This work was funded with the generous support of the American people through the Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement No.EPP-A-00-06-00014-00 for implementation of the TransLinks project. The contents of this report are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States government. No. 6; August 2007 G ENDER AND S HIFTING WATER G OVERNANCE: Differential Effects of Privatization, Commodification, and Democratization Leila M. Harris and Whitney Gantt: University of Wisconsin-Madison Trends in water governance emphasize devolution to local users and market-oriented policies. These trends influence how donors, policymakers, and international lending institutions approach water management. This LTC Brief reviews current knowledge of the consequences for gender equity, summarizes how the trends have played out in various locales, and identifies gaps in our understanding. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ FOLLOWING THE ADOPTION of the 1992 agendas of the World Bank, International “Dublin Principles,” along with a number Monetary Fund, and other organizations as of other key international agreements, conditions for loans or financial assistance. there have been notable shifts in water This brief reviews the research on these trends management, such as: and offers recommendations for future studies. engaging users more fully; for example, Democratization and devolution devolving irrigation management to With respect to water, efforts to involve local farmers populations and resource users in governance increasing focus on women as water most often focus on the transfer of users and managers responsibility for water management to “water instituting market reforms in water user groups,” “irrigation associations,” or management, particularly privatizing similar local-scale organizations. Many authors and/or commodifying water governance. argue that decentralized management is It is difficult to chart exactly how essential if communities are to benefit from extensive or deep these shifts are, yet they water resources. Some suggest that community are occurring across different regional management is necessary to ensure long-term contexts and are becoming central to the sustainability of resources, as it is assumed that local users will be more likely to maintain the Gender and shifting water governance—1 resource over time, invest in maintenance, or project design. Women may also have greater more effectively incorporate local knowledge incentives to address water problems and into management decisions. maintain infrastructure (Bennett 1995). Meanwhile, financial concerns are often Given these connections, the failure to include among the motives for transferring governance women is likely to undermine the success and to local communities, as this is viewed as a sustainability of water management efforts. means to reduce centralized governments’ Excluding women from project design in India costs and expenditures, particularly when the led to serious flaws, such as hand pumps that infrastructure is aging and becoming more were too heavy for women to operate (Prokopy costly to maintain. 2005). Researchers in rural Egypt noted that Despite general trends to involve communities women had more knowledge about water more fully in resource governance, women supply and pollution issues. Although these often continue to be excluded from community women raised the issue of pollution to their water governance mechanisms (Harris 2005). husbands, male leaders failed to address the Much of the “gender and water” literature problem (Assaad et al. 1994). argues that including women more In irrigation, studies suggest that including meaningfully in water management will serve women in decision-making promotes a number of interests, from resource sustainability by ensuring that the concerns sustainability to gender equity. and capacities of all users are recognized. In Much of this literature also documents the Andes, women are increasingly responsible obstacles to women’s participation and for irrigating fields as male migration particular steps that can be taken to include increases. Women and men have different women more fully. Suggestions include preferences for water access and use, with introducing quotas for female participation, women generally preferring to use irrigation holding all-women meetings, scheduling water for multiple purposes such as bathing meeting times and locations to fit with and laundry, preferring to avoid night women’s schedules and cultural norms, or irrigation turns, or preferring to locate canals hiring female community organizers. closer to their homes. According to Boelens and Zwarteveen (2002), when these The following themes capture many of the preferences are ignored water efficiency implied benefits of enhanced women’s objectives may suffer. Another dimension that involvement in water governance. relates to sustainability is the degree to which Promotes environmental and programmatic involvement of all community members sustainability. Some research suggests that contributes to more effective buy-in, women’s participation promotes monitoring, and adherence to regulations. “sustainability,” whether through improved Improves women’s status and boosts gender knowledge of the resource, designing systems equity. As water management and planning to better account for varied resource uses, often determine resource access, and women better regulatory enforcement or greater have key roles with respect to familial and community buy-in to governance rules. productive water needs, women’s participation in Related to this argument, some suggest that management mechanisms is considered essential. because women are responsible for family Some studies suggest that women are empowered health and the time-consuming task of through their participation, leading to improved collecting water, they possess extensive confidence and enhanced self-reliance. knowledge about water quality, reliability, and availability. This knowledge can contribute to Gender and shifting water governance—2 Others suggest that participation opens may be more likely at the community level, opportunities for women to use water to potentially aggravating socio-economic generate income, in turn improving women’s inequalities (Agrawal and Gibson 2001, and bargaining position in the household and Ribot 1999, 2006). Case studies from southeast community. In India, women’s increased Asia show wealthy elites using their greater access to water supply allowed them to expand ability to attend community meetings and their involvement in dairy cooperatives, access information to enhance their control over increasing their income and improving natural resources (Dupar and Badenoch 2002). household bargaining position (Upadhyay Despite the frequent assertion that involvement 2004). In South Africa, increasing women’s of women will improve project success, there access to water for agriculture helped support is very little empirical evidence of these food security for poor women excluded from benefits. For example, a study in India found the formal economy (Schreiner 2004). that the project outcomes of water supply Opens possibilities for women to participate projects with greater women’s participation did in democratic governance. Another provocative not differ from those with low participation, line of argument is that increasing women’s although the author concluded that greater role in resource management may also open participation did support women’s opportunities for women to participate more empowerment (Prokopy 2005). fully in other aspects of community life and Another study from India found that women’s the democratic process. Although there is little participation did not improve project documentation of these connections, one study outcomes, instead further deterioration of in Mexico suggests that women’s participation water infrastructure occurred, albeit due to in water management opened opportunities for missing parts (Singh et al. 2006). Whether with women to participate in other political realms respect to community participation in general, (Ennis-McMillan 2005). However, research in or women’s participation in particular, there is India found little evidence to support this a need for caution as to what types of claims outcome (Prokopy 2005). are made, as well as a need to more critically evaluate whether, and how, local-scale or Reasons for caution participatory management mechanisms actually Most scholars and practitioners argue that lead to improved outcomes. greater inclusion of women is beneficial, yet Also, greater precision is called for in several works note possible risks of involving evaluations of how different members of women more fully. These may include over- community are differently involved in, and extension with respect to expectations for affected by, community management women’s labor, or risks to women if they mechanisms. As one example among many, an overstep social and cultural norms. In sum, it evaluation of decentralization projects in appears that devolution of resource southeast Asia showed that certain groups management to local communities, in general, were not well represented in natural resources and the increased involvement of women in governance and received fewer benefits from particular, may have mixed and even projects—particularly women, the poor, and contradictory outcomes. members of certain ethnic minorities (Dupar These works suggest that, in addition, and Badenoch 2002). increased