Author: Elijah Bisung
Affiliated organisation: SSM – Population Health
Site of publication: sciencedirect.com
Type of publication: Journal article
Date of publication: 9 December 2019
Introduction
Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all people, with explicit attention to meeting the needs of women and girls. SDG 6 is critical to achieving SDG 5—“to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”—and has importation implications for the health and well-being of women.
However, despite the importance of gender outcomes for WASH interventions, focus continues to be placed on measuring progress through improvements in WASH infrastructure, such as access to improved water sources and sanitation facilities.
Empowerment in the development sector: a brief review
Empowerment in the context of gender and development often refers to the ability of women to take control and make choices about their lives and well-being. Several definitions of empowerment are found in development discourse, with similar themes relating to expansion of agency, choices, opportunities, resources, and power.
Linking women’s empowerment and WASH
Access to water and sanitation is thought to be critical for positive gender outcomes in low and middle-income contexts.
Research has shown that inadequate access to water and sanitation affect women and girls in several ways, because of social norms that position them as principal household water collectors and managers.
These effects, include low participation in the labour market and community activities, adverse biomedical outcomes, psychosocial stress, and poor educational outcomes.
However, questions remain on whether provision of or improvement in water and sanitation automatically guarantees the empowerment of women and girls. In some instances, attributing causality between an intervention and empowerment can be difficult because gender relations are embedded and mediated by other cultural and social norms (eg, ethnicity, caste, landholding status) that are difficult to account for.
Results
Several similar clusters emerged in Asutifi North District in Ghana and Banfora Commune in Burkina Faso. These included sociocultural norms and traditions, access to information and awareness, affordability of WASH services, and accessibility of WASH services. Sociocultural norms, such as religious traditions and gender roles, were reported in Banfora as “old” ways of thinking and behaviours that could impede empowerment.
Research has shown that inadequate access to water and sanitation affect women and girls in several ways, because of social norms that position them as principal household water collectors and managers
Access to information and awareness was viewed as important for making informed choices on WASH issues, and in Asutifi North, the importance of sharing that information was emphasized.
Affordability of WASH services referred to being able to afford user fees or contribute towards operations and maintenance, while accessibility was linked to the proximity and time to access WASH facilities (eg, public taps or wells) and consideration of particular needs (eg, menstrual hygiene management, age, disability).
Discussion
Some level of association is often assumed to exist between access to WASH facilities and women’s empowerment. Yet studies seldom reflect on the pathways through which access leads to empowerment or vice versa. Evidence from the literature on water security has shown that the use of “access” in a generic way obscures important inequities and capacities that provide context for linking access to empowerment or empowerment to access.
The broader social, cultural, and economic contexts also emerged as something that could constrain empowerment and agency to make WASH-related decisions or realize rights. For instance, in Asutifi North District, socioeconomic factors were reported, such as low income, physical disability, time use, and tenancy regulations.
Although the clusters related to these issues seem outside the domain of the household, they influence women’s empowerment in complex ways.
For example, prevailing human rights, local governance systems, and economic circumstances affect women’s decision-making power or participation in WASH activities.
Towards a conceptual framework of empowerment in WASH
The framework describes a process of empowerment that centres on an interaction between agency and opportunity, drawing on the work of Kabeer and Alsop and Heinsohn . Opportunity describes an individual’s rights and opportunities to secure WASH, which interacts closely with WASH services provided by local authorities and other service providers.
Affordability of WASH services referred to being able to afford user fees or contribute towards operations and maintenance, while accessibility was linked to the proximity and time to access WASH facilities (eg, public taps or wells) and consideration of particular needs (eg, menstrual hygiene management, age, disability)
Agency of users can occur at the individual level, at the household level, and at the community level. Together, participation and agency and the achievement of rights and opportunities mean that an individual is empowered to use water and sanitation in ways that they value, going beyond simplistic descriptions of access.
The framework recognizes that agency and opportunities can be constrained by sociocultural norms and other barriers. In particular, gender norms often constrain rights to safe water and sanitation, such as accessibility, adequate quantity, or affordability.
Conclusions
Substantial research has focused on the importance of women’s empowerment for poverty reduction and development but overlooked how it occurs in the WASH sector.
There are strong potential synergies between SDG 6 and SDG 5, as achieving universal access to safe water and sanitation services in households, healthcare centres, schools, and workplaces underpins several targets on gender equality and empowerment. However, provision or improvement in water and sanitation services may not automatically guarantee the empowerment of women and girls in all contexts.
This study advances understanding of women’s empowerment in the WASH sector and illustrates factors within the household, community, and institutional levels that influence empowerment. The clusters identified through concept mapping in this study can be used to inform indicators for measuring empowerment and related gender measures in the WASH sector. As countries track process toward achieving universal access to WASH services, this type of information will allow researchers and practitioners to identify and act on pathways through which empowerment contributes to achieving these targets.
Les Wathinotes sont soit des résumés de publications sélectionnées par WATHI, conformes aux résumés originaux, soit des versions modifiées des résumés originaux, soit des extraits choisis par WATHI compte tenu de leur pertinence par rapport au thème du Débat. Lorsque les publications et leurs résumés ne sont disponibles qu’en français ou en anglais, WATHI se charge de la traduction des extraits choisis dans l’autre langue. Toutes les Wathinotes renvoient aux publications originales et intégrales qui ne sont pas hébergées par le site de WATHI, et sont destinées à promouvoir la lecture de ces documents, fruit du travail de recherche d’universitaires et d’experts.
The Wathinotes are either original abstracts of publications selected by WATHI, modified original summaries or publication quotes selected for their relevance for the theme of the Debate. When publications and abstracts are only available either in French or in English, the translation is done by WATHI. All the Wathinotes link to the original and integral publications that are not hosted on the WATHI website. WATHI participates to the promotion of these documents that have been written by university professors and experts.