Leadership and voice: more than add women and stir
Why is women’s leadership and voice important? Why is it relevant to WASH?
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Why is women’s leadership and voice important? Why is it relevant to WASH?
What is women’s empowerment? How do you measure it? Why is it relevant to the WASH?
Empowerment, and more specifically women’s empowerment, is among the most fuzzy concepts within international development. This article looks at how it has evolved drawing on key international feminist thinkers, concluding that women’s empowerment is best understood as a process rather than an end goal, where marginalised women are able to set their own political agendas, to access resources, form movements and achieve lasting change in gender and social power structures.
What is intersectionality? How can you apply it in practice? What relevance does it have for WASH?
This short article delves into some of the key proponents and literature that gave rise to the concept of intersectionality, the debates that informed its evolution and use, and shares some insights on how to “ask the other question” to inform more nuanced development approaches.
Les débats sur le genre dans les programmes d’assainissement et d’hygiène (A&H) se concentrent souvent sur les rôles, les positions ou les impacts exercés sur les femmes et les filles, qui supportent l’essentiel de la charge de travail liée à l’eau, l’assainissement et l’hygiène (EAH). Les efforts déployés pour améliorer l’A&H et modifier les normes sociales ne mobilisent pas toujours activement les hommes et les garçons de la manière la plus efficace ou la plus transformationnelle.
As discussões sobre género em saneamento e higiene (S&H) centram-se geralmente nos papéis, posições ou impactos nas mulheres e raparigas, a quem cabe a maior carga de trabalho relacionada com água, saneamento e higiene (water, sanitation & hygiene, WASH). Os esforços para melhorar o S&H e mudar as normas sociais nem sempre envolvem activamente homens e rapazes da maneira mais eficaz ou transformadora.
Globally, preterm birth (PTB) and low infant birth weight (LBW) are leading causes of maternal and child morbidity and mortality. Inadequate water and sanitation access (WASH) are risk factors for PTB and LBW in low-income countries. Physical stress from carrying water and psychosocial stress from addressing sanitation needs in the open may be mechanisms underlying these associations. If so, then living in a community with strong social capital should be able to buffer the adverse effects of WASH on birth outcomes.
The widespread prevalence of unimproved sanitation technologies has been a major cause of concern for the environment and public health, and China is no exception to this. Towards the sanitation issue, toilet revolution has become a buzzword in China recently. This paper elaborates the backgrounds, connotations, and actions of the toilet revolution in China. The toilet revolution aims to create sanitation infrastructure and public services that work for everyone and that turn waste into value.
Discussions of gender in sanitation and hygiene (S&H) often focus on the roles, positions or impacts on women and girls, who bear the greatest burden of work related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Efforts to improve S&H and change social norms do not always actively engage men and boys in the most effective or transformative way. We must learn more about the roles men and boys actually play and – if necessary – how they can be modified to make efforts more successful.
This desk review explores existing literature and examples of men’s and boys’ behaviours and gender roles in sanitation and hygiene (S&H) and the extent to which the engagement of men and boys in S&H processes is leading to sustainable and transformative change in households and communities. We developed an analytical framework for the review clustered around 3 areas: with men as objects to change, agents of change and partners for change.
This short paper presented at the 41st WEDC conference highlights the need for adequate lighting within WASH facilities in humanitarian contexts.