4. Global pressures

The fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 cranked up the pressure on the world’s governments to incorporate gender mainstreaming in all their development programmes. A review of progress undertaken as party of the preparations for the 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg showed the pattern already described: good intentions; poor follow through. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have reinforced the arguments for gender equity as an important plank in achieving targets for poverty eradication. Appropriate excerpts from the MDGs are cited at the end of Chapter 1. The profound effects of adopting appropriate gender approaches in water programmes recur regularly.

A vital element in mobilising the political will for institutional and legislative change is recognition of the contribution that women make to the national economy through their usually unpaid work in home and family care, food production, livestock raising and small crafts (refer to Chapter 2, section 2. Gender and economics). The 1995 Human Development Report estimated women’s unvalued and undervalued work to amount to US$11,000 billion a year. The TOP urges governments to collect data that disaggregate men’s and women’s contributions to the national economy, including the value of domestic care and household-based productivity.

While international conferences have induced governments to make pledges about gender mainstreaming, and water institutions are well aware of the arguments favouring gender-sensitive approaches, a review of water policies and regulations has revealed that even recent sector reforms have often been “gender-blind”. The analysis of 71 policies, acts and regulations summarised in Chapter 2, section 4 is depressing reading for those committed to the gender cause.