Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households that don’t have access to water on the premises, and 72% of daily household water-related tasks are completed by women and girls. Targets directly relating to Goal 6, Clean Water and Sanitation, are unlikely to be achieved unless gender perspectives are integrated into planning and implementing changes. This is just one of the many ways that Goal 6 and Goal 5, Gender Equality, link together.
How would improving water services help women?
Reduced time, health and care-giving tasks from improved water services would provide women with more time for productive acts, adult education, leisure and more. For young girls, it would mean the opportunity to go to school. Having easy access to water and sanitation facilities increases privacy and reduces the risk of women being harassed or assaulted while travelling to collect water. If girls don’t have to travel every day to collect water, or their mothers have the time to complete other household tasks, girls will be able to go to school. Higher rates of girls going to school results in better sexual education and more chance of access to contraception. This results in lower fertility rates, so the girls are more likely to be able to work and do tasks, making providing for their family easier.
What is gender mainstreaming?
Gender mainstreaming is an approach to policy making, including the (re)organization, improvement and development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality view is included in policies at all levels and stages. Women and young girls having to collect water is part of gender inequality, and so gender mainstreaming must occur to help progress for SDG 5. This may mean ensuring that women have the same water rights and finance at the same level as men, or looking at how to install water nearby, so that girls are able to go to school. It could also mean reducing how much women are under-represented in water management roles. Some of the reasons for this include the reduced educational opportunities for women and societal norms and expectations.
Why is gender mainstreaming important for water access?
Research has shown that projects that have been designed and run with the full inclusion of women are:
More sustainable,
Have the ability to improve gender relations, and can position women as role models who can change men’s attitudes and make them more aware of female issues and ensuring inclusivity
Improve women and girls’ access to education and work,
Improve women’s health outcomes, which have flow-on benefits for men and children, such as if the women don’t have to travel as far for water, they have more time for growing crops, providing more food for the family and perhaps even to sell.
How would gender mainstreaming appear in water governance?
Gender mainstreaming must appear in water governance. Water governance refers to the set of rules, practices and processes through which decisions for the management of water resources and services are taken and put in place. It essentially means who gets what water, when and how. The World Bank’s Water and Sanitation has identified four key levels at which gender mainstreaming needs to appear in water governance, these are:
Policy. This includes establishing achievable goals to reduce gender inequalities, and a clearly outlined plan of how these goals will be achieved. In order to create a balanced policy, policy makers must collaborate with gender experts regularly, and allocate sufficient resources to these experts, including women’s organizations.
Operational. Gender issues must be identified and acted upon within sectors themselves, and the agencies of these sectors must ensure that staff are prepared to mainstream gender throughout projects. This means ensuring that women and gender inequalities are no longer a factor in water governance in certain sectors.
Monitoring and evaluation. Projects must be continually monitored to ensure that they are meeting their goals for gender inequalities.
Citizen’s voice. Women must be included in decision making forums, and must be heard and supported by projects, programs and services, so that water governance outcomes are to the best possible level.
What would be successful?
Any small step in the right direction can be considered a success, but there are many smaller examples of what could be considered successful for water management. Some of these include:
Women and gender-discriminated people holding positions of power and leadership in water and sanitation focused organisations.
These organisations will be socially inclusive and will provide platforms and opportunities for women and gender-discriminated people to provide their feedback and input, to ensure that their ideas are heard and represented.
Women being able to take up more places in the sectors of engineering, government, and science. This would allow their voices to be heard better, and to support their engagement in the water governance field.
Women and children not having to travel far away to carry heavy water, reducing the risk of harassment and assault.
A reduction in child-mortality rates because of a higher access to clean, sanitary water, and so women will not have to give birth in an unhygienic environment.
It’s important to remember that gender inequalities are not the only reason for lack of easy access to water in places, but it is a very important contributing factor. By making progress on both Goal 5 and Goal 6, we are able to address both issues at the same time.