7. Tools and examples to follow

The final note is one of a range of tools available to practitioners seeking to mainstream gender considerations into water sector programmes. Brief abstracts and links to web-based documents that provide guidance on approaches and methodologies for gender mainstreaming occupy Chapter 4 of the TOP.

Chapter 5 contains four case studies on innovative approaches for integrating women and gender in the water sector:

Case Study 1 Women and Water Networks and the Pakistan Water Partnership

The collaboration between Pakistan’s Women’s Water Networks (WWN) and the Pakistan Water Partnership (PWP) highlights the use of gender training and strategic gender actions as a means of gender mainstreaming from the national level to the grassroots. Working jointly, the WWN and the PWP developed a series of Area Water Partnerships (AWPs) in three districts of Pakistan. A case study of one of the Area Water Partnerships, the Nara Canal AWP is included.As the relationship has developed and the results obtained have been impressive, the PWP has allocated 50 percent of the Area Water Partnership funds to gender mainstreaming. This has dramatically increased women’s participation in the AWPs, including their role in leadership positions and their participation in national water structures and forums.

Case Study 2 Nepal Water and Health’s Gender and Poverty Approach

When implementing water and sanitation projects in rural Nepal, NEWAH (Nepal Water for Health), a national level NGO in Nepal, had assumed that development interventions would automatically benefit women and the poor and that community leaders would reflect their needs. However, over ten years of experience during the 1990s showed NEWAH that the richest so-called higher caste men dominate all aspects of these projects and that women, the poor, and socially excluded groups are not represented in key decision-making processes. NEWAH staff realised that deliberate actions must be taken to enlarge people’s choices, and provide opportunities to voice those choices. An intense process was initiated to mainstreaming a Gender & Poverty (GAP) approach with support from DFID/Nepal and Water Aid/Nepal. The Case Study describes the strategic components of the GAP approach, which is being integrated throughout NEWAH's programme, and was adopted by 35% of NEWAH’s programme villages in 2002. The aim is for 100% integration by 2005.

Case Study 3 Gender-Responsive Budget Initiatives (GRBIs)

Gender-Responsive Budget Initiatives (GRBIs) are tools that make it possible to analyse budgets to assess whether government policies and programmes will have different, and unequal, impacts on women and men, girls and boys. The Case Study lists some key tools or approaches that facilitate a gender analysis of budgets. It also includes a specific example from Tanzania in which a national NGO exposed flaws in the water sector’s mid-term expenditure framework, by applying a GRBI approach.

Case Study 4 Implementation of the Beijing Declaration on gender in decision-making

There are examples from three countries of efforts to meet the goal of equal participation for women in decision-making.

A study comparing budgetary allocations in village councils in West Bengal, India found that councils led by women were more likely to invest in public goods that had practical relevance to the needs of rural women such as water, fuel and roads. Male-led councils were more likely to invest in education. These effects were consistent with gender differences in expressed policy priorities.

Experience from the low income urban settlement of El Hormiguero, Colombia, underlines the different and positive impact that poor women in political office can make in the lives of poor women in the community.

Women in Steinkopf, South Africa, present yet another reality that highlights the importance of women in local political decision making: “We are better placed than the men to deal with local government problems. After all, during the week it is the women who manage and solve the daily problems, such as no electricity and the consequent problems of feeding the family and children.”