Why are Women Left Out of Important Decision Making?

Across Africa, water plays a significant part in the role of women. Men and women have been shown to use water differently, in Zimbabwe, women are playing more roles in water use and are often the’ users, managers and guardians’ of domestic water and hygiene (Makoni et al., 2004). In regards to sanitation, women’s lack of access can often have deadly consequences, and make them vulnerable to the risk of rape and attack (Mara et al., 2010).

So, why are women so often left out of the water and sanitation decision-making? In Uganda, although much of their policy approaches appear to be gender-sensitive, women have not been fully engaged in the debate on water and sanitation (Ebila, 2006). There is a push to change this, however, as the Directorate of Water Development (DWD) in 2003 introduced ‘gender-mainstreaming’ into into its future plans. The DWD began to acknowledge two main reasons for this new approach:

1. Water usage in communities is affected by the gender division of labour, which to a large extent is the social construction of each community; and
2. The development objective of the water sector is to improve “living conditions for the population of Uganda through better access to improved sustainable water and sanitation related services with a special focus on the poorer members of society” (DWD, 2003; Ebila, 2006). In Uganda, and indeed in most of Africa, the majority of the poorest of society are women.

To implement the core beliefs of this approach, the DWD managed to enforce a 50% mandatory level of the percentage of women on water and sanitation committees at village level. As of yet, the DWD has few women staff members, but they are planning to encourage more women to join with a zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment. These approaches are beginning to get more women to reach for leadership roles, which is vital to break-down gender stereotypes. The question is, however, whether a similar scheme of gender-mainstreaming can be rolled out across the rest of Africa where there are gender imbalances in policy making.

Gender and the provision of safe water and sanitation

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! I am going to be talking about the provision of water and sanitation in Africa from a feminist perspective, by particularly looking into the gendered nature of these vital resources. Previously, I help conduct fieldwork in Bangalore, India, on water and sanitation provision by using funding from micro-finance projects. The results of the project showed an interesting link between society, gender, economics, oppression and water and sanitation. In this blog, I will hopefully be able to draw connections between my work in India and the similar issues facing women in Africa.

According to the statistics, water and sanitation provision worldwide is pretty shocking. 2.5 billion people across the world do not have access to a safe toilet (UNICEF), while 1 billion people do not have access to any sanitation at all and openly defecate (WHO). For safe water provision, the numbers are similar - around 748 million do not have access to safe water supplies (UNICEF). This problem is particularly pronounced in Africa, whereby reports of a water and sanitation 'crisis' litter NGO and international development websites (e.g. WSP) and is credited with limiting economic growth and education opportunities. In much of Africa, especially around the Sub-Saharan region, water is limited due to a dry climate with little precipitation. MacDonald et al. (2012), however, highlight how despite the water-stressed Sub-Saharan regions in Africa have little available freshwater supplies, they actually contain vast sums of groundwater stored beneath the surface in weathered crystalline rock aquifers. This presents an interesting dilemma; not only is this water non-renewable - it accumulated from previous wetter climates so would effectively have to be 'mined', but also governments have to decide whether bottom-up approaches (i.e. local water supplies in the form of communal pumps) or top-down, vast irrigation methods to address food scarcity issues would be more appropriate, or whether a balancing act of the two can be achieved.

In terms of sanitation access, Sub-Saharan Africa is trailing well behind its international counterparts. When looking at sanitation, it has become easy to lump water provision and sanitation together in International Development discourse despite having very different access needs and issues. Installing latrines and sewage networks into areas can often be costly, and is more of a pressing issue in rural regions than urban (UN). In many poor rural regions, micro-finance loans are available for the building of basic sanitation infrastructure, but this can vary in success. Being able to afford the interest on the repayment of the loans is a key limitation for sanitation when government provision is lacking.

Improved sanitation facilities in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Source: Kunene

So, how is water and sanitation provision a gendered issue? There are many reasons why this is so; for instance, women who openly defecate in wild areas open themselves up to the risk of rape and attack, as well as the experience of loss of dignity. And in regards to water access, it is usually women who collect water so having a pump nearby would save time that they can spend in other areas such as education or work. Women also need safe water provision to ensure that, when pregnant, children are born healthy. Of course, safe water supply and sanitation access are intertwined, withgood sanitation infrastructure minimizing groundwater pollution. There are many reasons why it is such a heavily gendered issue, and I will explore these points and more, taking a critical approach to the topic on the rest of my blog! Thank you for reading, any feedback would be appreciated!