A Gendered Analysis of the Brahmaputra Dialogue

Home , Brahmaputra River

A study of the relation between transboundary water management and gender norms

Author: Tove Lexén

Supervisor: Kristin Ljungqvist

Word Count: 13045

Bachelor Thesis

Autumn Semester 2017

Political Science, Advanced Course C

Department of Government

Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract

Transboundary water management (TWM) regards how internationally shared waters are managed. Recently, TWM processes have been researched from the perspective of gender inclusivity. In line with this trend, this thesis is investigating to what extent the Transboundary Policy Dialogue for Improved Water Governance in Brahmaputra River (the Brahmaputra Dialogue) about the Brahmaputra River is gender sensitive. The Brahmaputra River is shared by China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The management of the river is severely conflicted both intra- and interstate wise. Therefore, the Brahmaputra Dialogue, facilitated by the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Study (SaciWATERs), aims at creating understanding between the different stakeholders. To measure the gender sensitivity, the Gender Sensitivity Framework is created. The framework is a toolkit that, through a set of indicators, measure gender inclusivity from both a structural and a substantive perspective. Using a descriptive text analysis method of the reports from the third and current phase of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, the investigation reveals that the Brahmaputra Dialogue is only 45% gender sensitive. While the work ways of the Brahmaputra Dialogue generally are gender inclusive, the Brahmaputra Dialogue content wise lacks some key aspects of gender awareness. One such aspect is that the concept of “gender” is broader than women’s vulnerabilities to masculine decision-making.

Key words: Transboundary water management, gender, governance, conflict, South Asia

Contents

1. Introduction 3 1.1 Aim and research question 4 1.2 Disposition. 5 2. Theoretical Framework 6 2.1 Previous Research 6 2.2 Prominent Gender Theories on Environment and Conflict 7 2.3 The Concept of a Masculine TWM Field 7 2.4 Background to the Gender Sensitivity Framework 9 2.5 The Gender Sensitivity Framework 14 3. Empirical background 16 4. Method 19 4.1 Case selection 19 4.2 Material and Methods 20 4.3 Assessment of Research Quality and Limitations of Study 22 4.3.1 Quality of The Gender Sensitivity Framework 22 4.3.2 Validity and Reliability of Study 23 4.3.3 Limitations of Study 24 4.4 Operationalisation of the Gender Sensitivity Framework 24 5. Analysis 28 5.1 Study Results 28 5.2 General Discussion on the Quality of Study 33 6. Conclusions 36 7. References 38 Appendix 42

Figures Figure 1. Map of the Brahmaputra River and the riparian countries 3 Figure 2. The Gender Sensitivity Framework 15 Figure 3. Results of Study 30

1. Introduction

Water is essential for life. Not only because of how it makes our bodies function, but also because of how it enables people to cultivate, fish, navigate and build industries, among other things. When water resources are limited, water becomes a political issue. Transboundary water management (TWM), which concerns how internationally shared waters are being managed, is thus political and a question of international relations. While gender perspectives have been applied to how concrete aspects of mismanagement of water affects disadvantaged groups, it is only recently that emphasis have been given to how the management of water is gendered. What is said is that a person’s gender correlates with their possibility to impact. Knowledge from gender perspectives are important, since when incorporated, they are likely to improve the efficiency of TWM. The reason is both the issue of fairer representation and the additional contributions that it provides (Earle and Bazilli, 2013). Feminist schools also gain from being applied on water as, with its central role in human activities, many social relations are created around it and therefore water studies can tell much about what creates society’s power structures (Das, 2017). The field of gender in TWM is elaborating both with what content the expansion of research should take in, and how this should be measured. Researchers, such as Earle and Bazilli (2013), Fröhlich et al. (2018) and Fletcher (2018) are calling for a toolkit for evaluating how well TWM processes take in knowledge provided by- and about groups that are victims to gender norms, in their working forms and implementation programs (Earle and Bazilli, 2013; Fröhlich et al., 2018; Fletcher, 2018). In this thesis, a set of indicators are developed to measure gender sensitivity in TWM structures; The Gender Sensitivity Framework. The wish is that this framework can contribute to the progress of the newly opened gender field in TWM research.

The indicators are applied to the, at present, only all-country cooperation over the Brahmaputra River: The Transboundary Policy Dialogue for Improved Water Governance in Brahmaputra River (in the following referred to as the Brahmaputra Dialogue). The Brahmaputra River is situated in South Asia and shared is by China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh, see figure 1. Due to both historical and present events, the social environment in the river is tense. With that background, the dialogue’s aim is to create a friendly and inclusive environment for different kinds of stakeholders, with the different nationalities. The objective is to create a social fundament for cooperation over the river (Yasuda, Aich, Hill, Hunyjens and Swain 2017, pp. 93-99). Earlier third-party studies on the all-country cooperation over the Brahmaputra River, primarily made by Yasuda and her co-authors

(2017), are near silent on the gender aspects of it. Therefore, this thesis is contributing with new insights of how masculine norms and structures impact the TWM of the river. This thesis’ assessment of the Brahmaputra River also reveals that using a gender sensitive approach is more complex than it might seem.

Figure 1. Map of the Brahmaputra River and the riparian countries

(Google maps 2017)

1.1 Aim and research question

In general, social science studies on the Brahmaputra River are scarce, and as presented earlier, gender studies are lagging even more. Thus, answers to how gender aware the Brahmaputra Dialogue is provide useful additional knowledge about the conflicted river and its actors. This thesis aims to evaluate how gender sensitive the Brahmaputra Dialogue is. Specifically, it aims to identify key aspects regarding gender inclusivity in the Brahmaputra Dialogue. In doing so it can also contribute to the research on conflict solvation of the Brahmaputra River. The research question of this study is:

To what extent is the Brahmaputra Dialogue gender sensitive?

1.2 Disposition

This thesis has six chapters. In the next chapter the Theoretical Framework, previous studies, gender theory, the background to the Gender Sensitivity Framework and the framework itself is outlined. In chapter three, the empirical background to the case study of the Brahmaputra Dialogue is provided. Chapter four describes the methods of study and furthermore discuss the quality of the study. The fourth chapter ends with outlining how the gender sensitivity indicators have been operationalised. In the fifth chapter, the study’s results are presented and discussed. Lastly, in chapter six the conclusions are drawn.

2. Theoretical Framework

With this thesis I wish to contribute to the creation of a theoretical tool for diagnosing inclusion of gender perspectives in TWM. Since this field is interdisciplinary and host many different concepts, it is complex and somewhat hard to comprehend. In this chapter I am therefore attempting to explain how it all comes together. I begin with describing how the disciplines can be interlinked, and I am ending with outlining a set of indicators for gender sensitivity in TWM

2.1 Previous Research

There are a few studies that serve as basis for this study and so are vital to mention. Firstly, there is the edge cutting study A gendered critique of transboundary water governance by Earle and Bazilli (2013). It is exceptional in its examination of how TWM is masculinised. They focus on the legal agreements and treaties, and present that while advancement of women rights have been made in several areas of international politics, the area of TWM is far behind in this aspect. Earle and Bazilli also show concrete examples of how this lack impacts TWM structures in southern Africa. Furthermore, the essentiality of interdisciplinary- , multiscale-, and multi-stakeholder focus in studies on TWM is elaborated in the just published anthology Water Security Across the Gender Divine (2018), edited by Fröhlich, Gioli, Cremades and Myrttinen. Here, the nexus of water-gender-conflict is emphasised. For instance, that brings insights on how context dependent implementation programs of water infrastructure must be to truly work against the power structures where they are installed. Worth to mention is also specific studies on the multilateral cooperation over the Brahmaputra River. Currently, the Hauge Institute for Global Justice and Yasuda and her co-authors (2017), are the only ones who have made an all-country analysis of the river. While the report ambitiously examines conflict zones and areas for cooperation and does this from a multitrack and multi-scale perspective, it is near silent on gender approaches and lacks a specific gender focus. There is one study that takes on a gender perspective on the Brahmaputra River, namely Nicole Detraz’s Gender, Security, and the Environment: Lessons from the Ganges- Brahmaputra-Meghna Water Basin (2009). While this study clearly focusses on gender, the connection between gender and decision-making is comparingly little and does not specifically focus on the Brahmaputra River or the Brahmaputra Dialogue.

