Presentation made by Barbara van Koppen, Rural Sociologist & Gender Expert at IWMI, World Water Week, August 26-31, 2012, Stockholm, Sweden

1. An integrated approach to the AMCOW gender
strategy: productive/multiple water uses
Barbara van Koppen
Concrete Actions: Gender,
Water and Food Security
Stockholm Water Week 2012
Photo: David Brazier/IWMI
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

2. Policy
formulated
and
Targets & Cooperation
implemented
Human and
and financial
indicators coordination
strengthened
resources
mobilized
for M&E,
targets &
AMCOW’s Human and
indicators
Project
institutional approaches
gender capacity at all
levels
at all levels
gender
equality developed Strategic
knowledge
sensitive
produced,
in water shared and
applied
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

3. Defining ‘gender equality in water’
• Equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities in economic,
social, cultural and political aspects of water development
and management
• Equal valuing of gender similarities
and differences (risk of sexual
assaults, domestic chores, etc)
• Indicators towards equality:
assess gender gaps and set ambitious,
time-bound indicators for closing the gaps
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

4. Unpacking ‘gender equality in water’
a) water: a special resource
– water uses require different quantities/qualities
– domestic uses are universal; productive uses are
context-specific
– water is one, and not necessarily the limiting input
– water storage and conveyance (labor, technologies)
is costly
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

5. Unpacking ‘gender equality in water’:
b) users and professionals
As water users: multiple uses for multiple livelihood benefits
• As target group or customers of public investments
• As investors in own private technologies
As public and private water professionals:
• As public service providers, resource managers and policy
makers
• As parastatal and private water business women/men
! Complex relationships between these two categories !
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

6. access to Socio-economic,
political gender
0
resources equality
in all classes
Land, Gendered water needs
Skills, credit, and potentials
safety markets
Equal water uses
a
Equal control
over water
technologies
Equal control
over water
resources

7. Indicators for users’ livelihoods:
beyond the domestic-productive divide
1. Alleviate women’s/girls’
domestic chores as a priority
across the water sector
2. Also recognize women as producers
with context-specific productive water
needs across the water sector;
both as female heads of households and
as spouses in family-based production.
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

8. Indicators for users’ livelihoods:
MUS to homesteads: a universal human right?
50-100 lpcd; 5 lpcd safe
‘most MDG per drop’
resilient food and income….
health
time
..from crops
..from enterprise
..from livestock
..from fish

9. Indicators for water uses
Example village water users counts
Technology
Water Number of beneficiaries by gender
(Number/
sources and vulnerability status
sites)
Surface Direct use 70 poor women domestic
streams 20 poor men cattle
1 Dam 10 less poor men irrigators
5 less poor women irrigators
5 less poor men cattle dry season
3 Fishpond 5 less poor men
1 Irrigation 20 poor and 5 less poor men
irrigators
Ground 5 Shallow 30 poor women
water wells
3 Boreholes 25 less poor women
Community-garden
Rain water 15 households for multiple uses
harvesting
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

10. Indicators for water uses-PLUS
• PLUS: equal opportunities to make beneficial use of water
– Hygiene education, also for men
– Safety/privacy in water transport and sanitation
– Secure land tenure (homesteads, fields)
– Access to production factors: Inputs, capital, credits, extension,
skills, markets, electricity connections, etc.
Distinguish: individuals, female heads of households, and spouses
in intra-household production relations (e.g. joint titling)
– ETC
• Requires strategic partnerships of water sector with other
initiatives !
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

11. Indicators for control over technologies:
as target group of public investments (any uses)
Equality in planning:
• needs assessment and prioritization,
• technology choice, siting and/or land re-allocation, compensation in
displacement
• training on technical know-how, construction employment and pay
• operation, maintenance, and monitoring; training
Equality in Water User Associations membership and leadership
• Context specific quota?
– > 50% for domestic uses and women-managed productive uses;
– < 50% for male-dominated productive uses.
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

12. Indicators for control over technologies:
as investors in own technologies
• Investing in own collective technologies:
– Inclusion in community planning, construction, operation and
maintenance institutions for self-supply
• Investing in private technologies:
– Equal access to technologies (land tenure security, information,
technical training, capital, etc)
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

13. Indicators for control over technologies
as professionals
• As public service providers, policy makers, and private
water business women/men
– Equality in education, training and job opportunities at all levels
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

14. Indicators for control over water resources
As users
• Water resources allocation
– equal distribution of water
– non-discrimination in plural water laws (e.g. customary water
law; permits vested in individuals or jointly in spouses)
• Protection against pollution
• Protection against floods
As professionals
• Equal participation in national and basin management
organizations from local to transboundary level
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

15. Thank you for your attention
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org