Gender Perspectives of the Water Sector

I Chibuye, Gwen (1996).
In: Water Sector News, no. 4, p. 5-6.

This article draws some conclusions from a workshop on gender concepts and development approaches held in Zambia in August, 1996, which discussed how projects can become increasingly committed to integrating women in project design and implementation. The article notes the importance of gender analyses in examining what impact women's participation has on project goals, planning processes, community well-being and on women's well-being, ie. social status, self-esteem, and attitudes of the community towards women and the value of women's work. Gender blindness can cause a failure to realize that different policies, programmes and projects can have different effects on men and women. Gender sensitization (a systematic effort to promote awareness of gender differences and their implications in development) is seen as a crucial factor as projects formalize their position regarding the gender policy within the water sector. Development agencies must be committed to integrating women into formal planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation schemes. Initiatives already taken on women's behalf must be evaluated as to their success in achieving the improved well-being of women; for example, have they added to women's work or placed women at social or physical risk.

In order to equalize the development process for both men and women, various approaches have been employed. In the 1960's, "Women in Development" fought for women's economic independence; in the 1970's, "Women and Development" sought to rectify the exploitative relationship between men and women by advocating separate development; and in the 1980's, "Gender and Development" used a holistic perspective to explore the relationship between men and women in the development process. Future development planning needs to recognize the centrality of women's work to the development process and to policy choices. A holistic approach is advocated which focuses on the relationship between men and women and the necessity to change some traditional attitudes so that responsibilities and the burdens of family maintenance are shared equally between men and women. Fundamental changes to the unequal economic, political, social and gender structures of society are needed to achieve equality for all people. Women's knowledge and experience must be ligitimized and documented to have greater impact on a gender policy in the water sector. Projects should no longer use the excuse of "difficult to involve women in this cultural context" to exclude women from running water schemes.

Women are often marginalized in the implementation of water projects at community level by community attitudes. Although women are the traditional managers of the water systems, these roles are taken away as new technologies are introduced on the assumption that men (not women) should be trained in the maintenance of the facilities. Men are trained and employed fully as handpump mechanics, while women are only trained as handpump caretakers and are expected to work as volunteers. Strategies to redress this imbalance include skill-training and education to allow women to participate in the development process, creating opportunities for women in decision making positions so that they can advocate the advancement of women in the sector, and recognizing women's skills, experience and ability to define and solve their own problems.