With this brief description of the research status, it is clear that there is a research gap to be filled on gender aspects of the TWM of the Brahmaputra River.

2.2 Prominent Gender Theories on Environment and Conflict

The feminist school is diverse. Relating to environment it includes everything from Ecofeminism, which is a kind of Biological Essentialism where it is believed that women by biology have a special relationship to nature, to e.g. Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) and developments from it. This thesis focuses on the latter, which emphasise that societal factors create different expectations on men and women and therefore that there is a distinction between biological sex and gender. Typical masculine behaviours, such as rationality and strength, are expected of men. Femininity is the antipolar to masculinity and for instance consists of caring- and emotional behaviours and tend to be expected of women. Since masculine decision-making is widely regarded as good decision-making, women are often excluded from the spheres of society were decision are made. The feminist theories in environmental studies, state that environmental knowledge and access is gendered because it is based on material and ideological factors. Additionally, it investigates how gender impact adaptation programmes on different levels in society. That is to say, it studies in what ways women’s knowledge, experiences and interaction with the environment and natural resources is shaped by gender roles. Here it has been found that women tend to be portrayed either as victims of crisis and conflict or as environmental heroes, and rarely something in between. Additionally, this branch of study acknowledges that gender roles are contextually and historically dependent. Furthermore, in addition to gender it regards race and class as important identity markers. Thus, it is highlighting intersectionality. Intersectional insight makes us understand why two women have different power positions even though they are exposed to the same gender norms. It is also acknowledged that men also suffer from masculinity norms. The most prominent norm is the one saying that men should be providers for their families and when they cannot fulfil that duty, they lose their identity, often resulting in self-harm (Fletcher 2018).

2.3 The Concept of a Masculine TWM Field

In their paper, Bazilli and Earle (2013) present that TWM is a masculinised field that lacks insights of its gendered nature. The reason for this, according to the authors, is that the two fields that TWM is a combination of, are themselves dominated by masculine norms. Combined, the effect is augmented. On the one hand, TWM constitute of a technical field which brings the engineering solutions, like water pumps, cleaning machines etc. Until recently, this field has had a dominance over TWM because man’s modern usage of water or solutions to problems related to water, has been understood as solely technical. Scientific and

7 engineering knowledge has been seen as key for man’s taming of water and this has also lead to what is called the “hydraulic mission” (Earle and Bazilli, 2013, p. 102). In short, the hydraulic mission was the mid-1900s expansion of large-scale water resource projects, such as massive damming of rivers and irrigation projects. The development of the hydraulic systems originated from a wish to show man’s power over nature and became part in the state building and brought economic growth and welfare. Additionally, as with most aspects in the ages of the Cold War era, the development of water-related techniques became part of the power balance. Strong technical knowledge in the water sector was an indicator of power in general. The development of the sector was also seen as a way to become modern. In that way, the development of hydraulics became important in itself, even if the need for mechanisation of water at places had already somewhat been met (Molle, Mollinga and Wester, 2009, pp. 328, 336). Having one stand in the hydraulic mission, TWM has inherited the masculine norms that exist in the fields of technics, military and state-building (Bazilli and Earle, 2013).

The second stand of TWM is the international relations dimension. This dimension includes international law and political science in general. The creation of international relations came during the interwar time in the 1930’s and flourished during the arms race in the Cold War era. Concepts such as the security dilemma and deterrence were developed and are expressions of masculine norms. The masculine concepts are still important determining factors for the nature of international relations (Wohlforth 2008). With the presented two stands, TWM has been masculinised.

Earle and Bazilli (2013) state there are severe consequences to the masculinity of TWM. They argue that politics is the fundament for laws and agreements coming at stance, while the implementation relies upon technics. When the international level lacks a gender perspective, it impacts the entire chain of water management. The reason for this being that the international laws, policies and strategies serves as a basis for the domestic equivalents. Earle and Bazilli claim that it is generally an absence of non-governmental stakeholders in the negotiations and management structures, and furthermore that these structures lead to a masculine bias. Furthermore, they say that both practice and the theoretical frames of TWM is formed by masculine norms (Earle and Bazilli, 2013).

2.4 Background to the Gender Sensitivity Framework

In the previous part of this chapter, feminist theories and their relation to water and TWM was presented. In this part, the background to the Gender Sensitivity Framework, see chapter 2.5, is outlined.

Before outlining the concreate research findings that serve as the basis for the different indicators, it is important to describe why it is necessary to have an entire framework for diagnosing gender sensitivity and not merely counting the number of female representatives. What Earle and Bazilli (2013), Fletcher (2018) and Fröhlich et al. (2018) all conclude from their different studies on gender and water is that equalising incorporation of gender knowledge with female representation is inadequate. That would leave vital aspects of the power asymmetry out. In addition to representation, Earle and Bazilli (2013) identify that it is necessary to have an explicit observance of gender-power dimensions in institutions and different kinds of documents on TWM. It is also necessary to have a more gender-inclusive technical field (Earle and Bazilli, 2013). Additionally, Fletcher (2018) stresses the need for a gender diagnosing tool that is based on a complex understanding of power. She states that power has multiple dimensions, material and discursive, and that they decide the distribution of privilege and power. Therefore, it is necessary to create a tool which is both multileveled and multi-dimensional since power is determined by vertical and horizontal interactions of norms and actions (Fletcher 2018). Continuing with describing the content of the Gender Sensitivity Framework, Earle and Bazilli (2013) and the contributing authors to the anthology by Fröhlich et al. (2018) stress that gender sensitivity comes two-folded. It is both about physical representation of women and knowledge gained from gender theories. Thus, the Gender Sensitivity Framework developed in this thesis includes both structural inclusivity, based on the first aspect, and substantial inclusivity that referrers to the latter. Below, previous research findings which serves as the fundaments to the Gender Sensitivity Framework are presented. The studies are selected due to how they concisely shine light on key elements of TWM processes and implementation programmes to be truly gender sensitive.

To begin with, a realistic target for female attendance is found in the United Nation’s Beijing Platform for Action from 1995. The internationally agreed document recognises a benchmark of 30% female delegates at decision-making levels. The Beijing Platform for Action serves as a guiding point for many countries and international organisations in its regard (United Nations, 1995).

