How partnerships are driving inclusion in the WASH sector
Partnerships between civil service organizations, research institutions, and local governments are helping to elevate the voices of women and other underrepresented groups and create more inclusive solutions in the WASH space.
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Despite being responsible for water collection in about 80% of households where it’s not available on the premises, women and girls have traditionally been underrepresented in the design and decision-making process for WASH services. Long-term and inclusive partnerships can and are changing this, however, with civil society organizations, or CSOs, research institutions, and local governments working together to elevate the voices of women and other underrepresented groups in the water, sanitation, and hygiene space.
Worldwide, 1 in 3 people still lack access to safe drinking water, and 3 billion don’t have basic hand-washing facilities. Safe sanitation remains unavailable to more than half of the global population, and over 670 million people practice open defecation. Access to WASH services can also vary significantly between urban and rural settings, and installing new facilities is considered easier than maintaining existing ones in many cases.
Understanding these disparities and the challenges that women and other marginalized groups face is a critical first step in providing more inclusive solutions. Research — particularly in conjunction with civil society organizations on the ground — is a great way to capture and amplify those voices, according to Juliet Willetts, a professor and research director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures with the University of Technology Sydney.
Photo: SNV Bhutan/ Aidan Dockery
Elevating marginalized voices in decision-making processes
With funding from the Water for Women Fund, the Australian government's flagship WASH program, Willetts’ team has been supporting research in various locations across Southeast Asia, working closely with CSOs, special-interest organizations, and universities to look at gender equality and women’s empowerment in the WASH space.
A female head of section in a district government agency, Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
In partnering with organizations that engage with and represent marginalized groups, “you're trying to hear their voices,” Willetts said. But for research partnerships to be truly meaningful, she said they must address the gaps identified by those working on the ground and provide insights that will be helpful to their work. “The point of doing research is that it gets used and it's applied, and it actually influences development, policy, and programming,” Willetts said.
Two female sub-district environmental health officers in Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
In Indonesia — just one of the countries where the University of Technology Sydney is supporting research — many citizens in and around the archipelago’s major cities spend up to two hours a day transporting water for drinking and cooking, while basic sanitation services are only available in 40% of schools.
The UTS team is building evidence on how the WASH sector can better leverage relationships with gender equity organizations and other partners. Photo: UTS-ISF
Willetts’ team is building evidence on how the WASH sector can better leverage relationships with gender equity organizations and other partners as a point of entry into communities. Aligning with Water for Women requirements, CSOs are involved from the initial proposal stage to ensure research is relevant to their programming decisions, she said.
A female head of section in a district government agency, Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
A female head of section in a district government agency, Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
Two female sub-district environmental health officers in Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
Two female sub-district environmental health officers in Sumbawa, Indonesia. Photo: UTS-ISF
The UTS team is building evidence on how the WASH sector can better leverage relationships with gender equity organizations and other partners. Photo: UTS-ISF
The UTS team is building evidence on how the WASH sector can better leverage relationships with gender equity organizations and other partners. Photo: UTS-ISF
Water for Women is the Australian Government’s flagship WASH program, supporting improved health, gender equality, and well-being in Asian and Pacific communities through socially inclusive and sustainable WASH projects.
The program is partnering with 10 civil society organizations to deliver projects in 15 countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. These partnerships actively involve women, men, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups to build inclusive processes.
In Bhutan, involving rights-holder organizations in decision-making processes is already improving WASH services for marginalized groups. The nonprofit SNV Netherlands Development Organisation has been collaborating with these types of organizations in the country as part of an effort to make the WASH space more inclusive. One of its long-term partners is Ability Bhutan Society, an organization seeking to help “individuals with diverse abilities to live independently and with dignity.”
Chey Chey, an administrative and HR officer with ABS, said rights-holder organizations have a lot to offer if they are treated as equal partners.
“[Traditionally, the] government and … other stakeholders … perceive persons with disabilities as a beneficiary rather than an implementing partner, so they don't involve them from the initial phase” of a project, she said. As a result, many WASH facilities in parks, schools, and other public spaces in Bhutan are not accessible — and even where efforts have been made to build wheelchair-accessible toilets, for example, ramps are often missing, she said.
“Our organization [takes] a human rights approach [that puts] people at the center,” she continued, but “when we work with ministries and some international NGOs, [we see] they don't have the knowledge [of the] ground-level challenges that persons with disabilities face.”
SNV’s collaboration with ABS is part of a wider effort to increase equitable and universal access to safely managed sanitation and hygiene across the country. ABS, while small in size, has now become a prominent player in the sector domestically and brought new voices to discussions on topics such as accessibility and technology.
ABS team members also join SNV staff members on trips to remote districts, which would otherwise be difficult and expensive to reach, and use these as opportunities to sensitize local leaders, disseminate information, and collect data.
Training for male and female masons and entrepreneurs organized by SNV in Bhutan. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
Training for male and female masons and entrepreneurs organized by SNV in Bhutan. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
Community level meetings are held to create demand for sanitation services and support leadership. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
Community level meetings are held to create demand for sanitation services and support leadership. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
Elderly, female headed households are priority groups to support in the last mile of district wide coverage. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
Elderly, female headed households are priority groups to support in the last mile of district wide coverage. Photo: SNV Bhutan / Aiden Dockery
The importance of local partner knowledge
Recent research from the Solomon Islands points to the importance of gender-inclusive decision-making processes — specifically, the involvement of women on committees appointed by local chiefs that are responsible for the water management in each community.
