Gender-Sensitive Approach
One of the keys to ensure that water and sanitation services are sustainable over time
Participation and empowerment
Gender equality is key to ensuring that water and sanitation services are sustainable over time and that human rights are enforced. The gender-sensitive approach is therefore present in all of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation’s programmes from their conception and is maintained throughout their implementation. This means that programmes have specific indicators on women’s participation and involvement, gender diagnostics are carried out and training activities for women are established. In addition, outcomes are measured by taking into account aspects such as women’s participation in management organisations, such as community water boards.
Throughout 2021, progress has been made in the development of these indicators and work is being done to obtain disaggregated data on the number of women and men who have participated in each of the training and awareness-raising activities developed by the programmes. With regard to the data already available, it should be noted that a total of 3,001 women form part of the community structures created or strengthened by law.
The Water Fund works specifically along five lines, related to the gender-sensitive approach:
Over the years, a number of lessons have been learned that allow for further elaboration of the gender-sensitive approach. Among the lessons learned, it is worth highlighting the need to support an adequate institutional legal framework in partner countries for the incorporation of equality plans; to materialise the economic empowerment of women by including the gender-sensitive approach in the terms of reference of programmes, the obligation to include clauses indicating that the training and hiring of women must be carried out under the same conditions as men, etc… Furthermore, information must be collected, the processes carried out must be systematised and the results obtained must be measured.
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Empowering Rural Women in the Water and Sanitation Sector
La equidad de género es una de las líneas fundamentales de la alianza del Gobierno de España y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), es un elemento transversal de los programas del Fondo de Cooperación para Agua y Saneamiento (FCAS) y una de las claves para garantizar servicios equitativos y sostenibles, puesto que cuando la mujer participa en la gestión y administración de los sistemas, los impactos positivos son notables.
The following specific actions can be highlighted for 2021
Guatemala:
As part of the meeting “10 Years of Experience of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation and the Association for the Integral Development of Municipalities of the Altiplano Marquense FCAS/ADIMAM”, the Forum on “Women, Indigenous People and the Right to Water and Sanitation” was held In Guatemala, in which the work of gender mainstreaming in the FCAS in some of the projects carried out in Panama, Honduras and Guatemala itself was explained.
Ecuador:
In Ecuador, the programme Water and Sanitation in Dispersed Rural Communities in the Portoviejo District has enabled the implementation of the Women’s Community Training School, which is structured around three main axes: strengthening of self-esteem, decision-making and development of technical capacities and skills for the management and maintenance of drinking water and sanitation systems. This school is articulated as a living process, in which women share experiences and knowledge to deepen their realities and transform them through their own participation.
The programme has also formed the Agrupación Hermanas de la Tierra (Sisters of the Earth Group) which, in September 2021, launched the District Meeting of Sisters of the Earth, Justice and Equity, which served as a starting point for the construction of the rural women’s agenda in the Portoviejo district.
Haití:In 2020, a consultancy was launched in Haiti to analyse the role of women in the field of water, hygiene and sanitation in two intervention areas (one urban – Aquin – and one rural – Pilate). The initial analysis will serve as a basis for a future gender action plan.
Participation in Meetings and Conferences:
Sharing experiences and lessons learned with other actors in the sector is essential to further progress in mainstreaming gender equality in programmes.
In April 2021, the FCAS attended the webinar “Water, Sanitation and Gender”, organised by FOCARD-APS (Central American and Dominican Republic Drinking Water and Sanitation Forum), where various entities shared their work and approach to promote gender equality.
In October 2021, the Fund participated in the Second Forum of Female Engineers and Architects of El Salvador: Successful Gender Mainstreaming Experiences in Infrastructure Projects. The meeting provided an opportunity for the FCAS to share its many experiences in incorporating a gender perspective into its programmes.
In the same month, a conference organised by UNESCO was held with a view to concrete actions to be taken to ensure gender equality: “Accelerating Concrete Actions Towards Gender Equality in Water”, in which the Fund took part by sharing its experiences and good practices.
School for Female Leaders Awarded by GWOPA (Escuela de Lideresas):
In November 2021, the project “School for Female Leaders” was awarded by the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) -a UN-Habitat initiative. This initiative won second prize in the category “Successful Practices in Gender Mainstreaming in Water and Sanitation Programmes”. The award highlighted the value of the School for Female Leaders in promoting the incorporation of women into management and decision-making positions in water and sanitation systems.
The Schools for Female Leaders have proven to be an efficient intervention for gender mainstreaming in participation, particularly in contexts in which women face unequal power relations and high technical knowledge constraints. They have also boosted women’s individual self-esteem, ensuring their integration into community decision-making processes and spaces that were previously unattainable, providing them with access to information and technical knowledge.