Recently, Clement and Karki (2018) undertook a study of how a water pump programme in Nepal, with the specific aim to empower women, had played out. The programme had two underlying assumptions of how to empower women. Firstly, the installation of pumps would ease the burdens of women since it would result in less time needed for fetching and carrying water. That would also make room for different kinds of social and/or civil society engagement for the women. Secondly, selling vegetables at the market and engaging in civil society organisations, would give women higher status within society. On the contrary to these assumptions, Clement and Karki’s results demonstrated something different. Firstly, they show that empowerment cannot simply be measured by counting numbers but needs to be analysed with observance of the background to those numbers. As in this case, when women became sellers of vegetables that happened mostly because that they had workshy husbands. Therefore, power imbalances might even be advanced by programmes like the one in Nepal. Regarding civil society engagement, it can indeed be a goal itself to have women involved. However, as was seen here, if women’s voices do not come through in those organisations, due to patriarchal restrictions, the value of representation as an indicator for empowerment has decreased significantly. In addition to this, the largest proportion of the new people involved in the water programmes were educated and better off, which also makes the representation measurement more complex. About empowerment this study also tells us that the very word “power” is understood differently depending on the biological sex of the agent. Women were regarded as powerful when they worked for women’s issues, while men’s power was synonymised with having a leading position in a project. So, even if a woman and a man are, by the society, regarded as equally powerful, the man can still be more influential in the society overall. Therefore, when measuring power, it is important to not only study how many decisions someone makes, but also what kind of decisions. Moreover, their results problematise the broadly accepted hypothesis that the less time and heavy work needed for fetching water, the better for women. What the study highlights is that women are rarely in charge of their own agency. So, the task of fetching water is often replaced by another task inside the household. Moreover, collecting water is often an important time for women to socialise with one another, and therefore expanded water services can actually decrease women’s psychological wellbeing. Lastly, the authors emphasise that gender norms do not only affect women, but also men. When in poverty, many men fail to provide their families with bread and butter. Often, that leaves those men in despair which is often expressed through self-harm behaviours such as heavy drinking. Additionally, in this part of Nepal men sometimes rather move abroad than stay, because they feel it too hard to face the failure of not

10 being “a man” (Clement and Karki, 2018). In sum what Clement and Karki highlights is that: firstly, merely representation of women is not enough, potential power structures in a process need to be worked against as well. Secondly, to be gender aware it is necessary to involve all kinds of women, not only those with a beneficial situation. Thirdly, to make power an attribute that is equally understood regardless of the holder’s gender, women need to be given the mandate to make decisions in all areas. Fourthly, women can have an exclusive knowledge about the meaning of different “female” household tasks. Therefore, theoretical assumptions on how to empower women need to be supplemented with empirics. Fifthly, women are not the only victims of patriarchal structures. Since gender sensitiveness regards how norms of gender impacts people, men’s vulnerability to those norms is also at heart.

In line with Clement and Karki’s findings, Das (2017) presents how modern water services can be kept away from women due to patriarchal norms. In some parts of India, it has been shown that even when modern toilets have been installed in public areas, toilets that can improve both comfort and hygiene for people, women are forbidden to use them by the men in their households. The reason being that men feel a need to control “their” women, and do not want them to leave the household alone as they would have to in order to visit the toilets. (Das, 2017, pp. 27-33). This study stresses the need for gender awareness and the importance of working against male-controlled power structures.

Das (2017) also presents several studies that tell that women and minorities tend to be more vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards than men at large. For instance, in rice- growing parts of India it has been seen that the wage of women fluctuates more than that of men, as an effect of the amount of rainfall. The most likely reason being that the division of labour is based on gender, and the tasks of women are more affected by variations in rainfall. Even female enterprisers are more vulnerable when water supply is unpredictable in India. Small businesses owned by women usually provide washing or hair cutting services. Without water, those businesses cannot operate and so the women’s income is all-determined by the access to clean water. Furthermore, Das (2017) describes that households run by only women are more vulnerable to natural disasters than other kinds of households. Also, natural disasters have effects on the likelihood for early marriages in some countries. The same author also presents that other environmental disturbances affect women more severely than men. For instance, contamination of water has larger impacts on women since they tend to be the ones fetching water. Moreover, if children get ill due to unclean water, women are the ones expected to stay home and take care of the children and in that way, they cannot be as reliable

11 employees as men (Das, 2017, pp. 23-33). What these examples pinpoint is that gender knowledge is multifaceted and that all kinds of women’s stories need to be heard for water management programmes to effectively meet all society’s needs. In order for these aspects to be put forward, everyone needs to be respected when telling their stories.

In 2011 Hossain and Akther published a study in which they had evaluated the Upazila Support Project by the Bangladeshi government. The project, which was implemented in 2009, had the objective to empower women by implementing quotas in some of the local parliaments in the country, the upazilas. The upazilas in question needed to make one out of the two vice-chairs in the parliament a woman. Furthermore, 30 % of the parliamentary seats needed to be occupied by women. In their study, Hossain and Akther (2011) found that even when the upazilas fulfilled the requirements for the government’s project on paper, there were several gendered problems hidden behind those statistics. Firstly, they found that, as of two years after implementation, women still lacked assigned powers due to unclear instructions and/or confusion over how the project was meant to work in practise. Secondly, in their working positions the women faced both materialistic and non-materialistic discrimination. E.g. their offices tended to be to be located far from the centre while men’s offices were located very centrally. Thirdly, the level of respect that the women gained was dependent on her connections to influential men. If a woman was close to or related to powerful men, then she was more likely to be included and not harassed than if she was without connections of that kind. Fourthly, the nature of the relationships to the men in her family was important for how much autonomy she was allowed in her job. For instance, a woman could only run for office if the family’s men allowed her to. Also, for some women the men decided what issues she should promote in parliament. Sometimes the women only promoted what her man gave her permission to. It was even found that women were sometimes, of doubtable reasons, absent from their jobs and that their men then stepped in instead (Akther and Hossain, 2011). What these results bring about is the vitality to not only look at structural representation, but also substantial. It also shows the need for equal possibilities to make one’s voice heard. Moreover, it indicates how far-reaching gender norms are. Furthermore, it highlights that there is a need to actively work with involving all women, even those without beneficial conditions at home.

In a case study made in Okavango River in southwest Africa, Earle and Bazilli (2013) identify that even when there were no legal obstacles for women to engage in regional committees on TWM and even if there would not be any gender structures within the committees, women

12 still had problems with engaging internationally. The reason being that they had expectations on them in their households, as wives and mothers, which prevented them from being away overnight. Since patriarchal structures prevents men from cooking and taking care of children, women often hesitate to candidate to any position that requires overnight stays (Earle and Bazilli, 2013). This study tells us that it is important to compensate for the consequences of gender structures in other parts of society, to accomplish an equal representation of candidates.

Das (2017) presents that the language used when communicating about natural hazards often is scientific and complicated. In countries with several national languages, it is also likely that the language used by the middle and upper classes is used instead of the language people in poverty speak (Das, 2017, p. 34). Further, Earle and Bazilli (2013) claim that TWM is exclusive to other disciplines than the technical. One contributing factor to exclusion is likely the technical language used. Thus, too technical or scientific language can be an excluding factor in TWM processes. Therefore, for the processes to be all-inclusive, the language should be eased when possible.

Even inclusive governance cannot have everyone sit by the decision-table. Therefore, openness and transparency towards the people affected is key for an inclusive TWM process. Such attributes are determining variables in the widely respected organisation Freedom House’s evaluation of the status of democracy in the world’s countries. Freedom House also stress the need for people to have practical ability to access information about the governance, and the right of the public and media to scrutinise the government (Freedom House, 2016). Thus, governance bodies need both to be open to the media and public, and to have strategies on how to share its work with the people it represents.

2.5 The Gender Sensitivity Framework

The table below present the indicators for gender sensitivity, categorised in structural and substantive inclusivity. Since sensitivity of gender aspects is concretely expressed through inclusion in these two manners, inclusivity is the word used in the rubrics. The structural inclusivity refers to concrete features of the TWM process that serve as preconditions for fair representation. In this category, the actual representation is also included. The substantive category regards the gender awareness in the work forms of the TWM process. In short, the distinction between the two categories is based on whether it provides the conditions necessary for gender sensitivity prior to the TWM process or if it is incorporating feminist knowledge during the TWM process.

