Gender & WASH – Water Currents, December 21, 2017
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Their needs differ from men in terms of sanitation, they spend more of their time collecting water, yet they have less say about household and community decisions made on WASH services.
Similarly, women throughout the developing world face different barriers than men in terms of their involvement in WASH-related professions, such as utility management.
This issue on gender and WASH focuses on a new batch of reports, journal articles, and podcasts and provides links to relevant websites and news articles that consider gender issues in the WASH sector and gender-related aspects of agricultural water management.
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Water and Gender
The Rising Tide: A New Look at Water and Gender. The World Bank, August 2017. Water-related societal roles often reflect, and even reinforce, gender inequality. This report discusses the consequences of some water initiatives—intended and unintended—for gender equality. It makes the important point that gender inequality does not always show up where we might expect.
Gender-Responsive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Key Elements for Effective WASH Programming. UNICEF, March 2017. Effective gender-responsive programming in the WASH sector can contribute to gender equality while yielding important WASH results. This document outlines essential elements that WASH practitioners should take into account to enhance a gender-responsive approach to their work.
Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion within Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. WaterAid, March 2017. This discussion paper is based on WaterAid’s experiences in applying integrated gender and disability support to rights-based WASH programs in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea.
Read the complete issue.