Water and Gender in Africa

It is hard to discuss water resources in Africa without mentioning the importance it has on sustaining agricultural practises in the region. This post will focus on solar irrigation technologies and how they can increase resistance of female farmers against climate change and increase their ability in completing domestic and agricultural tasks.  Agricultural production and solar powered irrigation Agricultural production depends on the availability of two important productive resources; fertile land and water. Therefore, water plays an important role in contributing to food security. In Africa women account between 60-80% of the agricultural labour production ( Lopez 2016 ).    This figure is increasing as men increasingly are leaving rural areas in pursuit of urban employment. Therefore, it is increasingly important to be engaging with women when addressing issues of water systems for irrigation. 95% of sub-Saharan agriculture depends on 'green water': moisture from rain...

This blog will look to provide some contextual background regarding the concept of ‘gender mainstreaming’ as an evolving aspect of development narratives particularly regarding water and how this has shaped the effectiveness of policies and intervention over time. Gender mainstreaming   first indirectly referred to in the 1985 United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi  and finally introduced in the 1995 United Nations World Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing is defined as: “The process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes… so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated  (UNESOC, 1997 ). So how did we get to gender mainstreaming? The narrative has significantly developed from Women In Development (WI...