Figure 2. The Gender Sensitivity Framework

Gender Sensitivity Framework

1. Structural inclusivity 2. Substantive inclusivity 1.1 Gender diversity 2.1 Recognition of gender-based power Is there at least 30% women? imbalances Does the procedure acknowledge imbalances of power based on gender, and is it aiming to change that structure? 1.2 Assistance for participation 2.2 All-embracing gender awareness Is any assistance given to participants with Does the procedure stress how both men and difficulties in participating due to women are impacted by gender norms? expectations/tasks at home? 1.3 Unconventional attendance possibilities 2.3 Shared responsibility for change Are there possibilities to take part in the Are men and women in the proceedings given as proceedings via Internet or telephone? much responsibilities for changing potential power imbalances due to gender roles? 1.4 Flatness of organisational structure 2.4 Equality in knowledge level Does the procedure use a flat organisational Are potential differences in knowledge on the approach to compensate for power imbalances water management in focus compensated with between participants? knowledge sharing activities? 1.5 Multitrack diplomacy 2.5 Equality in impact possibilities Does the procedure work with a multitrack Are the concerns of the participants distributed approach where all tracks of society are with the same proportion as the share of represented?1 men/women? 1.6 Language inclusivity 2.6 Latitude of target groups Is the language used understood by all Does the procedure aim to share its workways participants, regarding what language is used and results with all societal levels? and how much scientific/technical terms that language consist of?

1 The different tracks of diplomacy are the following: track I: high level politicians, track 1,5: e.g. regional level politicians, track II: e.g. influential academics, bureaucrats, track III: e.g. NGOs, academics, CSOs, grassroots. 15

3. Empirical background

In this section, a concise background to the Brahmaputra Dialogue and its context is provided. Having this background in mind, the method of study and operationalisation of indicators described in chapter 4, is more easily understood.

The Brahmaputra Dialogue is the, at present, only all-country cooperation over the Brahmaputra River. The river is shared by China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh in South Asia. Also, the river is shared by six different states within India. The river begins in China and flows via north-eastern India into Bangladesh. It has several tributaries, for instance in Bhutan. The river is very biophysically complex as it moves thorough six different ecological zones. E.g. its catchment originates both from glaciers melting in the Tibet and from heavy monsoons in India. The flow in the river naturally varies. For instance, when the water movement is strong, it results in flooding. There are 400 million people whose livelihood relies on secure access to the water from the Brahmaputra River. There are many people who suffer from chronic poverty in the basin. Inherited from the ages of British colonialism, the different communities connected to the river have been rather isolated and thus non- cooperative. That has contributed to poor information sharing and lack of co-management of the river (Yasuda et al., 2017, pp. 11-18).

At present, there are attempts to modernise the usage of the river. The main action is the development of hydropower dams. Implementation of such dams would affect the flow and the direction of the water, especially for the lower riparian country Bangladesh. Additionally, the water flow and the area of the river is changing due to reduction in river dredging. This makes the effects of flooding more severe. The quality of the river’s water is also changing due to siltation, partly due to upper riparian agriculture practices. The presented examples represent changes in the conditions of the river because of human activities and thus sources of potential conflict (Yasuda et al., 2017, pp. 11-18).

The political context in the Brahmaputra River region is largely shaped by historical events in the area, primarily originating from the days of colonialism. The relationship between India and Bhutan got its shape in 1949 when they signed the Treaty of Friendship. Since then, Bhutan’s foreign relations are relying on India. India is also the main trading partner to Bangladesh. China became as riparian country to the Brahmaputra River when it annexed Tibet in 1951. The relation between China and Bhutan is so frosty that it currently does not exist any diplomatic relationship between the two, since Bhutan supports Tibet in the China-

Tibet conflict. China’s economic expansion, which aims to add new western trade routes, makes it contest the dominant power position of India within South Asia. Additionally, India and China hold more power in relation to the other two countries due to their geographical position as upper riparian countries (Barua, 2016). They are also the strongest countries economically. Between India and Bangladesh, between the north-eastern riparian states within India and between India’s central government and those states, there are political tensions dating back to when Bangladesh (East Pakistan) got its independence from India in 1947 (Yasuda et al., 2017, p. 18).

Currently, there are no multilateral cooperation over the Brahmaputra River at track I-level2. Bilaterally, most countries, excepting China and Bhutan, have some kind of hydrological/biophysical information sharing cooperation. India and Bangladesh have the Joint River Commission (JRC) which on a general basis covers all the 54 rivers shared by India and Bangladesh. However, the JRC does not have any specific treaty over the Brahmaputra River. There are a few initiatives that have achieved cooperation on track II and track III levels. For instance, Ecosystems for Life (Yasuda et al., 2017, pp. 20-26).

The Brahmaputra Dialogue was initiated in 2013 to ease the political tensions between and within the riparian countries of the Brahmaputra River. The initiative came from the Indian Institute for Technology Guwahati (IITG) and the Institute for Water and Flood Management (IWFM). The dialogue works with a multitrack approach, and so aims to facilitate dialogues where not only stakeholders from different countries can meet, but also where stakeholders from different societal levels can interact. The current and third phase is the first one where the dialogue has reached out to stakeholders from all countries. Moreover, the palette of stakeholders is greater now: for the first time it involves stakeholders from track 1.5, track II and track III. This phase is also the first to emphasise a gender perspective (Deka, Gulati and Barua, 2016; Yasuda et al., 2017, p. 93). The dialogue’s goals are to serve as a discussion platform where both critical aspects impacting cooperation and possibilities for collaboration, can be elaborated. To create a space where its participants can speak freely, the Brahmaputra Dialogue uses the Chatham House Rule, which refrain participants from spreading information on who has got what viewpoints in the meetings. The main way of working is multilevel workshops, and those workshops are in turn divided into two rounds. The first one takes place on the national arena. Here different actors within the state meet to discuss how

2 Track I: high level politicians, track 1,5: e.g. regional level politicians, track II: e.g. influential academicians, bureaucrats, track III: e.g. NGOs, academicians, CSOs, grassroots. 17 the river management impacts them and what should be done to improve the situation. In the second round, representatives from the regions countries meet, and put forward what has been said in the first rounds (Barua, 2016; Yasuda et al., 2017, p. 98).

Having briefly, but adequately, described the background to this thesis’s case study of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, the next chapter follows where the methodology of the study is presented and discussed.

4. Method

This chapter describes how the study of the Brahmaputra Dialogue has been made. In this chapter, the quality and the limitations of the study are also presented. At first, the selection of case study is outlined.

4.1 Case Selection

This thesis is studying to what extent the Brahmaputra Dialogue is gender sensitive. There are mainly four reasons for focusing on the Brahmaputra Dialogue, presented below.

First, the reason for focusing on the Brahmaputra Dialogue when studying the Brahmaputra River from a political perspective, is because it is the closest to a multilateral institution between the riparian countries that there currently is. The environment between the different stakeholders is tense, and there are no bilateral or multilateral agreements over the river, as presented in chapter 3. Moreover, the UN Water Courses Convention has not been ratified by any of the riparian countries. The only established all-country inclusive platform for cooperation over the Brahmaputra River is the Brahmaputra Dialogue (Barua, 2016). So, when studying the multilateral cooperation over the river it is natural to focus on the Brahmaputra Dialogue.

Second, there is a social science research gap on the Brahmaputra River that limits the possibilities for cooperation. At present, there are only a few studies on the Brahmaputra River that is not mainly applying a biophysical perspective. Since the severe tension about the river is primarily due to historical, political and economic reasons, social science studies could contribute to the understanding of the situation. For instance, Yasuda and her co-authors (2017) claim that is vital to identify social factors that affect cooperation between the actors for progress to come about (pp. 1-3).

Third, gender aspects of conflicts extend the understanding of the conflict. That is essential in the Brahmaputra River where water conflicts are present and might escalate. In the latest report by the Transboundary Water Assessment Programme, the Ganges-Brahmaputra- Meghna river basin was identified as the most vulnerable transboundary river delta in the world. The primary reason is its big population size and the growing number of inhabitants (UNDP UNEP, 2016, p. xxiv). Additionally, the region where the Brahmaputra River is situated is already impacted by climate change and is likely to be even more so in the future (The Thirdpole, 2014). Petersen-Perlman and his co-authors (2015) present that both overpopulation of areas and climate change are likely to increase the risks of conflict in areas

19 where water is in short supply. Since the water resource is already contested in the area, the additional contributing factors to conflicts are severe. As been presented in earlier chapters of this paper, gender aspects of water conflicts have gained ground because they deepen the understanding of all aspects of conflicts (Fröchlich et al., 2018). Therefore, it is essential to understand the gender aspects of the Brahmaputra River, since it is likely to provide new insights on how to manage current and potential conflicts.

