Water and Gender in Africa

  Writing this blog has been an interesting experience and looking back I can confidently say that I have developed my understanding, and hopefully so have you, of the complex interlinkages between gender and development in Africa. I would like to conclude with a few points that have emerged from this blog.   Through my blogs it is apparent for development to be effective the inclusion of women and men in the process is essential. While the focus is on empowering women it must be noted that this is unachievable without the inclusion of men in contributing to progress and actively being involved to break down barriers. Secondly, the importance of recognising the historical roles women have played in development narratives needs to be amplified. This can help drive the way in which development should be carried out in local contexts as women often have much more intimate historical understandings of the locality. The portrayal of women as constantly vulnerable and weak c...

It is hard to talk about the relationship between water and gender without acknowledging the climate crisis we are currently facing. A changing climate affects everyone, however women are often more likely to be displaced as a result of climate change( UNWomen,2009 ). Many development policy approaches fail to recognise the gendered nature of everyday realities and experiences ( Rao,2016 ). Therefore, there is a need for gender sensitive responses to the effects of climate change. Climate change in Africa Climate change will have serious implications for development prospects in Africa. The Climate in Africa report states how extreme weather events from tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth to droughts and heavy rainfall that affected southern Africa and in the Greater Horn of Africa will become more frequent ( WMO, 2019 ). Continued warming temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather events are just a snapshot of the rapidly rising longer term climate related risks associated wi...

Whilst doing some reading, I came across an interesting article called ' Naked power: women and the social production of water in anglophone Cameroon' ( Page,2020 ).   This was a really eye opening article that emphasised how important it is to view women in the history of the ‘production of water’ as they are not just simply users but also were and  are  still key actors in efforts to implement water infrastructure.  Production of water refers to the 'social arrangements that govern the use of water...regulating the way people behave around water sources, the committees that decide the allocation of resources, the local values of water and the cultural meanings associated with it (Page, 2020). Naked power: Nudity as a form of political protest In the small Cameroonian town of Tombel in 1959, a woman stripped off her dress and stood naked in front of a crowd in protest of the failure to install a piped water supply for the past three decades. This was follo...