Chapter 5 Gender Mainstreaming in Water Sector Policies and Institutions

What is a Gender Policy?

A gender policy inclusive of intersecting identities of race, class, caste, ethnicity, age, ability, and geographical location. is a public statement of a country’s or an organisation’s commitment to taking gender issues seriously, and a framework for what this means in the context of the organisation’s work. A gender policy in water resources management relates to both of the following:

• the organisation’s work: - i.e. women’s and men’s involvement in the planning, construction, operation, maintenance and management of domestic water supply, irrigation, sanitation or environmental protection;
• the organisation’s internal culture and staffing – issues affecting female and male staff at work; for example, recruitment, promotion and training opportunities for female and male staff, sexual discrimination and harassment, and issues such as child care, paternity or maternity leave, and safe travel arrangements (Gender and Water Alliance, 2003).

Why Develop a Gender Policy?

The development of a gender policy is a necessary and common starting point for focusing attention on gender issues in an organisation and its work. For organisations which have already taken some steps towards promoting gender sensitivity (for example, through providing staff with training and guidelines), development of a gender policy is an opportunity to consolidate and formalise the steps they have taken, and think strategically about the future. A gender policy provides:

• a valuable opportunity to involve staff and other key stakeholders in thinking through why gender and social equity are important to the organisation’s work and what the implications are for practice;
• a public statement of the organisation’s commitment to taking gender issues seriously;
• agreed gender-related action and indicators of change;
• an instrument of accountability against which to evaluate the organisation’s performance.

Gender policy development and implementation require an on-going strategy for the capacity building of all members and partners of the institution or organisation.

Policy development is not a one-off process. It is important to re-visit gender policies that have been in existence for some time, evaluate performance, review lessons learnt, and develop and launch revised policy commitments accordingly. Policy formulation should be a continuous process.

Policy Components

Three distinct components are important for an effective gender policy:

• Situational analysis – examining gender issues concerning beneficiary groups and the organisation itself. The latter includes an examination of staff knowledge, skills, commitment and practices in relation to gender issues, and an examination of gender issues affecting staff (such as gender differences in promotion opportunities or sexual harassment at work).
• The policy itself – this should be devised on the basis of the situation analysis and comprise an explanation of why the organisation considers gender issues to be important, the organisation’s vision of gender-sensitive practice, and the various ways in which this understanding will influence the organisation’s work.
• An implementation strategy or action plan – this sets out in detail how the policy will be implemented over a specific time period, including activities, time-bound targets, budgets, responsibility and indicators for monitoring and evaluation.

Policy documents are usually public documents. Strategies and action plans are usually internal documents. Some organisations include aspects of their situation analysis in public documentation; others confine public documentation to the policy itself. Policies vary enormously in length – from two to several pages depending on what organisations choose to include in them.

Enabling Institutions

The implementation of a policy will depend to a large extent on a supportive institutional framework. It is therefore necessary to pay attention to the organisation itself. Developing appropriate understanding, commitment and capacity as well as addressing issues of gender inequality within an institution or organisation is a long-term process of organisational change. Activities such as capacity building, budget allocation, setting of indicators and monitoring need to be undertaken. The table below summarises some of the organisational pressure points important for implementing gender-sensitive policy.

Table: Organisational Points for Gender Mainstreaming Institutions

Source: Adapted from Derbyshire, 2002.