Fourth, the big gender gap in the region could make the Brahmaputra Dialogue less efficient. To make TWM a more inclusive and efficient process, the masculine norms need to be challenged (Earle and Bazilli, 2013). The Brahmaputra region has the widest aggregated gender gap in the world (Global Gender Gap Report, 2017). It is therefore a risk that unequal gender norms from society spill over to the Brahmaputra Dialogue. To achieve efficiency in the Brahmaputra Dialogue it is therefore of interest to investigate to what extent it is affected by masculine norms.

4.2 Material and Methods

The third and analysed phase of the Brahmaputra Dialogue has undertaken workshops as its working procedure. There has been one country-level workshop in each country, one integrated regional workshop, and two integrated workshops with the focus on knowledge sharing. The knowledge sharing workshops, the Inception Phase Write-shop a-b (SaciWATERs, 2016f-g) and the Brahmaputra Knowledge Exchange Programme (SaciWATERs, 2016a), include both material and political aspects of the Brahmaputra River, and the workways of the Brahmaputra Dialogue. Regarding the internal workways, aspects of what views and what people to include in the Brahmaputra Dialogue is discussed. In total, there are eight workshop reports that describe these seven meetings3. The workshop reports are written by the facilitating organisation SaciWATERs.

The method of this thesis is a qualitative and descriptive text analysis. That is, the workshop reports are analysed with the objective to understand and describe the status of gender sensitivity in the Brahmaputra Dialogue. The selection of a descriptive method originates from the fact that descriptive studies are the fundament of any other kind of study, such as explanatory studies (Teorell and Svensson, 2016, p. 23). So, to be able to do another kind of

3 The reports analysed are the following: Brahmaputra Knowledge Exchange Programme (SaciWATERs 2016a), Country Level Workshop Bangladesh (SaciWATERs 2016b), Country Level Meeting Bhutan (SaciWATERs 2016c), Country Level Workshop China (SaciWATERs 2016d), Country Level Workshop India (SaciWATERs 2016e), Inception Phase Write-shop Report a (SaciWATERs 2016f), Inception Phase Write-shop b (SaciWATERs 2016g) and Regional Level Workshop (SaciWATERs 2016h). 20 study of the Brahmaputra Dialogue regarding gender sensitivity, such as what consequences incorporation of women’s knowledge has on the TWM process, it is essential to know how it is today. Otherwise the researcher does not know what aspect to study. As the research field looks today, a descriptive study of the Brahmaputra Dialogue also indicates a more problematising and autonomous research agenda than doing an explanatory study. That is because the initiators of the Brahmaputra Dialogue are stating that the current phase of the Brahmaputra Dialogue is observing gender aspects (Deka, Gulati and Barua, 2016). If a researcher would do an explanatory study, she or he would have to rely on the initiators’ word that the process is gender sensitive. As the initiators might want to present the process to be more gender sensitive than it actually is, such blind reliance could have severe consequences on that study’s quality. However, when there is a sufficient descriptive basis to build upon, it would be fruitful to analyse the gender sensitivity from an explanatory angle as that could improve the inclusivity of the Brahmaputra Dialogue.

That the Brahmaputra Dialogue is said to observe gender aspects (Deka, Gulati and Barua, 2016) could make it a, so called, most likely case. A most likely case is a case that has the most favourable conditions for achieving a certain outcome. In this case, the hypothesis would be that an explicit notion of the Brahmaputra Dialogue to be gender sensitive would (most likely) make it gender sensitive. The study would then be about confirming whether such a statement actually has a correlation with the Brahmaputra Dialogue being gender sensitive. If the Brahmaputra Dialogue would be gender sensitive, future research would have to be done on alike cases to confirm that notions of gender sensitivity correlate with a TWM process being gender sensitive. If proved right, generalisation about the relationship between the variables could be applied to even more cases without studying them specifically. On the other hand, if the hypothesis is not supported that would prove that other TWM processes that does not have as beneficial conditions for gender sensitivity as the Brahmaputra Dialogue, cannot be assumed to be gender sensitive (Teorell and Svensson, 2016, p. 154). However, because of the context of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, the region’s deep-rooted patriarchal system (Global Gender Gap Report, 2017) and the shape of the Brahmaputra Dialogue as being an interactive process dependent on the attitude of its participants, the Brahmaputra Dialogue is not regarded a most likely case.

4.3 Assessment of Research Quality and Limitations of Study

In this section, the validity and reliability of study and the studies limitations is elaborated. Prior to that, a general discussion about the Gender Sensitivity Framework and its appliance on the Brahmaputra Dialogue is emphasised.

4.3.1 Quality of The Gender Sensitivity Framework

The first aspect of this discussion is about potential weaknesses with that the framework has not been used before. This thesis is cutting edge since it is among the first that so extensively measure gender inclusivity in TWM. However, the risk of using a theoretical framework for the first time is that some features can be slightly undeveloped. While this is true for any theoretical framework, regardless of level of recognition, the likelihood is higher if the framework is less tried. In the future, to rise the quality of the framework more studies would have to be undertaken that can serve as basis for the indicators. However, the framework is very carefully developed, why it is valid to use in this study.

Furthermore, it is important to stress that there is a complexity with measuring anything with a set of binary questions. On the one hand, it can make the analysis relatively blunt. On the other hand, the result of the analysis becomes clear. As for the latter, the discussions leading up to the final decision of the indictors can be presented, to compensate for the lack of nuance.

A second discussion about the framework relates to its appliance on the Brahmaputra Dialogue. An argument against doing this, is that the Brahmaputra Dialogue is not a proper management institution but merely a dialogue process. The theoretical background for the gender sensitivity indicators is to a large extent based on literature regarding TWM. Therefore, it could be said that since dialogue processes are not institutionalised to the same extent as management structures usually are, they cannot be measured on the same scale. However, there are two defending arguments that can be put against that statement. Firstly, the aim with the Brahmaputra Dialogue is to reshape the political environment of the region, from hostile to inclusive. Even if the Brahmaputra Dialogue does not attempt to be a management structure, it wants to have a large impact on how actors at all levels in all the riparian countries interact with each other. Therefore, if successful, the Brahmaputra Dialogue is an important factor and therefore I regard it valid to measure them on the same scale as institutions of TWM. The level of impact from the proceeding should be more important in deciding whether a process can rightfully be measured, than its exact organisational shape.

The second argument in favour of application of the indicators, is that even if much light in the theoretical framework has been given to TWM, central points in the researchers’ requests are multi-layered and multiscale analyses4. Therefore, the Brahmaputra Dialogue is a proper choice since it has a broad focus, and thus any proper analysis of it has it too. The Brahmaputra Dialogue is created from an idea of increased inclusivity, and due to this it is valid to undertake a comprehensive study of its proceedings.

4.3.2 Validity and Reliability of Study

Since this study has the objective to describe how gender sensitive the Brahmaputra Dialogue is, it is vital that the tools used in the text analysis provide answers that describes the reality. That is to say, the method must give the study a high validity. Problems with validity arise when the texts under analysis are misunderstood or when the tools for analysis misfit them. In case of the first, there is a miscommunication between the sender and the recipient. As Teorell and Svensson (2016) write, different actors understand a message differently if the sender does not succeed with communicating clearly and/or the recipient is misinterpreting what has been stated (p. 103). Any text analysis will always be vulnerable to this kind of miscommunication and therefore it is important to alert the reader about the problem. However, as in the case with the Brahmaputra Dialogue, when the texts of study are well written, and many actors have contributed to them5, the communicational skills are regarded as good. To prevent misinterpretations of the texts, the analyst should be familiar with the research field and the kind of texts. In this regard, previous university studies have made me familiar with the kind of texts that are subject to the analysis. Guidance from an experienced supervisor has also helped in the analytic process.

