Women In The Community

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This week, I will discuss the role of women in water management and their participation in decision-making processes. This blog will focus on women's historically marginalized position from participation as well as the barriers facing them, and the opportunity for women in positions of power and governance. For numerous reasons, women have typically been detached from decision-making processes in relation to water which reinforces the social inequalities in regards to access to water. Similarly, other marginalized groups such as poor communities, ethnic minorities and the elderly are equally subjected to this inequality.  Due to this, a participatory framework where all stakeholders and citizens are involved in decision making is now part of the contemporary development approach carried out by many development agencies in order to aid the engagement of women in water-related development processes (Coulter et al., 2019). As discussed in previous blog posts, in many sub-Saharan African communities women are the primary household decision-maker regarding water. However, this decision making isn't translated to domains outside the household. Therefore, many sources have suggested that there is a large knowledge base lost through not including women in community water management as they have arguably the best understanding of water availability, access and quality in communities (IFAD, 2012).  However, getting women involved in decision making isn't an easy process as there are multiple barriers to their participation. The infographic below is taken from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations showing the countries in Africa with the highest female participation rates in cooperatives. 

Source: FAO
Barriers to Women's Participation

Coulter et al (2019) separates the barriers faced by women into two categories; cultural and practical. The cultural barriers comprised of patriarchal societies, norms and beliefs, social risks and passive participation by women. For a lot of women, the idea of getting involved in decision making in the community is overshadowed by the fear of being intimidated or disrespected by the men also involved. Normative standards for gender roles indicate that women shouldn't be involved therefore it is not uncommon for women to receive criticism from the men in their communities. A study in Ghana and Namibia found that women mentioned feelings of lack of confidence and shyness in relation to taking up positions of power and involvement in community water management (Yerian et al., 2014). There was also an indication that a lack of women in leadership also discouraged women from being involved. Those women that did participate were more often rich women who did not necessarily present the views of all women and further exacerbating the marginalized poor and minority ethnic women (Yerian et al., 2014).

Furthermore, the practical barriers were identified as time restrictions, financial difficulties, and low literacy and language skills. As a result of women being the primary water collectors and carrying out most domestic tasks, there is often a lack of time in their day to get involved in community water management groups. Similarly, financial difficulties may not allow them to get involved. On top of this, many women may view their low literacy as a barrier and not have the confidence to participate, especially in leadership positions (IFAD, 2012). Coulter et al (2019)  study identified that 96% of females surveyed expressed interest in memberships for water-resource user associations or already had memberships, however, 87% identified barriers to gaining memberships or leadership positions. 

Source: Women in Turbi queueing to collect water (Yerian et al., 2014)

Participatory Development Approaches in Zambia

Due to these barriers development agencies and cooperatives have attempted to use participatory development approaches to break down the barriers. The IFAD supported Smallholder Irrigation and Water Use Programme in Zambia used drama groups for this purpose (IFAD, 2012). This created a better sense of awareness amongst communities regarding gender roles and participation. Specifically highlighting the importance of women being involved in water-resource user associations and defeating the social stigmas surrounding this. As seen in the first infographic, according to the IFAD, Zambia has the highest rate of female participation at 70% of women being involved. Although there were no robust results from the use of the drama groups it was noted that committees usually had an average of three women and five men members. 

The Future of Water Management

Finding a way to promote and include women's voices in the conversation of water-related decision making is still something that research teams and government ministries still find challenging. At present we haven't heard nearly enough from women regarding solutions to improving access to safe water although some would say women-only workshops is a possible solution. Whereby the workshops are led by women, chaired by women, and decisions made by women to improve women's participation. 

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