Gender and equity

Gender Analysis
Gender analysis and gender sensitive participation strategies are important tools to implement a gender approach.

A gender approach to planning, implementing and evaluating water and sanitation projects means giving attention to five key issues:

• who has the information: men, women, or both?
• who does the work: men, women, or both?
• who makes the decisions: men, women, or both?
• who gets the benefits: water, training, jobs - men, women, or both?
• who controls the benefits (service, income, training): men, women, or both?

Gender Approach
Gender concerns women and men, how they cooperate and share work, decisions and control in projects and programmes. A gender approach enhances the participation of women and men in such a way that both sexes contribute to and benefit equitably from improvements.

What makes a Programme or Project Gender-Sensitive?

The design process includes gender analysis. Objectives and strategies are explicit about gender equity. Project interventions are based on the results of the gender analysis. Teams have a gender balance and gender skills at all levels. Data in monitoring and Management Information Systems (MIS) is gender-desegregated. Evaluation of the staff includes gender-sensitive behaviour and performance. The gender approach is integrated in the social and technical components of projects.

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