A second aspect in the discussion about the material of the study and its validity, is about potential biases that arises when relying only on the facilitators’ own writings. To be exact, the facilitators might want to portray the study as more gender sensitive than it is. In this regard, it can be argued that the study’s results would have received more authentic results if participatory observations would have been done. Leaving the reason for why this was not made to section 4.3.3, there are a few reasons to why this study has validity even when done

4 See chapter 2.4 and Fröhlich et al., 2018; Earle and Bazilli, 2013; Fletcher 2018 5 The Brahmaputra Dialogue is, apart from SaciWATERs, supported by the Asia Foundation. It does also have the following project partners: The Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (CNES), Bhutan Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN), IITG, Institute for Chinese Studies (ICS), The Hauge Institute for Global Justice, Wageningen University and Research, IWM and Asian International River Centre. The project- and support partners are likely to have some requirements on the quality of the reports, why more than just SaciWATERs can be seen as authors to the reports. 23 in its current way. Firstly, the strength of the documents is that it is first hand material from the Brahmaputra Dialogue’s events. That means that this study has been able to interpret the reports by itself. Moreover, since the analysis is made with indicators developed in this thesis, the authors can impossibly have shaped their work in a way that would suit this very analysis. Additionally, even if the study would have included interviews with participants it would only limitedly have provided more information. This is because the participants in the dialogue are encouraged not to spread what has been said by whom in the procedures, in accordance with the Chatham House Rule as presented in chapter 3. It is also important to highlight that even if the reports are written by the facilitators, they come from different organisations and the project is supported by an even greater number of organisations, see footnote 4. So, even if outside criticism would increase the trustworthiness of the material, it can be argued that the variety and kinds of actors inside the procedures give authenticity to the material.

The other quality goal for a study is to have high reliability. This goal is achieved if the same results are received when the study is conducted multiple times. To attain such ambition, transparency of methodology is key. Therefore, in section 4.4 Operationalisation of indicators it is extensively described how each indicator has been measured, and how the overall assessment has been made. Notwithstanding of the quality of operationalisation and the analytical skill of the scientist, the reader of a text analysis should be aware that this method tends to have lower reliability than other kinds of methods. The reason being that the very work procedure relies on the researcher’s interpretation of text and it cannot be excluded that other researchers would understand the texts in focus differently.

4.3.3 Limitations of study

It is important to present what limitations this study has. First of all, this study is merely a text analysis. The reason for not doing an observatory study is due to limitations in both monetary resources and time, especially since the Brahmaputra Dialogue is an ongoing process with its meetings spread in space and time. Also, as discussed above, all analysis material is written by the facilitators. The reason for this is that there are no detailed outside writings available. Although this could be problematic from a validity point of view, there are reasons to why the consequences are not too severe, see previous section.

4.4 Operationalisation of Gender Sensitivity Framework

The indicators of the Gender Sensitivity Framework presented in the 2.5 chapter have been applied to the context of the Brahmaputra Dialogue. For each workshop report, all indicators

24 were tested. If the analysis material signalled the Brahmaputra Dialogue to be in accordance with an indicator’s requirement it provided a yes-answer. On the opposite, if the workshop report communicated lack or ignorance of the subject of an indicator, it provided a no-answer. If the workshop report did not touch upon the subject of an indicator at all, it was marked with a blank. After all indicators had been tested on the entire analysis material, the results from all workshops were computed6. In the end, all yes-answers were computed as a ratio from all the answers (blanks excepted). That in turn provided a percentage of yes-answers which expressed the gender sensitivity of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, see results in chapter 5. Below follows a list of specifically how each indicator has been measured.

1.1 Gender diversity

The proportion of women was computed from the total number of participants written in the workshop report. Thereafter the ratio was put in comparison to the 30% threshold.

1.2 Assistance for participation

The measurement of this indicators was made through looking for any writings on how the Brahmaputra Dialogue is reaching out, or trying to reach out, to potential participants that have difficulties with attending due to domestic work or alike. If found, those statements would also have to include concrete ways of how these people can participate in the meetings despite their unbeneficial situation. When provided, that resulted in a yes for this indicator.

1.3 Unconventional attendance possibilities

To evaluate this indictor, the number of attendants via Internet or telephone was computed, as written in the attendance sheets.

1.4 Flatness of organisational structure

The measurement of this indicators was made through looking for any agendas for creating interactions between different kinds of stake-holders.

1.5 Multitrack diplomacy

6 Since all indicators are based on by scholars identified critical features for working against gender-based power imbalances, all indicators are regarded as equally important. Therefore, all answers to the indicators are calculated without rescaling them in relation to each other. 25

The measurement was made through examining the list of participants to see whether people and/or organisations from all parts of society were represented. For instance, it was examined if anyone was attending in the capacity of a blue-collar worker.

1.6 Language inclusivity

While the theoretical indicator is meant to measure both how inclusive the language spoken is and how inclusive that language is from a scientific/technical perspective, this study has only been able to do the latter. The reason being that it was not enough time and resources for tracing all participants’ level of proficiency in English, as that would have required other material than the workshop reports. Regarding the level of scientific/technical language, I have created a tool to decide whether a language is scientific/technical or not. It is difficult to make this kind of distinction. My solution is to draw on earlier pre-reviewed reports. For this thesis, the IPCC special report Technical Paper VI – Climate Change and Water (2008) is of high relevance and has therefore been used as a reference for the selection of words. Specifically, the glossary (Appendix ll) of the report has been used since the glossary indicates what words that IPCC thinks need an explanation. Since the report describes the specific relationship between water and climate change, the report includes specific water scientific/technical terms. In the analysis of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, the proportion of words from the IPCC report’s glossary from the total amount of words in the workshop reports, has been calculated. To assess whether these terms have a dominance over the language in the Brahmaputra Dialogue, and thus making it exclusive, the proportion computed has been evaluated in relation to the IPCC’s own proportion of scientific/technical terms (15%). Therefore, 0% scientific/technical terms are regarded as no technical dominance over the language (inclusive language), and 15 % is regarded as a big technical dominance over the language (exclusive language). Any proportion in between those poles is analysed in relation to them. Specifically, any level of scientific/technical language below 7.5% provides a yes to this indicator’s question.

2.1 Recognition of gender-based power imbalances

The measurement was made by searching for explicit acknowledgements that gender-based power imbalances between men and women can/do occur, and whether that potential acknowledgement was followed by a strategy to work against those power imbalances.

2.2 All-embracing gender awareness

The measurement was made by searching for notions that gender norms negatively affect both men and women. Any such notion, regardless of its size in relation to other topics of discussion, provided a positive answer to this indicator.

2.3 Shared responsibility for change

The measurement was made by reading through the strategy to work against power imbalances between men and women, and if the gender of the actors responsible for making that strategy come true, were both men and women. If identified actors were of both sexes, the answer to the indicator was yes.

2.4 Equality in knowledge level

This indicator was measured through looking for any specified plans of action for how to share knowledge between the different stakeholders, or if that had already been done.

2.5 Equality in impact possibilities

Since no participatory observations was made, this indicator was evaluated through calculating the proportion of women written out as speakers in the workshop reports. The character of the answer was based on whether it was more or less than 30 % women speakers. For the same reason as for indicator 1.1 Gender diversity, that 30% line was based on the benchmark recognized in the Beijing Platform for Action (United Nations, 1995).

