Checklist of strategy options for incorporating gender in water & sanitation

Levels/Objectives/Options

Key Stakeholders22

Level:Country Policy
Objective: Develop and implement more efficient, cost-effective, and demand-responsive water and sanitation policies by incorporating gender issues.
Options:

• Introduce gender issues in sector reviews, policy workshops, and other activities that are part of policy development.
• Put gender issues on the agenda of annual sector meetings and policy implementation reviews.
• Include gender expertise on policy development and implementation teams.

Government ministries, donor agencies, women’s and other NGOs, and sometimes user groups

Level:National Water and Sanitation Programs
Objective: Improve country-level program design and implementation by incorporating gender concerns.
Options:

• Include gender issues in country program framework.
• Include gender-related guidelines and principles in country program.
• Employ gender analysis in designing projects.
• Include government staff with gender expertise in monitoring the national program.
• Monitor gender issues regularly.

Government ministries, donor agencies, women’s and other NGOs, and user groups

Level:Water and Sanitation Projects
Objective: Design and implement projects that are driven by the demands of both men and women.

Options:
Project Design:

• Structure project rules and procedures to facilitate participation by both men and women.
• Determine gender roles in the sector in the proposed project area.
• Determine barriers to gender-appropriate project implementation.
• Determine steps to reducing or removing the barriers.
• Make projects flexible so they may adapt appropriately as more is learned about gender issues.
• Include a gender expert on the team during project design/preparation.

Implementation and Supervision:

• Amend project rules and procedures as needed to facilitate participation by both men and women in implementation.
• Ensure that project management is aware of the importance of gender issues through training, workshops, and study tours.
• Include gender experts on project implementation staff.
• Prevent ìfade-outî on attention to gender through specific tracking during supervision

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E):

• Collect, tabulate, and analyze indicators by gender as appropriate.
• ? Include specific indicators addressing gender issues in project M&E systems.
• Examine gender-related M&E indicators during supervision.

Project staff, local government, and user groups

Level:Community
Objective: Increase project sustainability by improving implementation at community level.

Options:
Project Design:

• Base menís and womenís involvement on the local cultural context: for example, separate meetings of men and women or female staff meeting with community women, where necessary.
• Use participatory techniques to ensure both womenís and menís participation in project decisionmaking concerning:
  Technology choice
  Cost recovery
  O&M arrangements.
• Obtain menís and womenís preferences about
  Technology design
  Siting of facilities.

Operations and Maintenance:

• Suggest that a certain percentage of water and sanitation committee members be women.
• Suggest that women should hold at least one water and sanitation officer post, such as treasurer.
• Provide training for both men and women in the roles they are to fill in the project.
• Include additional training for women in leadership and organization, as appropriate.
• Train both women and men in basic O&M techniques.

Project staff, community members, and women’s and other NGOs