Looking at gender, water supply and sanitation

This paper includes practical information drawn from seven FINNIDA water supply and sanitation projects and programmes involving the integration of gender aspects in Tanzania, China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Nepal. The paper consists of six parts: part one contains an introductory framework built on community participation and gender analysis. It addresses the objectives of community participation, and emphasizes a gender approach as a means to enhance the effectiveness of community participation. This chapter also focuses on women in development and suggests how to make them more visible to development planners. Part two deals with an enabling environment for gender analysis and women. It discusses "enabling policies" at the national, international, and donor level. In part three, the paper refers to a case-study from Tanzania which provides an excellent example where women in development are included in rural water supply and sanitation (WS&S) projects. The urban case in part four differentiates between rural and urban WS&S projects. A case-study of the Hanoi Water Supply Programme describes how to incorportae community participation, gender analysis, and women in large urban engineering projects. Part five discusses the project cycle and explains how to include gender in WS&S programmes. It addresses project identification and preparation, and the need to identify the "enabling environment" based on gender and community participation using socio-economic data relating to gender analysis. The "woman question" in the sixth part lists the six dangers to be aware of when "including women". It also suggests when a completely separate project component for women is recommended.