A while ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts regarding the importance of microfinance for water and sanitation development in Africa. In this post, I will be exploring the complex relationship between microfinance and water and sanitation initiatives to cultural norms that women in Africa face.

Typically, the vast majority of women who use microfinance excel in their repayment records, despite the daily hardship women face that may inhibit punctual repayment. This is contrary to cultural narratives that deem women too unreliable to lend money to. However, despite these good repayment records, the cultural narratives remain dominant; microfinance institutions are offering a decreasing percentage of loans to women, and even those that receive loans find them to be smaller than those given to their male counterparts - despite being in the same credit program, the same community and the same lending group. It is indicative of a broader multifaceted social discrimination against women, who have limited opportunities to alleviate poverty. The question remains: should microfinance institutions do more to prevent gender-based discrimination?

Microfinance initiatives have even been widely criticised for reinforcing cultural gender norms. One example draws on the increased burden that microfinance activities place on women’s time, by involving them in time-consuming meetings and income-generating activities without taking action to reduce their traditional responsibilities. Sanitation microfinance initiatives have also been duly criticised, due to the reinforcement of sanitation facilities and maintenance as purely a ‘women’s job’. However, it is important to note that aiming to change a woman’s role in society is much more of a complex long-term solution than that of offering loans. Unfortunately, many of women’s practical needs are linked closely to traditional gender roles, responsibilities and social structures, and therefore initiatives that aim to promote long-term strategic change often conflict with women’s practical needs in the short-term, increasing tension.

Women collecting water in Sub-Saharan Africa. Source

The point seems to be, that most microfinance initiatives encroach on time many women in Africa need for their traditional roles. Women in Africa spend approximately 40 billion hours a year collecting water, and carry out most water-related tasks, including playing a key role in food production - in particular subsistence farming. There is evidence that, by investing in women-owned food and agricultural enterprises, the number of hungry people could reduce by up to 100-150 million due to a narrowing of the resource gap and a rise in agricultural yields. Despite this, women have little input in decision making regarding water and farming. The relationship between inadequate access to water and sanitation and gender is reflexive: not only does inadequate supply affect women and girls disproportionately, the long hours they spend fetching water reinforces cultural gender norms by taking time out of a woman’s day that could be used for more productive activities that could challenge these norms.

If water supplies are contaminated or scarce, women and girls must provide the care if members of their family begin to suffer from waterborne diseases, such as cholera. Not only does the ease of access to clean water close to home reduce women’s workloads and strain, but the time saved may be spent on productive activities that might strengthen resilience - such as subsistence farming to combat food scarcity. Women are therefore often keen to use rain-fed irrigation water for alternative uses to irrigating crops. In fact, of more importance may be having a water source of sufficient quantity close to home, rather than quality, as the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine reports, due to advantages gained from sufficient hygiene-related hand-washing practices before eating.

An interesting initiative to combat time spent collecting water is the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Morocco, of the World Bank. It aims to reduce the burden of girls fetching water, in order to improve school attendance. The project showed significant results: in the 6 provinces where the project was based, attendance in girls’ schools increased by 20%, attributed to the fact that girls were spending less time fetching water. Similarly, in Tanzania, a survey found that girls who were located 15 minutes or less from a water source had a 12% higher attendance than those that were an hour or more away from a water source.

An interesting point to consider is through the installation of a water pump, traditional gender roles may be challenged in the area of the installation. The maintenance and operation activities related to water pumps provides training and impacts social relations. If women become involved in pump maintenance, does this challenge the existing gender division of labour and challenge gender norms? It is also interesting to think about how a women’s job related to cleaning latrines may reinforce may enact social status in a community, being a double edged sword for sanitation schemes aiming to empower women.