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A gender approach

Updated - Tuesday 29 November 2005

If water and sanitation projects and programmes are to be sustainable, equitable and effective, they must:

  • Be gender-balanced: take account of the cultural and social differences between men and women, which include differences in their needs and interests, knowledge, tasks and roles in society, and, above all, differences in the extent to which men and women have access to, and control over resources. A gender-balanced approach in water and sanitation programming is absolutely essential for sustainable use of handpumps and latrines.
  • Provide some access for all: recognise that everyone has the right to a minimum level of safe water, including those from poor and isolated communities. The fact that water is an economic commodity can collide with this basic right.

Gender concerns women and men, how they cooperate and share work, decisions and control in projects and programmes. Projects must identify and address these differences and interrelationships to ensure that both men and women have the resources they require for their development. In other words, projects must adopt a gender approach to development.

A gender approach enhances the participation of women and men in such a way that both sexes contribute to and benefit equitably from improvements.

A programme or project is gender-sensitive if:

  • The design process includes gender analysis:
  1. who has the information: men, women, or both?
  2. who does the work: men, women, or both?
  3. who makes the decisions: men, women, or both?
  4. who gets the benefits (water, training, jobs): men, women, or both?
  5. who controls the benefits (service, income, training): men, women, or both?
  • Objectives and strategies are explicit about gender equity.
  • Project interventions are based on the results of the gender analysis.
  • Teams have a gender balance and gender skills at all levels.
  • Monitoring and management information Systems (MIS) give data for men and women separately.
  • Evaluation of the staff includes gender-sensitive behaviour and performance.
  • The gender approach is integrated in the social and technical components of projects.