Addressing Gender in Pacific Water & Sanitation Programs

Increasing access to water, sanitation and hygiene education (WASH) and advancing gender equality are both major issues in the Pacific. Women and their roles lie at the centre of issues of water use, sanitation, and hygiene. Research currently in progress through a partnership between Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), Live and Learn Environmental Education Fiji and World Vision Vanuatu, aims to investigate and articulate the gender outcomes achieved by two WASH approaches undertaken by the latter two NGOs in Fiji and Vanuatu.

The idea is that WASH and gender equality may be constructively addressed together, the former providing an entry point for the latter. This opportunity however, is often missed, and projects report on gender in terms of ‘participation of women’, without thinking about what difference that participation meant in women and men’s lives, and whether gender equality and gender relations were affected negatively or positively.

The research is showing that there are many positive gender outcomes expressed by women and men in the communities. These include some expected outcomes, for example a reduction in women’s labour associated with collecting water, as well as several more unexpected strategic gender outcomes including women taking on leadership roles and men assuming greater responsibility for hygiene in the home. Another important finding in one community was a reduction in household violence against women caused by conflict over water management.

In Vanuatu there had been a positive change in gender relations at the community level including recognition of women’s hard work and an increased trust in women. Men’s attitudes of men towards women at the community level had changed. As part of the WASH projects, women’s labour and contribution at the community level through the water and sanitation projects and in other community work was strongly recognised and valued by men. Men saw women as trustworthy in contributing to community events and labour and both women and men noted that women were the first to respond to calls for community meetings and work and had prioritised water and sanitation in the initial discussions that led to the projects. Based on this recognition and the value placed on women’s contributions, men had increased their respect for women which in turn led to valuing their voice in decision-making.

Our dream is that men respect us and they start to do the same work we do and that we be given permission to speak in meetings (woman).

Women’s inclusion in decision making processes in their community and in being part of development committees led to more important outcomes. The project, with its participatory planning processes (explicitly involving women and men) and advocacy for gender balance in water and sanitation committees, had created some important ‘firsts’ in increasing recognition of women’s right to have a voice in decision-making. Women reported that they had taken on leadership roles for the first time within their community, noting that this was positive in terms of their self-confidence and sense of growing empowerment and further led to increased respect for women within the broader community.

Previously during the meetings the men would tell us we are women so we can’t talk and we remain silent, but now we are talking since the project (Nanen woman).

Men had become more supportive of making space for women’s voices in community decision-making. This support was considered to have stemmed from the previous outcome (increased recognition by men of women’s contribution to the community and increased trust in women).

Womens labour was also reduced, an outcome commonly reported of water, sanitation and hygiene programs (however as is evident from the above, it is only one of many possible outcomes). It includes the reduction in physical labour associated with collecting and carrying water to homes, the satisfaction of women’s practical gender need for water, sanitation and hygiene in their daily lives as care-givers in their families.

Since water came, I have been waking up as early as possible to prepare breakfast for my kids to eat and go to school. It has helped a lot in reducing the labour and distance for me to walk and fetch water. I used to walk a long distance to draw water from creeks and from the ocean. And I am so glad because women are the ones who do a lot of water collection in our community (woman).

I am happy I am not walking a long distance to collect water. It has reduced my labour. But sometimes, when there is a problem in the water system, e.g. leakage of pipes, when they are cleaning the tank they have to close all the pipes, it makes me feel very sad that I am starting to do that same work again and am back to where I started (woman).

WASH programs commonly focus and report on meeting women’s practical gender needs such as access to safe water, critical to carrying out their daily responsibilities. As the following quote indicates, satisfying practical gender needs can have a huge impact on women’s health, quality of life and their time, which is often a prerequisite for strategic gender gains:

… women and girls in low-income countries spend 40 billion hours every year fetching and carrying water from sources which are often far away and may not, after all, provide clean water. From this standpoint, it is simple to understand that a woman could be empowered by having a nearby pump that conveniently supplies enough safe water for her family
(Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, 2006).

Gabrielle Halcrow
Overseas Program Manager
International Women’s Development Agency

Fiji Project

Vanuatu Project

genderinpacificwash website

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