story: Promoting sanitation with women and men, girls and boys in Banjarmasin, Indonesia

As part of her advisory work for the Indonesian Sanitation Sector Development Programme (ISSDP) in 14 towns of Indonesia IRC’s Christine Sijbesma is assisting the programme on gender and participation. In April 2009 she and the local team faciltated a rapid and participatory assessment in two high-priority communities in Banjarmasin on sanitation needs by women and men. These assessments allow women and usually “forgotten” men to formulate demands for sanitation improvements. It gives pointers on their willingness and capacity to contribute in better-off, worse-off and in-between groups. It also provides insights in the degree of organization and influence of women and men and local cadres. The resulting scores give a ranking of the high-priority communities in terms of conditions, demand and organizational capacity, which helps high risk communities and the city sanitation working group to select the first community/ies for rapid action and a more likely quick success.

Gender and equity in water and sanitation: 10 lessons from project experiences

'Gender spectacles' are needed to obtain successful project results, this is one of the main conclusions of Christine Sijbema's presentation for the Soroptimists go for Water conference in July 2009. Much evidence exists that the more balanced projects are on gender and for the poor, the better sustained the results are. More information is available in the presentation.

Gender equity in water and sanitation projects (PPTminimizer).ppt (474 kB)

Health, Dignity and Economic progress: the way forward to gender equity

Three ministers of women’s affairs, water and rural development, from Ethiopia, India and Turkey met to discuss with experts and participants during the special session “Health, Dignity and Economic Progress: The Way Forward for Gender Equity”, on Monday 16th of March during the opening of the World Water Forum 5, Istanbul, Turkey.