This research aims to provide a strengthened evidence base on partnerships with gender and women’s rights organisations as well as gender equality in WASH workforce development. It will also develop a multi-dimensional measure, and complementary qualitative methodologies, to assess attributable impacts of WASH on gender equality.
Despite increasing attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the WASH sector, there remain major gaps in evidence and guidance for practitioners and policy-makers. Three cross-cutting themes of women’s voice and leadership, intersectionality and empowerment draw on feminist theory and gender and development literature and underpin the research approach.
Project locations
Cambodia
Partnered with iDE Cambodia and Thrive Networks Cambodia Water for Women Projects
Nepal
Partnered with SNV Nepal Water for Women Project
Timor-Leste
Partnered with WaterAid Timor Water for Women Project
Indonesia
Partnered with Plan Indonesia Water for Women Project
Team and partners
Professor Juliet Willetts
Research Director
Profile
Melita Grant
Research Principal
Profile
Naomi Carrard
Research Principal
Profile
Jess MacArthur
Research Consultant and Doctoral Candidate
Profile
Diana Gonzalez Botero
Profile
Avni Kumar
Research Consultant
Profile
Dr. Therese Nguyen Thi Phuong Tam
University of Timor Leste
Research Consultant
Ajerino Vieira
University of Timor Leste
Research Consultant
Annie Soegito
Associate Researcher
Dr. Mia Siscawati
Universitas Indonesia
Head of Gender Studies Graduate Program
Nana Ratnasari
Universitas Indonesia
Researcher
Nailah Ila
Universitas Indonesia
Researcher
Latest
Working in Partnerships
When considering gender equality, disability and social inclusion in WASH, we need to look at both the people who are benefiting from and managing WASH systems, and the institutions that shape and deliver WASH services. We also need to transform these institutions so that they “walk the talk” of equality and inclusion.
Audio Surveys
Audio surveys allows users to submit short audio clips rather than typing responses. They are primarily used in self-administered internet-based surveys and replace open-response questions.
Unpacking significance
This simple framework can help unpack descriptions of change and untangle significance.
Research outputs
Inclusive WASH Workforce
This webpage provides guidance and tools to support inclusive workplaces in the WASH Sector
Working in Partnerships
This webpage provides examples of working in partnerships with rights holder’s organisations.
WASH-GEM
This webpage introduces guidance and tools to support the use of the WASH-GEM, a novel quantitative measure designed to assist practitioners and researchers in exploring gender outcomes associated with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs for women and men.
qualkit
This website shares a curated set of qualitative monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) tools designed for gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) programs. It focuses on remote applications during travel restricted times.
Foundational articles
Women’s empowerment: Sharpening our focus
To meaningfully contribute to women’s empowerment, development programs need to support transformation of the economic, political and social structures within which women in all their diversity live.
Type: Conversation Article
Date: March 2019
Leadership and voice: More than ‘add women and stir’
Transformative development requires women in all their diversity to have opportunities to lead and have their voices heard.
Type: Conversation Article
Date: March 2019
Intersectionality: Ask the other question
The international development sector is aware that multiple sources of disadvantage and discrimination impact peoples’ lives, and that marginalisation is magnified when these overlap and intersect.
Type: Conversation Article
Date: March 2019
Gender-transformative approaches in international development: A brief
history and five uniting principles
Gender inequality remains a persistent challenge in workforces globally, with the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) workforce no exception. This paper aimed to investigate gender dynamics in the Indonesian government WASH workforce at national and subnational levels and evolve conceptual foundations for this type of study.
Type: Journal Article
Date: November 2022
Citation:
MacArthur, J., Carrard, N., Davila, F., Grant, M., Megaw, T., Willetts, J., & Winterford, K. (2022). Gender-transformative approaches in international development: A brief history and five uniting principles. Women’s Studies International Forum. DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2022.102635
Inclusive WASH Workforce
Inclusive WASH Workforce Guidance
This guidance document is intended to support WASH workplaces to become more inclusive. It highlights the context and provides actionable ideas, tools and responses to GEDSI inequalities across the various stages in a career cycle, as represented in the framework above.
