3. The payback

The emotive case for gender-sensitive approaches is powerful, but it is not the only reason for action. The TOP also stresses the gains in efficiency and effectiveness when planners adopt gender-based strategies. It quotes studies and individual examples that show how project approaches that deliberately involved women and men in planning and managing schemes have brought better returns in terms of cost recovery, reliability, health benefits and many other performance indicators (refer to Chapter 1, section 3. Relevance of gender for development in Chapter 1).

There are other paybacks too. Improved household hygiene that comes when poor women gain access to convenient clean water and sanitation means greater productivity and savings in health care. Convenient water supplies also release girls from water collection duties and enable them to attend school. Girls’ education is a critical factor in achieving equitable social development, greater employment opportunities and poverty alleviation. Better school sanitation is another key element in reducing drop-out rates of adolescent girls, and it is one of the priority concerns expressed when women and girls are brought into the planning process for water programmes.