2.6 Latitude of target groups

This indicator was measured through analysing whether it was stated that the results from the Brahmaputra Dialogue should be shared with the public.

5. Analysis

In this chapter, the study’s results and the analysis from them are presented. The study results are both analysed generally and specifically, one indicator at a time. The discussion leads up to the final assesement of the gender senstivity of the Brahmaputra Dialogue. In the end of this chapter, a discussion of the quality of the analysis is presented.

5.1 Study Results

A table that summarises the results from the text analysis is provided in figure 3. In this section, the results presented in figure 3 are discussed extensively. For all indicators, key information leading up to the results is offered. In the end of this section, the overall assessment of the gender sensitivity is put forward. Before going into detail, it can be concluded that not every indicator could be measured in every workshop. There is especially a shortcoming of the 2.2 All-embracing gender awareness and the 2.3 Shared responsibility for change indicators. In addition, the Regional Level Workshop report did not communicate any answers to the 2.5 Equality in impact possibilities-indicator. That report did not provide any details on what views were put forward by whom, and so the mentioned indicator could not be measured (SaciWATERs, 2016h). For further discussion on the implication of the missing information, see section 5.2.

The results for indicator 1.1 Gender diversity, 1.6 Language inclusivity and 2.5 Equality in impact possibilities are attained by counting variables in the way presented in chapter 4.4 Operationalisation of indicators. Also, the exact percentage rate given by each indicator is provided in this thesis’ appendix. Therefore, the results on those indicators will not be discussed in detail here. It can just be concluded that there is a lack of gender diversity, that the equality in impact possibilities was high and that language inclusivity was ideal.

The indicator 1.2 Assistance for participation only received negative answers. The first and most prominent reason for this, that is visible in all the workshop reports, is a lack of explicit notions on how to assist potential participants that currently do not have possibilities to attend (SaciWATERs, 2016a-h). Also, even when the facilitators communicate that they regard the women with traditional practises as important to uphold, as in the quote below from the Inception Phase Write-shop shows, that does not make them all inclusive. That is because the women are not invited to be part in the decision-making, just to inform the stakeholders.

We have also acknowledged an activity within the project, wherein we will include women’s narrative about their expectation from the river and the issues that they face during disasters. This will be documented from different regions and compiled into one video. (SaciWATERs, 2016f, p.9)

Regarding 1.3 Unconventional attendance possibilities it was only in the Inception Phase Write-shop that non-physical attendance was possible, as expressed in figure 3. There is a possibility that all required attendants in the other meetings were able to physically attend, and that the negative results are not a problem. However, it cannot be guaranteed that this was the case, why it is necessary to be careful when making such assumptions. That said, from a gender sensitivity perspective it is problematic that only one of the meetings provided a non- physical attendance possibility as that might have locked certain attendants out.

Figure 3. Results of Study

Moving on, the concept of the Brahmaputra Dialogue is well capturing the essence of indicator 1.4 Flatness of organisational structure and is so mainstreamed to the entire process. The initiators describe it in the background section in a few of the reports, for instance in the one about the country level meeting in India, which makes the workshop preform very well on this indicator:

“The aim of the workshop was to promote better decision-making by ensuring that the views of different stakeholders (government, civil society organizations, funding agencies, academia, scientific community and media) are heard and taken into account.” (SaciWATERs, 2016e, p.3).

In regard to 1.5 Multitrack diplomacy the negative result could seem strange, especially with the quote of the workshops’ aim outlined in the previous paragraph. However, actors do not always succeed to meet their goals. On a country level basis, the workshop in China did only have academical actors and Bhutan did only have actors from track II and 1.5 (SaciWATERs, 2016c-d). Even if the other workshops succeeded to attract actors from more levels of society, e.g. the Regional Level Workshop attracted some regional state government officials (SaciWATERs, 2016a), none of them succeeded to reach actors from track I-level (SaciWATERs, 2016a-h). Because of this, all workshops received a “no” to the 1.5 Multitrack diplomacy-indicator. As gender knowledge should be mainstreamed to all societal levels, it is critical that not all levels are involved. While it does not impact the assessment of the indicator, it is beneficial that the initiators attempt to have a multitrack diplomacy process.

About the 2.1 Recognition of gender-based power imbalances there are only two positive answers out of the seven. The reason being that none of the country level workshops, nor the Regional Level Workshop, make any notion of gender and/or women (SaciWATERs, 2016b- e; SaciWATERs, 2016h). However, the two workshops that aimed for knowledge sharing, recognised power imbalances based on gender (SaciWATERs, 2016a; SaciWATERs, 2016f- g). This is for instance expressed in the following quote articulated by one of the speakers in the Brahmaputra Knowledge Exchange-workshop. This quote does additionally provide an intersectional analysis since it recognises the interaction of multiple vulnerabilities:

“Women in tribal communities are entrusted with land and maintaining its integrity according to tribal laws. They are the ones who are sacrificing the most to maintain integrity of the land and not considered in the process.” (SaciWATERs, 2016a, p.14).

The indicator 2.2 All-embracing gender awareness is maybe the most difficult to meet. The complexity is discussed in connection to the following quote which elaborates the issue:

“Gender based development should be prioritized and gender equality objectives should be included in the beginning of the project (at positions of decision making), focusing on - gender integration, gender awareness and gender sensitive activities. Again, gender does not only mean women. Both men and women’s participating in these dialogues should be given equal weightage. But generally the number of women participating is comparatively much less than men as the issues related to the river, like construction of dams and other technical aspects, have always been considered to be masculine subjects. Hence, emphasis on participation of women groups will be given priority.” (SaciWATERs, 2016f, p.7).

From this quote it indeed clear that the Brahmaputra Dialogue understands that a gender perspective is not only about women. It is identified that there are inequalities between men and women and that hydraulics is masculinised. Nevertheless, the quote uncovers a slightly limited understanding of the concept of gender sensitivity. Because a key aspect that is missing out is men’s vulnerability to masculine norms. As presented in chapter 2, the emphasis on gender in regard to men, is not only about whether they have a dominance over the procedures or not. As important is how gender norms affect men. So, to be all-embracing an understanding for how masculine structures hit the process’s male participants should have been expressed.

The 2.3 Shared responsibility for change-indicator provided a negative answer. In the Inception Write-shop it was elaborated how to make women more participatory in the procedures:

“For better facilitation of women contribution, pre-session can be organized with only women, before a meeting or workshop so as to capacitate them to be a part of these dialogues through training. There can also be provision for them to write down their views if they are unable to articulate them verbally” (SaciWATERs, 2016f, p.7).

Even if all these suggestions would make women more participatory, it puts all responsibility for changing the power structures on the female attendants. Because, the only identified actors here are women. To receive a positive answer to this indicator, the Brahmaputra Dialogue would have to also make suggestions on how men should change their behaviour to be more inclusive. Moreover, the above suggestions do not change the character of the power structure of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, but makes women more customised to those structures. So

32 clearly, the attitude towards who should change the power structures and the silent consent of those power structures, is not in line with this thesis’ Gender Sensitivity Framework.

The 2.4 Equality in knowledge level only received positive results. The reason for this is, as for indicator 1.4 Flatness of organisational structure, the concept of the Brahmaputra Dialogue. As the quote regarding that indicator presented above states, the concept of a dialogue is undertaken of the reason to make the different stakeholders share their views and knowledge with each other. Additionally, e.g. the country level workshop in Bangladesh had knowledge sharing as one of its permeating themes (SaciWATERs, 2016b).