Type: Guidance
Date: December 2021
“Women who have a WASH job like me are proud and honoured”
This summary brief describes how women can participate in and benefit from being part of the government WASH workforce in Cambodia
Type: Summary Brief
Date: January 2022
Gender equality in the government water, sanitation, and hygiene workforce in Indonesia: An analysis through the Gender at Work framework
Gender inequality remains a persistent challenge in workforces globally, with the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) workforce no exception. This paper aimed to investigate gender dynamics in the Indonesian government WASH workforce at national and subnational levels and evolve conceptual foundations for this type of study.
Type: Journal Article
Date: September 2021
Citation: Soeters S, Siscawati M, Ratnasari, et al. (2021) Gender equality in the government water, sanitation, and hygiene workforce in Indonesia: an analysis through the Gender at Work framework. Development Studies Research 8(1). 280–293. DOI: 10.1080/21665095.2021.1978300
Women in Leadership- Reflections from the government WASH workforce in Indonesia
This summary brief presents the key findings from research to investigate gender dynamics in the Indonesian water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) government workforce at national and subnational levels, using the Gender at Work framework.
Type: Summary Brief
Date: December 2021
What will it take to strengthen diversity amongst female water, sanitation and hygiene entrepreneurs in Indonesia?
This summary brief presents the key findings from research to investigate the multi-dimensional enablers and barriers faced by female water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) entrepreneurs in the context of Eastern Indonesia.
Type: Summary Brief
Date: December 2021
Gender equality and women in WASH enterprises in Cambodia: A synthesis of studies
This synthesis of recent studies compiles literature and practical experiences of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working with women in WASH enterprises in Cambodia.
Type: Synthesis Report
Date: April 2020
Private Sector Learning Agenda: Reading List
This curated reading list compiles key resources related to private sector engagement in WASH, with a focus on inclusion.
Type: Reading List
Updated: March 2022
Civil Society Partnerships
Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
his guidance offers insights into effective partnerships between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector organisations and rights holder organisations (RHOs). It provides practical recommendations for effective collaboration in all types of partnerships and is designed to support organisations looking to begin, build or strengthen partnerships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
Type: Guidance
Date: August 2022
Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
his guidance offers insights into effective partnerships between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector organisations and rights holder organisations (RHOs). It provides practical recommendations for effective collaboration in all types of partnerships and is designed to support organisations looking to begin, build or strengthen partnerships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
Type: Summary Brief
Date: February 2022
Working together: A study of WASH and gender equality civil society partnerships in Timor-Leste
This summary brief shares highlights from a study that aimed to better understand connections and engagement between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) civil society organisations (CSOs) and women’s and gender equality and inclusion (GESI) CSOs in Timor-Leste.
Type: Summary Brief
Date: August 2022
Impact Evaluation
Quantitative – Measuring and exploring gendered change
Introducing the WASH-GEM
This summary document introduces the WASH-GEM – a quantitative measure to assist practitioners and researchers in assessing in changes gender outcomes associated with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programmes for women and men.
Type: Summary
Date: October 2020
The water, sanitation and hygiene gender equality measure (WASH-GEM): Conceptual foundations and domains of change
This journal article explores five design considerations critical for the robust design of quantitative measures of social change: conceptual framing; measurement focus; measurement context; sectoral scope; and evaluative scope. The paper then defines the WASH-GEM’s five domains of measurement: Resources; Agency; Critical consciousness; Wellbeing; and Structures, and discusses how we balanced theoretical integrity with practical application and relevance to WASH.
Type: Journal Article
Date: February 2022
Citation: Carrard N, MacArthur J, Leahy C, et al. (2022) The water, sanitation and hygiene gender equality measure (WASH-GEM): Conceptual foundations and domains of change. Women’s Studies International Forum 91(2022). Elsevier Ltd: 102563. DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2022.102563.
A partnership approach to the design and use of a quantitative measure: Co-producing and piloting the WASH gender equality measure in Cambodia and Nepal
This article explores three dimensions of the WASH-GEM co-production and implementation: (i) the role of partnerships in co-production processes for bringing contextual and practitioner knowledge into measure development; (ii) selected results from the validation pilot in Cambodia and Nepal (n = 3,056) that demonstrate ways in which the measure can inform WASH programming through analysis at different levels and with different co-variants; and (iii) the collaborative process of translating research into programming.
