3.2 Gender, Governance and Water Resources Management

Introduction

Since the 1990s, the international community has recognised and accepted that good governance plays a significant role in improving the livelihoods of people. Weak water management impacts negatively on poor men and women through unreliable services, limited access to services, and higher costs for inefficient and ineffective services which often subsidise the rich. Improved water governance can lead to equitable water resources development and access for all. Persistent development problems, as well as the current and predicted water crises, reflect failures in governance (UNDP, 2002). There appears to be a correlation between weak water governance, persistent poverty and inadequate access to water for vulnerable groups, leading to stunted development.

Good governance can have positive impacts on gender inequalities, including the following:

• Ensuring that poor women and men’s human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, allowing them to live with dignity.
• Introducing inclusive and fair rules, institutions and practices governing social interactions to improve outreach to the vulnerable, such as poor men and women, and the younger and older generations.
• Ensuring that women are equal partners with men in decision making over development, use, technology choice, financing, and other aspects of water management.
• Ensuring that the environmental and social needs of future generations are reflected in current policies and practices.
• Focusing water development policies toward eradicating poverty and improving the livelihoods of women and men.

Given that water is key to meeting most of the Millennium Development Goals, the solution is not only in developing new technologies and increasing supply, but also in managing the available resource effectively, efficiently and equitably. It also entails a rational assessment of the competing demands for water and equitable allocations based on a list of priorities that take into account the needs of all stakeholders.

It is against this background that there has been a move towards water reforms aimed at improved water resources management. During the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, world leaders set a target for all countries to develop IWRM and water efficiency plans by 2005. It is through the IWRM planning process, with multi-stakeholder consultations, that issues of equity, access and creation of an enabling environment can be addressed. The major challenge has been the meaningful involvement of women and men from the grassroots.

Challenges of gendered approaches in water governance

Water governance refers to the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to regulate the development and management of water resources and provision of services at different levels of society. The involvement of women water users in stakeholder consultations and forums demands specific attention and approaches. The current tools used in multi-stakeholder consultations are mainly suited for an educated, literate group, and will require adaptation for use at the local level. Many women for example, in conservative social contexts, face cultural constraints that prevent them from speaking in public while poor women face economic constraints that do not allow them to voice their needs.

Water has been classified as an economic good, and has a cost attached to its development, distribution, operation and maintenance. While the principle of paying for water is justified, and sometimes necessary, poor women are often not able to afford the tariffs that have been set. Access to safe and affordable water is also a basic human right and this right should also inform discussions on the economic value of water. It has been acknowledged that those who cannot pay should at least pay in kind — but for the poor there is an opportunity cost to this when their time could have been used for earning income. Often when free labour is required, women usually provide it, but if there is paid work it usually goes to men.

The efficacy of IWRM derives from institutional frameworks with sufficient capacity to manage water resources. It is assumed that the institutions will be accountable and transparent. However, there is little attention to gender concerns in the water governance structures or processes. This problem needs to be addressed and constraints to mainstreaming gender in water institutions identified. Institutions are grounded in norms, culture, market systems and policies that often perpetuate gender inequalities (Odgaard, 2002). Poor women and men’s practical and locally important knowledge is rarely recognised or tapped, and many lack the skills necessary for participating in committees. For most poor women and men, time is a valuable resource and its use in meetings has to be balanced with their domestic and income generating activities.

Power relations also influence the way water is allocated and the choice of technology. An irrigation pipeline is generally associated with productive use of water, and men have more influence than women over the utilisation of the resources. A hand-dug well on the other hand is generally associated with women’s domestic use of water. While this use can be considered productive, and provides benefits to women and men, it may not be given a priority. The decision-making mechanisms and politics associated with water allocations have different implications for men and women.

The natural environment shapes the way poor women and men access water and the way they relate to water management structures. Frequent droughts or perennial scarcity of water means that the poor often do not have access to water or have to use poor quality water. Women and men in marginalised areas lacking in infrastructure, and removed from the central government will access water through different local systems, rather than through organised services provided by governments. This further implicates their level of participation in decision-making compared to those who are more centrally located.

An emerging challenge in governance is the issue of the rights of girls and boys. In sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has created a rise in the number of child-headed households. Decision-making in governance has always assumed that there will be adult men (and sometimes women) as heads of households. Children heading households are under age and unable to express their choices in public because of their young age and low socio-economic status. Water governance needs to take account of the needs and roles of girls and boys in water services provision.

Community management has been identified as a mechanism for ensuring effective water governance at the local level, especially for common property resources. It is often assumed that the local institutions are inclusive and take care of fair distribution of resources. However, in reality, communities consist of different categories of men and women in different positions of power aiming to improve their own situations. Effective water governance needs to incorporate a differentiated analysis of community and community management.

The Way Forward

Good water governance designed to ensure effective water resources management that allows for decision making from all stakeholders, including poor women and men, should provide access to safe and affordable drinking water and basic sanitation for all, and meet water needs for improved livelihoods. It would also allow for the development of an enabling environment including supportive policies, legal instruments and fair pricing structures.

Currently there is little evidence to suggest that water management has deliberately and consciously addressed gender concerns. Effective gender-sensitive water management will require:

• A conscious effort to consult with men and women during the planning processes. This can be achieved through the use of gender-inclusive participatory tools designed to engage grassroots women and men.
• A focus on gender in IWRM should not only target civil society, but should also address all water management structures and institutions, recognising the different constraints faced by men and women, and ensuring that there is equity.
• Capacity building at all levels is a critical component of water governance and for the incorporation of gender concerns.
• Issues of gender, governance and water management should not be viewed as women’s issues only but should be recognised as broad issues of power relations, control and access to resources by disadvantaged groups, who may be women, children or men.
• The importance of social aspects of water management also needs to be taken into account. Women play a central role in managing water for social, hygiene, health and productive uses.

Four Key steps of a gender-approach in governance[1]

Information

Context-specific information about women and men’s different experiences, problems and priorities is essential to effective gender mainstreaming. Statistical information should be routinely disaggregated into women and men’s experiences, with gender analysis being part of the situational analysis. This will assist in identifying inequalities where they exist and in making a case for developing policies that address these inequalities.

Consultation, advocacy and decision making

It is important that women and marginalised groups have a strong voice to ensure that their views are taken into account. This means promoting the involvement of women and men in consultation and decision making from the community to the highest levels of management.

Action to promote gender sensitive beneficiary groups

Action to promote greater equality in decision making and opportunity for poor women and men should be based on context specific sex-disaggregated data and gender analytical information.

Action to promote gender sensitive organisations

Gendered approaches in water governance will depend on the skills, knowledge and commitment of staff involved in implementation and management. Developing appropriate capacity in staff as well as addressing gender difference and inequality in organisations is crucial to creating inclusive water sector organisations.

Water governance cannot be good governance if there is no deliberate attempt to address the institutions, policies, legal frameworks and technology instruments that perpetuate gender inequalities. A gender approach in governance should be an integral part of setting up governance structures and mechanisms.

[1] Adapted from Derbyshire, 2002.