Gender, water, environmental health : an inventory of SIDA-supported programmes

Promotion of women's participation in water and environmental health projects has been a goal of SIDA since the early 1980s. Documentation of projects however did not include any gender specific data on participation nor information on form and content of contacts between projects and target populations. The study deals with 4 SIDA projects: SWACH in India, KWALE in Kenya, HESAWA in Tanzania, and SWIP in Uganda. In general SIDA's strategy has accomplished its goal of providing better quality water closer to the home. The study shows that during the pre-assessment and early implementation stages participation is limited, the projects are designed as ready-made packages with little flexibility. In all projects there is friction between the social mobilisers and the well drilling teams, because of the time it takes to mobilise the local population. Women's involvement is weak and often limited due to three causes: limited awareness of women's participation on the part of the projects and ministries because there is no gender specific information; limited participation of women in general meetings, where most project related decisions are taken; and recruitment for various posts within the project is skewed, women are often excluded from technical jobs and training. "Local culture", preventing women from participating is an often heard reason for this situation. Recommendations and an indication of issues for future research are given.