Type: Journal Article
Date: May 2022
Citation: Gonzalez D, Abdel Sattar R, Budhathoki R, et al. (2022) A partnership approach to the design and use of a quantitative measure: Co-producing and piloting the WASH gender equality measure in Cambodia and Nepal. Development Studies Research 9(1): 142–158. DOI: 10.1080/21665095.2022.2073248.
Qualitative – Exploring gendered change
Six principles to strengthen qualitative assessments in development interventions
Drawing from literature and the collaborative process, this article proposes a set of six principles to guide insightful, practical, and robust qualitative assessments. We provide examples regarding how the principles can be used to plan, conduct, and review qualitative assessments with a goal to strengthen the future use of qualitative tools in programming.
Type: Journal Article
Date: April 2022
Citation: MacArthur J, Abdel Sattar R, Carrard N, et al. (2022) Six principles to strengthen qualitative assessments in development interventions. Development in Practice. Routledge. DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2022.2065245.
Exploring gender transformations for staff members of iDE Cambodia’s SMSU3 WASH Program: Visual Persona Report
This visual report shares the persona results of the midline evaluation of a gender mainstreaming intervention in Cambodia. The report focuses on personas, an innovative evaluation technique used to create personas of change.
Type: Visual Report
Date: August 2021
Exploring gendered experiences within iDE Cambodia’s SMSU3 WASH Program: Photo-stories
This visual report shares the photovoice results of the midline evaluation of a gender mainstreaming intervention in Cambodia. The report shares 25 gender-related photo-stories by staff members of iDE Cambodia’s SMSU3 program.
Type: Visual Report
Date: August 2022
Eliciting stories of gender-transformative change: Investigating the effectiveness of question prompt formulations in qualitative gender assessments
Leveraging story-based evaluation methods, this article explores the assessment of complex gender-transformations and focuses on effective question prompts to elicit significant and meaningful narratives of change from both women and men.
Type: Journal Article
Date: May 2021
Citation:
MacArthur J, Carrard N, Kozole T, et al. (2022) Eliciting stories of gender- transformative change: Investigating the effectiveness of question prompt formulations in qualitative gender assessments. Evaluation 28(3): 308–329. DOI: 10.1177/13563890221105537.
Fostering the transformative potential of participatory photography: Insights from water and sanitation assessments
This article considers opportunities to strengthen the transformative potential of participatory photography activities within the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. The research comprised two components: A) a systematic literature review of participatory photography activities in the WASH sector; and B) an empirical case of a photovoice evaluation of a staff-focused gender mainstreaming intervention in Cambodia.
Type: Journal Article
Date: August 2022
Citation:
MacArthur J, Carrard N, Koh S, et al. (2022) Fostering the transformative potential of participatory photography : Insights from water and sanitation assessments. PLOS Water 1(8): e0000036. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pwat.0000036.
Literature Reviews
WASH and Gender: A critical review of the literature and implications for gender-transformative WASH research
Through a critical review of academic empirical studies, this paper explores the last decade of WASH-gender literature (2008–2018). It was developed as part of ISF’s work on impact assessment in the water for women program.
Type: Journal Article
Date: September 2020
Citation: MacArthur J, Carrard N and Willetts J (2020) WASH and gender: A critical review of the literature and implications for gender-transformative wash research. Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development 10(4): 818–827. DOI: 10.2166/washdev.2020.232.
Exploring gendered change: Concepts and trends in gender equality assessments
This paper presents a systematic review of recent investigations of gender equality from development-related academic literature (2009–2019) using two analytical approaches. Our exploration of theoretical foundations identifies four conceptualisations of gendered change, each reflecting the divergent disciplines, actors and interests that operate in the gender and development space.
Type: Journal Article
Date: May 2021
Citation: MacArthur J, Carrard N and Willetts J (2021) Exploring gendered change: concepts and trends in gender equality assessments. Third World Quarterly 42(9). 2189–2208. DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2021.1911636.