Regarding 2.6 Latitude of target groups the measurement of all meetings provided a positive response. All the workshop reports used in this thesis are free to access and available on SaciWATERs’ website. All reports are also written in English. Furthermore, in the Brahmaputra Exchange Programme there are detailed plans for how to build the capacity of local communities and their leaders (SaciWATERs, 2016a). The aspiration is to build the capacity of community leaders, since they can transfer knowledge and information to the people they represent (SaciWATERs, 2016a). What is clear is that anyone with internet access is given the opportunity to read about the Brahmaputra Dialogue. Additionally, the Brahmaputra Dialogue has plans for how to distribute information about the process to people that would otherwise have problem with access. These insights and planned actions indicates an observance for gender perspectives.

Having elaborated indicator per indicator this paragraph is putting the results together. As can be seen in figure 3, the Brahmaputra Dialogue is in sum 45% gender sensitive. As this study is the first to use this Gender Sensitivity Framework, there are no other studies to compare this result with. However, as described in chapter 2, the framework is not an ideal type. Its indicators are produced to be realistic. Therefore, it is possible that a TWM process could receive a near to 100% gender sensitivity result. With that in mind, it is critical that the Brahmaputra Dialogue only has 45% gender sensitivity. That result is below “half” gender sensitive.

5.2 General Discussion on the Quality of Study

As visible in figure 3, there are a couple of indicators that lack information: 2.2 All-embracing gender awareness and 2.3 Responsibility for change. Generally, there could be a problem when a study fails to provide answers. The two most likely reasons to blank results are either that the material is lacking the information asked for or second, that the operationalisation

33 misfits what it is supposed to investigate. Beginning with the first, while a scientist is momentarily better off with having a result, a non-existing result serves as a guideline for what future research should focus on. That is to say, a blank can work as an initiator for development of new research methods. Also, a blank answer should not be confused with a study being unambitiously made. On the opposite, a researcher that is transparent with what they can and cannot say is more trustworthy than a researcher that so eagerly seeks answers that their statements are not supported in the material. Accessing the question of unfitting operationalisation, that problem tends to arise if the operationalisation is too narrowly formulated in the wrong direction. However, the indicators that are in question here, 2.2 All- embracing gender awareness and 2.3 Responsibility for change, are adapted in a manner that allows them to respond to a broad variety of expressions of their content, see chapter 4.4. Operationalisation of indicators. Therefore, the blank answers could rather be concluded to be based in lack of information than lack of well-adapted research methods.

Moreover, there are a few reasons to why the lack of results on 2.2 All-embracing gender awareness and 2.3 Responsibility for change only have limited impact on the study’s overall assessment. Firstly, the workshops that did provide answers to the indicators, the two knowledge sharing workshops, are the ones with the explicit aim at identifying aspects and actors that should be empathised in the Brahmaputra Dialogue. With that in mind, it is very likely that the most inclusive fora for highlighting gender perspectives are these workshops. That is, if the Inception Phase Write-shop and the Brahmaputra Knowledge Exchange Workshop failed to observe the two indicators, it is not likely that any other workshop provide a deeper understanding. In this regard it is also important to stress that a positive 2.1 Recognition of gender-based awareness, in a high degree serves as a prerequisite for the two indicators. Because, without recognising unequal power positions based on gender it is rather unrealistic that all aspects of gender awareness should be noted. Likewise, that both men and women should be targeted as responsible for changing gender-based norms and structures are somewhat unlikely. Yet, all-embracing gender awareness and shared responsibility for changing gendered structures are so central in gender theory that limiting measuring them would have been wrong.

Moreover, the validity of the study can be evaluated from how well the indicators were operationalised. In that regard, the measurement of the 1.6 Language inclusivity-indicator is a bit problematic since words are taken out of context when measured in that way. It might be that the words were described as they were written, but that was not seen when using this kind

34 of measurement. The usefulness of the way the indicator was operationalised, is that it provides an overview that is easy to comprehend. However, if more emphasis is given to this indicator in another study, it should be evaluated in combination with a deeper analysis of the context of the words.

6. Conclusions

Transboundary water management regards international cooperation over shared waters. Since water is important in most parts of life, it is vital that cooperation around it is efficient. Decision-making can only be effective if based on the interests of the people, and if the people understand the agreements they should be part in observing. Until recently, the impact of social norm systems and power structures have been given little emphasis in TWM. Since power structures and norms largely impact the decision-making and its realisation, it also impacts its efficiency. With this background, the wish of this thesis is to contribute to the growing field of gender studies on TWM. Specifically, this thesis presents a new tool for measuring gender sensitivity in TWM; the Gender Sensitivity Framework. The indicators in the Gender Sensitivity Framework are developed from a combination of feminist, conflict and water management theories, study results and insights. The analytical tool includes two types of inclusivity: structural inclusivity and substantial inclusivity. It therefore highlights that gender sensitivity not only has to do with representation but also with content. The Gender Sensitivity Framework has been applied to the Brahmaputra Dialogue about the co- management of the Brahmaputra River in South Asia. There is a shortage of social science studies on the river, especially with a focus on gender. However, the political environment as regards the river is tense and has been so for a long time. Thus, social sciences and gender studies can contribute by identifying factors fuelling these tensions. Due to this, it is regarded as relevant to study the Brahmaputra Dialogue with the gender sensitivity indicators. The research question was: To what extent is the Brahmaputra Dialogue gender sensitive?

The results revealed that the Brahmaputra Dialogue is 45% gender sensitive. Generally, it can be concluded that the positive results attained originated from the work forms of the Brahmaputra Dialogue. That is, it being a dialogue process contributed with some of the vital aspects for inclusivity such as knowledge sharing and flatness of organisational structure. Just the same, to achieve a high degree of gender sensitivity the circumstances around the dialogue and the discussion within must better reflect gender awareness. At the core should be an all- embracing understanding of how gender norms affect society and that everyone is responsible for changing gendered structures. Among others, these are parameters where the Brahmaputra Dialogue has potential for improvement.

To develop the assessment of the Brahmaputra Dialogue, future researchers could make participatory observations and interviews. In doing so, the validity of the assessment of gender sensitivity of the procedure could increase, since it would not rely on others’ writings.

Future research could also focus on developing the Gender Sensitivity Framework. The more studies on gender and water management that the indicators are based on, the more strength the indicators will have. Therefore, a suggestion is that future research undertake these kinds of studies, and also connect conclusions made in different studies on the subject. Furthermore, future research could focus on how to make the framework more contextually sensitive.

7. References

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Appendix In this appendix additional information to the information displayed in the results in figure 3 in chapter 4 is provided. Specifically, this appendix provides the numbers of those indicators which included calculations of propositions. That is, indicator 1.1 Gender diversity, 1.6 Language inclusivity and 2.5 Equality in impact possibilities. For indicator 1.1 Gender diversity and 2.5 Equality in impact possibilities, the table show the number of women out of the total. For the indicator 1.6 Language inclusivity, the table show the number of technical words out of the total number of words.

WORKSHOP/INDICATOR 1.1 GENDER DIVERSITY 1.6 LANGUAGE 2.5 EQUALITY IN INCLUSIVITY IMPACT POSSIBILITIES COUNTRY LEVEL 6/27 = 22% 80/3043 = 2.6% 3/7 = 43% WORKSHOP BANGLADESH

COUNTRY LEVEL MEETING 2/7 = 29% 30/1724 = 1.7% 6/18 = 33% BHUTAN COUNTRY LEVEL 4/6 = 67% 19/846 = 2.2% 10/16 = 63% WORKSHOP CHINA COUNTRY LEVEL 8/33 = 24% 98/3680 = 2.7% 1/3 = 33% WORKSHOP INDIA BRAHMAPUTRA 8/33 = 24% 123/7490 = 1.6% 7/26 =27% KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE PROGRAMME INCEPTION PHASE WRITE- 7/28 = 25% 89/8968 = 1.0% 3/7 = 43% SHOP REGIONAL LEVEL 7/27 = 26% 100/37012 = 2.7% - WORKSHOP