Water and Gender: An Introduction
Interactions between social systems and ecosystems, or people and the environment, can be referred to as Human Ecology. This relationship linking human behaviour and the natural world is often critiqued through development challenges. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presents many of these development challenges and aims to create solutions. SDG 6 states a universal and equitable access to safe water and sanitation, and SDG 5 states gender equality. Linking these together to create a gendered perspective of resource and sanitation issues has been recognised to be critical for gender equality (UN Water, 2020) . The relationship between water and gender is one of many complexities. Water related issues such as hygiene, water collection, agriculture, and household food security affect men and women in varying ways. For this reason, this blog aims to unpack water and gender discourses in the context of Africa over the course of the next few months. When writing about Africa, as re