Systematic mapping of gender equality and social inclusion in WASH interventions: knowledge clusters and gaps

Abstract

IntroductionPoor access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services threatens population health and contributes to gender and social inequalities, especially in low-resource settings. Despite awareness in the WASH sector of the importance of promoting gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) to address these inequalities, evaluations of interventions focus largely on health outcomes, while gender equality and other social outcomes are rarely included. This review aimed to collate and describe available research evidence of GESI outcomes evaluated in WASH intervention studies.MethodsWe applied a systematic mapping methodology and searched for both academic and grey literature published between 2010 and 2020 in 16 bibliographic databases and 53 specialist websites. Eligibility screening (with consistency checking) was conducted according to predetermined criteria, followed by metadata coding and narrative synthesis.ResultsOur evidence base comprises 463 intervention studies. Only 42% of studies measured transformative GESI outcomes of WASH interventions, referring to those that seek to transform gender relations and power imbalances to promote equality. A majority of studies disaggregated outcome data by sex, but other forms of data disaggregation were limited. Most included studies (78%) lacked a specific GESI mainstreaming component in their intervention design. Of the interventions with GESI mainstreaming, the majority targeted women and girls, with very few focused on other social groups or intersectional considerations.ConclusionThe review points to various areas for future primary and secondary research. Given the potential contribution of WASH to GESI, GESI considerations should be incorporated into the evaluation of WASH interventions. Regular collection of data and monitoring of GESI outcomes is needed as well as developing new and testing existing methods for monitoring and evaluation of such data.

Gender equality and social inclusion in WASH interventions: policy and practice insights from a systematic mapping exercise

“…We used machine learning algorithms to support the title and abstract screening stage. A detailed description of all methodological steps is available in the systematic map report [21].…”

“…This brief provides policy-relevant insights from our comprehensive mapping of evidence of GESI outcomes related to WASH interventions [21]. Our review aimed to answer the following question: What evidence exists on the GESI outcomes of WASH interventions in low-and mid-income contexts?…”

Gender equality approaches in water, sanitation, and hygiene programs: Towards gender-transformative practice

“…Email discussions continued between the participants between workshops to help clarify ideas and insights. The workshop inputs included gender-integration experiences from other sectors (see Supplementary material), gender-WASH literature (van Wijk-Sijbesma, 1985, 1998Dery et al, 2019;MacArthur et al, 2020;Caruso et al, 2022;Macura et al, 2023), and Water for Women Fund experiences in the "Toward Transformation" strategy (Water for Women, 2019b). Relevant case examples were documented in an online database (stored in Airtable) and referred to throughout the workshops.…”

“…Lastly, there are few academically published case studies describing WASH program initiatives and outcomes in relation to gender equality. Therefore, the team was required to rely heavily on historical examples (van Wijk-Sijbesma, 1985, 1998, gray literature cases known to the team, and recent gender-WASH literature reviews (van Wijk-Sijbesma, 1985, 1998Dery et al, 2019;MacArthur et al, 2020;Caruso et al, 2022;Macura et al, 2023). Future work could benefit from a systematic case study review of gender-WASH programming examples from both gray and published literature.…”

An analysis of gender inclusion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects: Intention vs. reality

“…It is evident that there is a need to achieve gender equality to make additional progress in WASH. Recent systematic reviews of interventions with GESI outcomes of projects carried out between 2010 and 2020 showed that only 22% of the studies involved interventions that “included GESI mainstreaming components” (Macura et al., 2023, p. 6). Academic analysis of gender equality principles, language, and indicators have also been conducted (Caruso et al., 2021; Dery et al., 2020; Leahy et al., 2017; MacArthur et al., 2020; Pouramin et al., 2020); these highlight the inequalities that persist across WASH.…”