WASH-GEM
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene – Gender Equality Measure
The WASH-GEM is 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.
Globally, women and girls often bear the responsibilities for WASH, including water collection, cleaning, cooking, and childcare. And consequently, poor WASH disproportionately affects women and girls.
Over the last ten years, researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Futures-University of Technology Sydney (ISF-UTS) have been exploring the connections between gender and WASH. Qualitative evidence has shown that transformed gender dynamics are fundamental to inclusive and sustained WASH improvements. Likewise, that improvements in WASH can be a pathway to strengthened gender equality.
Building on this qualitative evidence, a team at ISF-UTS recently developed a tool to explore the connections between gender equality and WASH. This tool is called the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Gender Equality Measure – the WASH-GEM. The WASH-GEM can describe these connections and evaluate changes over time.
The WASH-GEM was developed and piloted in 2019-2021 with iDE in Cambodia and SNV in Nepal, within the DFAT Water for Women Fund. The conceptual model for the WASH-GEM was developed through a collaborative process. It was informed by a review of relevant literature and through engagement with practitioners and specialists in the fields of gender, WASH, and international development. The tool has been tested and refined through three rounds of collaborative piloting in both countries.
Training Website
This training site includes tools, templates, handouts, quizzes and videos to help teams use the WASH-GEM in their programs and
Introducing the WASH-GEM [ video ]
This 3-minute introductory video is a great place to start for programme teams seeking to learn about the WASH-GEM. The video introduces the five WASH-GEM domains and the use of a quantitative measure for programme evaluation.
Introducing the WASH-GEM [ brief ]
This summary brief 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.
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.
Impact Evaluation
Qualitative – Exploring gendered change
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.
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.
Eliciting stories of gender-transformative change: Investigating the effectiveness of question prompt formulations in qualitative gender 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.