Across the Pacific region, WASH-related diseases are among the leading causes of death for children under 5. In the Solomon Islands, 27% of people lack access to hygiene services. There are also huge disparities in urban and rural access to WASH services, as well as a lack of ownership of water services, said Hugo Bugoro, head of epidemiology and research at the Solomon Islands National University.
Since 2018, SINU has been partnering with the International Water Centre, with support from Plan International, to better understand the inequality of services between communities and why, in many cases, new water systems are installed but not sustained once a program finishes. The project has been supporting gender equitable capacity-building in the communities while evidence collected in the past two years has highlighted that water committees with more women have better water management systems.
“We know that globally ... especially in the rural communities ... it is the women [and children] who spend most of the time on [collecting] water,” Bugoro said. “[From the] findings, what we see is those communities that have good water systems ... [have the] women's voice, the youth voice in there.”
Understanding the connection between clean water and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, Bugoro had a special interest in WASH. While this wasn’t previously an area of research that SINU had been active in, the institution’s experts possess essential local knowledge; the Solomon Islands, for example, are home to more than 80 languages, which impacts the culture and the approaches required in each community, according to Bugoro. Having local people involved in the design and collection of the data is therefore very important, he added.
Through in-person and remote workshops led by the International WaterCentre, younger staff members and aspiring researchers have also been able to develop knowledge of WASH-related techniques that will benefit the university and the country for years to come, Bugoro said.
Creating mutually beneficial collaborations
Partnerships that are mutually beneficial are more sustainable, according to Water for Women, and this principle informs all projects supported by the Fund.
A hand washing station at health facility being used by health post staff in Sarlahi district, Nepal. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
In Nepal, where 36% of people have access to limited hygiene services, SNV’s team is working with local and national governments, among other partners, as part of a five-year project to deliver sustainable water supply services to rural areas. In addition to collaborating with the Institute for Sustainable Futures on knowledge and learning activities, the team is engaging disabled people's organizations, or DPOs, to improve their participation on existing rural municipal-level WASH coordination committees.
SNV’s team is working with the local and national governments in implementing a five-year inclusive rural water services project. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
These committees were previously mostly composed of government, civil society, and school representatives, but people with disabilities were missing from the conversation, said Ratan Budhathoki, project leader with SNV in Nepal. By engaging DPOs and facilitating regular meetings, he said the WASH coordination committees at both rural municipality and ward levels have been “reformed and revitalized.”
The team is partnering with disabled people's organizations, or DPOs, to improve their participation on existing rural municipal-level WASH coordination committees. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
Inclusive WASH committees were formed, with representatives from women-led organizations and DPOs, as well as donors, to facilitate discussions around gender and social inclusion and to encourage the use of relevant self-assessment tools. The rural municipalities involved in the project now invite DPO representatives to participate in planning processes and conversations around budget allocations for WASH services, so all partners have benefited, Budhathoki said.
A hand washing station at health facility being used by health post staff in Sarlahi district, Nepal. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
A hand washing station at health facility being used by health post staff in Sarlahi district, Nepal. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
SNV’s team is working with the local and national governments in implementing a five-year inclusive rural water services project. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
SNV’s team is working with the local and national governments in implementing a five-year inclusive rural water services project. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
The team is partnering with disabled people's organizations, or DPOs, to improve their participation on existing rural municipal-level WASH coordination committees. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
The team is partnering with disabled people's organizations, or DPOs, to improve their participation on existing rural municipal-level WASH coordination committees. Photo: Surya Prasad Chalise, RWUA
► “Partnerships are only sustainable when each organization is able to achieve its own goals as well as the goals of the partnership,” said Donna Holden, partnership specialist at the Water for Women Fund. Identifying and understanding the mandate and priorities of partner organizations is key to the Fund’s approach and a principle that informs all the partnerships and projects it supports, she said.
► Build in regular checks and create “explicit spaces” where partners can discuss how they are benefiting from the collaboration and what changes they would like to see, said Juliet Willetts, a professor and research director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures with the University of Technology Sydney. Adaptability is another key principle of all partnerships supported by Water for Women.
► To work in genuine partnership, research partners should be willing to “loosen their grip” on processes. “If you’re too tight on [processes] … and not open to changes, then it’s very hard to accommodate CSOs’ interests and needs,” Willetts said.
In Nepal, menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) champions visit women in their homes to promote the use of sanitary pads and other menstrual hygiene products. Photo: SNV Nepal/Nico Hertweck
In Nepal, menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) champions visit women in their homes to promote the use of sanitary pads and other menstrual hygiene products. Photo: SNV Nepal/Nico Hertweck
Partner organizations have also adapted their terminology and approaches. “We have [helped] change their thinking and perspective, and now persons with disabilities feel more comfortable to speak, to participate in meetings, and to approach ... us and our partners,” Budhathoki said.
Investing time and resources in translating findings — whether from institutional research or collaborations with grassroots organizations — is important. There is no use in just pointing out problems to an organization, which in many cases will already be aware of them, said Willetts from the University of Technology Sydney; instead, findings need to support the development of new ideas or strategies and to influence change to make policies more inclusive.
Photo: iDE / Tyler Kozole
Credits
Reporter: Emma Smith
Editor: Richard Jones
Copyeditor: Layne Flower
Photos: UTS-ISF / SNV Nepal / SNV Bhutan / RWUA / CGIAR / iDE
Multimedia producer: Naomi Mihara
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