Gender issues in the management of water projects in Nepal

Abstract

Based on the findings of the research, a number of conclusions have been drawn. Some of those conclusions are as follows: i) Drinking water projects in Nepal are still concerned with meeting only the practical gender needs of community women and men but not with women's strategic gender interests since the water sector at all other levels - international, national, institutional, and project that affect the outcomes of projects at the community level - is gender weak. The NGO sector seems to be relative more gender sensitive than others though it also has to go a long way in order to be truly gender sensitive in its activities. ii) The community level framework of women' strategic gender interests, consisting of five indicators suggested in this research for a gender analysis of impact in the water sector, appears to be useful and relevant. However, the research findings suggest that these five indicators should be split into six to make the framework more realistic, user-friendly and comprehensive. The suggested framework should now include: women's physical presence in project activities, women's participation in decision-making, changes in the traditional gender division of labour, women's access to and control over income, equity in sharing of benefits, and women's increased status leading to new development initiatives. iii) The institutional level framework, consisting of eight indicators suggested in this research to study gender issues at the agency level, is quite useful and relevant. Nonetheless, the research findings suggest that some of these eight indicators should be split to make the framework even more relevant and comprehensive. The suggested framework now includes ten indicators as follows: policy-formulating mechanisms, objectives and strategies, personnel policies, organisational structure, organisational culture and management style, provision of gender training, provision of capital and human resources, sharing of power between women and men staff, role of change agents, and relationships with external agencies. Based on the findings of this research and these conclusions, some action plans have been developed to improve gender sensitivity at all these levels in the drinking water sector.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata