Attachment J.9_Senegal WASH Gender Assessment 2021.pdf

USAID Senegal Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Gender Assessment April 2021

I. Senegal Context Senegal is one of Africa’s most stable democracies, and has generated GDP growth of around 6 percent annually over the last five years, due to substantial infrastructure investments. Senegal is a young country (median age of 18.1 years) and faces the challenges of a vast youth population, high levels of poverty, and low levels of social protection, with thirty-two percent of households women-led. Poverty reduction has been slow and uneven, with more than a third of the population living below the poverty line, and 75 percent of families in chronic poverty1. Senegal ranks 168 out of 189 on the United Nations Development Program’s 2020 Human Development Index, and the Gender Development Index score is 0.87 (the ratio of female to male Human Development Index scores)2, also ranking 168th out of 189 countries.

Although national coverage rates for basic water service is 80% and 52% of the population has access to at least basic sanitation services, reliability is an issue: in a 2018 nationwide survey, 34% of the population live in households with water not available for at least one day in the two weeks prior to the survey34. Significant inequalities exist in both current access and in trends, both within and between sub-national regions. There are notable regional differences in access rates, with about 1% of the population in the western part of the country living in households with water more than 30 minutes away round trip, while the rest of the country is around 9%56. There are significant access differences between the rich and poor. From 2000 to 2017, the percentage of the richest households with access to basic sanitation increased from 77 percent to 84 percent while access for the poorest households decreased from 15 percent to 10 percent7 (see Fig. 1 below).

1 https://www.wfp.org/countries/senegal 2 http://hdr.undp.org/en/data 3 DHS statcompiler 2018 data 4https://www.wsscc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2016/10/Lettre-d%E2%80%99information-n%C2%B04- Programme-Conjoint-Genre-Hygiene-et-Assainissement.pdf 5 www.washdata.org 6 https://www.issuelab.org/resources/27405/27405.pdf 7 www.washdata.org

Figure 1: Household access to water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 and 2017, by poorest and wealthiest quintiles (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program)

The World Health Organization recommends 20-50 liters of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and washing. When water is not available onsite, this requires hauling between 20-50 kg of water daily for use by each household member. The burden generally falls to women and children and is even more difficult for women who are pregnant or are carrying small children.

Women face potential conflict at water points and the risk of physical or sexual assault, also present when women lack access to clean and private toilets or latrines.

USAID perceives the promotion of gender equality and advancing the status of all women and girls as vital to achieving development objectives8. This assessment builds on the USAID/Senegal WASH PAD from 2014 and the 2020 CDCS Gender Analysis and World Bank and UN documents and a current literature review of gender and WASH in Senegal.

II. Findings by Domain The gender analysis findings are presented using the five key gender domains defined in USAID’s Automated Directive System Chapter 205 as they relate to water, sanitation and hygiene, with an additional section containing risks and approaches to prevent gender based violence and the environment during COVID-19. The analysis highlights how social norms and water management practices exacerbate challenges related to gender and other hierarchies.

A. Laws, policies, and institutional context Senegal has taken steps to promote women’s rights, anchoring gender equality in its Constitution (Article 7), and ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The 2010 Parity Law amends the Constitution to mandate parity between men and women candidates in elections. Implementation of the Parity Law almost doubled the representation of women from 64 of 150 national legislative seats in 2012 and 70 of 165 seats in

8 USAID Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy; Automated Directives System guidance on gender analysis and integration https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/205.pdf https://www.usaid.gov/ads/policy/200/205

20179, and 6% to 47% in local legislatures in the 2014 local election. In 2015, the country had only 13 women mayors out of a total of 557 municipalities10. Senegal is tied for the highest representation of women in parliament in West Africa at 43% (with Namibia) and in the world11.

The adoption of the Parity Law and the subsequent influx of women to the National Assembly, generated both increased acceptance of women in politics and a strong polarisation of attitudes towards women as political leaders among the Senegalese population12. Some Senegalese see the benefits of having women representatives and role models, while others complain that women are being elected by gender and not by merit, stifling development and democracy. Religious leaders fought back in the 2014 local elections and thwarted the full implementation of parity in Touba. Representation by women also predominantly reflects wealthy classes. Clearly, progress toward parity is far from complete and it is unclear how increased participation of women in government has affected implementation of WASH and gender-related policies at national and local levels.

Senegal adopted the National Strategy for Equity and Gender Equality (2016 –2026) to ensure that women, girls, men and boys have the same opportunities to participate in and benefit from development. The strategy mandates gender budgeting at the national level, although discriminatory family laws and practices regarding ownership of assets, inheritance, and other legal rights remain13. For example, while the 1972 Family Code grants men and women equal access to land, traditional custom prevents equality in practice, with women often unable to inherit land and husbands often opposing the acquisition of land by their wives. While child, early, and forced marriages are prohibited under the Family Code, they are still widespread. Senegalese marriage law reinforces this: the minimum legal age for marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys, while the minimum legal age for sexual intercourse is 16 but sex within a customary marriage is only prohibited for children under age 13. According to Human Rights Watch, more than nine percent of girls are married by age 1514.

Senegal’s 2019 report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women15 noted measures and projects aimed at strengthening women’s participation in the management and governance of natural resources; improving and monitoring women’s access to land, water, energy; improving access to time- and labor-saving infrastructure; and proposed policy reforms to address discriminatory provisions related to access to land and resources.

9 https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b964c924.html 10 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15857&LangID=E 11 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=false 12 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/abs/gender-parity-and-the-symbolic-representation-of-women-in-senegal/F918EED394D971E7ED17CE3F6B4CB153 13 https://www.genderindex.org/country/senegal/#_ftn5 14 https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/18/its-not-normal/sexual-exploitation-harassment-and-abuse-secondary-schools-senegal#_ftn23 http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2FPPRiCAqhKb7yhskcAJS%2F U4wb%2BdIVicvG05RznrSlq4lcDvQ1wfaFg27QIMA4m3giOjXJXv0y43AO76OddO%2B8jL0X%2BGari9n WR%2FG%2BLRFDgDxASxIdyL0QBCST%2B

Women are underrepresented in the sectors that matter for WASH. The World Bank Group lays out steps that water utilities, the private sector, and the state can take to attract and retain female professionals, in promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education, in recruitment, and in the legislative framework16.

Despite general improvement in gender equality and status of women’s rights and representation, gaps remain between laws and reality. Inequalities in power, resources, and public spaces persist.

Access to land in rural areas remains out of reach for women as land is traditionally reserved for men. In an interview, Hawa Ba (Head of the OSIWA Senegal Country Office) noted “Unfortunately, when political leaders express their commitment to women’s rights, it is only to gain support during electoral campaigns. Concrete political support for equality and anti-discrimination is lagging, and the radical changes that most women’s rights campaigners are fighting for have yet to happen”17.

B. Cultural norms and beliefs A 2019 study found that Senegalese are generally supportive of equal opportunities for women, believing that women should have an equal chance to be elected to political office and should have the same land rights as men. Women still lag behind men in many aspects of society, particularly with regard to economic opportunity and access to resources18.

The SPRING project piloted the Gender Champion approach in Senegal that identifies men known in their communities for performing desired gender-equitable practices such as fetching water, and gives them the knowledge and tools to advocate for gender equality. They identified lack of information and social norms as major obstacles to greater uptake of good gender practices. Many men expressed a desire to help their wives with domestic tasks, but worried about their neighbors’ opinion. The Gender Champion strategy directly addressed this barrier, with one participant noting that “Before, people associated the idea of gender with giving more power to women to the detriment of men, but after the workshop, we understood that gender equity is more about making the relationship between men and women more equal.” SPRING concluded that people were receptive to discussion of gender roles and challenging traditional norms, particularly when the desired behavior was modeled by key influencers who were publicly recognized and lauded as “champions”19.

USAID/Senegal All Children Reading’s (2016-2021) Gender Plan conducted a literature review, key informant interviews, consultations and observations at school sites and found that gender roles at home were a significant issue. For example, girls are responsible for chores, reducing time for studying that is allowed for their brothers. Some families said that chores, such as fetching water, were more important than girls attending school20. Gender norms contribute to gender inequality in the classroom, for example boys play soccer outside and girls do domestic tasks.

16 https://genderinsite.net/sites/default/files/risingtide.pdf 17 https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/20023/constitutional-rights-do-little-to-ensure-gender-equality-in-senegal 18 https://www.africaportal.org/publications/senegalese-women-advancement-real-uneven/ 19 https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00N5VB.pdf 20 https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00T7NN.pdf https://www.africaportal.org/publications/senegalese-women-advancement-real-uneven/ https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00T7NN.pdf

Consultations in Senegal revealed examples, e.g., a boy will be teased for lacking masculinity when he helps with household tasks. Addressing norms will require deeper investigation of the gendered pursuits expected of each family member throughout the day.

Menstrual Health and Hygiene Menstruation is taboo in Senegal, characterized by religious and community beliefs and prohibitions that affect women21. Menstrual blood is considered evil and dangerous accross the country regardless of genital mutilation. The national rate of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Senegal is 28 percent, but in Kedougou, 80 percent of women have undergone FGM. An assessment was conducted in Senegal in 2018 on knowledge, attitudes and practices in the menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in women who had and had not undergone FGM. The study identified MHM needs of mutilated and non-mutilated women, surveyed male knowledge and perceptions of MHM, and assessed hygiene infrastructure in public spaces and homes. The study found that mutilated women are more stigmatized or isolated during their periods and go into voluntary isolation or are isolated by family members during this time at a higher rate than non-mutilated women. Mutilated women experience more menstruation-related health problems including vaginal infections, abdominal pain, fever, and headaches. Nearly one in four suffered from infections during menstruation and a similar percentage said that problems related to their MHM had a negative influence on their sexual and reproductive health22.

Violence In Senegal (and globally), the water collection and hygiene responsibilities fall mainly to women and girls. Women find and fetch water, including water needed for drinking, washing, cooking, and cleaning. They spend significant time walking, hauling water, and enduring physical hardship.

Women have specific hygiene needs during menstruation, pregnancy and child rearing and without easy access to clean water and acceptable sanitation facilities, girls’ school attendance suffers, productivity drops, and health and nutrition decline. Despite this, women are underrepresented in water and sanitation decision-making in Senegal, comprising less than 8 percent of the technical workforce in WASH per recent estimates23. Experience has shown that women in Senegal benefit from targeted interventions to counteract gender inequalities.

The lack of adequate WASH also impacts women and children as a driver of Gender Based Violence (GBV). A study in rural Ethiopia identified GBV pathways including tensions and domestic violence over amount of water brought home and collection time, harassment, sexual assault and rape while fetching water and disputes while queuing24. Sommer et al. used literature and consultations to conceptualize GBV to improve WASH programming25. Findings indicate the numerous gendered aspects of vulnerability to violence in relation to WASH, and the sensitivities

21 https://menstrualhygieneday.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WSSCC_FGM-GHM-Senegal- FR_2018.pdf 22 https://menstrualhygieneday.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WSSCC_GHM-Senegal-EN_2018.pdf 23 http://www.bibalex.org/Search4Dev/files/423465/449096.pdf 24 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22575697/ 25 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956247814564528#, toolkit at https://violence-wash.lboro.ac.uk/toolkit/ http://www.bibalex.org/Search4Dev/files/423465/449096.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956247814564528 around conducting research on violence and sanitation. They grouped common forms of violence resulting from power differences between people in the following categories:

● sexual violence (rape, assault, molestation, and inappropriate touching);

● psychological violence (harassment, eve-baiting (public harassment of women by men), bullying or other actions that may cause fear, stress or shame);

● physical violence (beating or fighting leading to injury or death); and

● sociocultural violence (ostracism, discrimination,negative impacts from political marginalization or social norms).

Social scientists from Johns Hopkins University conducted research in Senegal to understand how the various forms of violence, such as emotional, physical and sexual, are connected, from men and women’s perspectives26. Many of the research findings were similar from men’s and women’s perspectives: husbands and wives both engaged in emotional violence frequently rooted in household financial struggles, including the enforced financial dependence of women on their husbands and the deliberate withholding of resources by men, or humiliation and verbal ridicule by women at their husband’s inability to provide for the family. Emotional violence between spouses often escalates to physical violence, mainly affecting women. Men and women generally described an “acceptable level” of day-to-day physical violence. However, physical violence became “unacceptable” once it caused visible harm or injury. CARE developed a manual for guidance for GBV monitoring and mitigation within non-GBV-focused sectoral programming that contains recommendations and a step-wise approach for preventing and/or responding to unintentional risk, threat, or violence related to programmatic interventions27.

C. Roles and responsibilities and time use Lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation burdens health and workloads of both women and men in developing countries. However, women are more often charged with collecting water, cleaning, cooking, and caring for the sick, drastically limiting their time spent on paid work and leisure and, in the case of girls, reducing the time for educational pursuits.

A study of 24 countries in sub-Saharan Africa examined the disaggregated effects of water collection on women/girls and men/boys. Among households spending more than 30 minutes collecting water, adult females were the primary collectors of water, ranging from 46% in Liberia to 90% in Cote d’Ivoire. Across all countries, female children were more likely to be responsible for water collection than male children (62% vs. 38%, respectively)28. A 2012 study in sub- Saharan Africa that showed a 15-minute decrease in time spent walking to a water source is associated with a 41% average reduction in diarrhoea prevalence, an 11% reduction in under-5 mortality, and improvements in the nutritional status of children29.

26 https://ccp.jhu.edu/2019/05/01/gender-based-violence-senegal/ 27 https://care.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/CARE-GBV-ME-Guidance_0.pdf 28 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155981 29 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22242546/ https://ccp.jhu.edu/2019/05/01/gender-based-violence-senegal/ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155981

USAID/Senegal’s Naatal Mbay Project30 found that in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence, women’s workloads are heavily influenced by age, marital status, household type, socio-economic status, involvement in producer organizations, and contribution to household economy. In mechanized areas, like the Senegal River Valley Delta, women spend relatively less time on agricultural activities, while in areas where manual production is the norm, such as Casamance, women reported heavy labor loads both on family agricultural plots and for household responsibilities. Women cultivating the fields of male household members also experience either delay of their own plots or incur the cost of hiring labor to plant and harvest. Heavy workloads impact women’s economic empowerment by limiting participation and leadership in producer organizations, both of which increase access to productivity-enhancing technologies and markets.

Heavy workloads are themselves a factor that reduce women’s wellbeing, particularly when they involve heavy and exhausting manual labor.

D. Access to and control of resources A paper by IFPRI notes that an understanding of the gendered nature of asset distribution and its influence on individual and household livelihoods is essential to designing effective development policies and interventions31. Women make important contributions to the agricultural and rural economies of all regions of the world. The exact contribution in terms of magnitude and nature is often difficult to assess and shows a high degree of variation across countries and regions. The World Bank’s ratio of female to male national labor force participation in Senegal is 59%32. FAO’s aggregate data shows that women comprise about 43% of the agricultural labour force globally and in developing countries, but note that this figure masks considerable variation across regions and within countries according to age and social class. Time use surveys for agriculture varies by crop, production cycle, age, and ethnic group. However, they find that overall the labour burden of rural women exceeds that of men, and includes a higher proportion of unpaid household responsibilities related to preparing food and collecting fuel and water. Women are over-represented in unpaid, seasonal, and part-time work, and paid less than men. The over-generalization of this diversity of women’s roles undermines policy relevance and planning. The context is important and all proposed policies must be based on sound data and gender analysis33. Understanding women’s participation in irrigated agriculture demands examination of intra-household dynamics and livelihood strategies34. Improving gender equality in agriculture would contribute to productivity and to social justice.

Gender disparities persist in Senegal in terms of access to production factors (land, inputs, training, etc.), which slows the growth in the sector. Senegal‘s policy of decentralization with regard to land administration has not resulted in greater local control, more productive and/or sustainable land use, or greater security of family or individual tenure, and may have undermined women’s ability to collectively address their interests. The 2001 Constitution guarantees gender

30 https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00MMW4.pdf 31 http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/125923/filename/125954.pdf 32 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FM.NE.ZS?locations=SN 33 http://www.fao.org/3/am307e/am307e00.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225469548_Understanding_women's_participation_in_irrig ated_agriculture_A_case_study_from_Senegal https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00MMW4.pdf http://www.fao.org/3/am307e/am307e00.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225469548_Understanding_women's_participation_in_irrigated_agriculture_A_case_study_from_Senegal https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225469548_Understanding_women's_participation_in_irrigated_agriculture_A_case_study_from_Senegal equality, and national land policy appears to foster gender-neutral access to land. Local democratically elected bodies, including rural councils and water user associations have received significant powers. Rural hierarchies based on family lineage, religion, and political party membership dominate politics and control of access to natural resources and retention of rights.

Despite the support for equitable access in the formal law, social and religious norms continue to dictate women‘s land rights. Most women access land through their husbands, and the security of their rights is dependent on maintaining the relationship with their husbands. Customary law continues to prevail in rural areas, while the rights of women and youth to land and incentives to use it are not always in place. Rural councils do not recognize or promote women‘s access to and rights in land35. FAO estimates that if women had equal to productive resources as men, they could increase current agricultural returns by 20 to 30%36.

An IFRI assessment noted that value-chain project can have unintended consequences on gender dynamics in contexts where women tend to own and control fewer assets than men, and are more likely to be involved in informal rather than formal market activities37. A 2012 study explored the role of productive water use in the livelihood diversification of rural women in Senegal, finding that access to water for productive purposes is a critical asset for expanding and diversifying rural livelihoods, and estimated that half of women’s incomes is linked to productive water use, namely livestock-raising and gardening. Time savings from small piped systems, and increased water available allowed women to enhance and initiate new income generating activities. The authors noted that limited access and affordability limits the potential benefits of productive water use for women and the poorest groups, and the need to carefully target those populations38.

Household dynamics A 2020 book summarizes research in Senegal that finds household inequality accounts for as much as 15% of total inequality in Senegal, which suggested the potential existence of “invisible poor” in households classified as non-poor. They suggest that as many as 12.5% of the poor individuals live in non-poor households, which could have important consequences for the effectiveness of policies39. Similarly, a mixed-methods study in Senegal found that determination of poor or non-poor differs depending on the definition of headship used in the data collection and analysis. For polygamous female-headed households, quantitative approaches find them to be non-poor while qualititative research methods find them to be poor40. Female-headed households

35 USAID country profile: Property Rights and Resource Governance (no date) https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00J7TN.pdf 36 http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/2010-11/en/ 37 https://www.ifpri.org/publication/can-dairy-value-chain-projects-change-gender-norms-rural-bangladesh-impacts-assets-0 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266376115_The_Role_of_Productive_Water_Use_in_ Women's_Livelihoods_Evidence_from_Rural_Senegal 39 https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-9121 40 https://search.proquest.com/openview/fad5a21beca843e6bd531e290f4f6057/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1576345 http://www.fao.org/home/en/ https://search.proquest.com/openview/fad5a21beca843e6bd531e290f4f6057/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1576345 https://search.proquest.com/openview/fad5a21beca843e6bd531e290f4f6057/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1576345 have been shown to represent under 16% of Senegalese households across rural and urban sectors41.

Finance A study in peri-urban Dakar examined the relationships between microcredit activities and the social capital of Senegalese female loan recipients, and found that the impact and success of microcredit are tied to the female borrowers' social capital. Household members, kin groups, communities, social and business networks, formal education, training, professional and business experience were all found to be important sources of social capital for female borrowers, but use of these sources of social capital could also jeopardize the households and businesses. The study showed that a supportive spouse, formal education, training, business experience, and belonging to social and business networks facilitate women's success in their microcredit and entrepreneurial activities, and recommended that microcredit programs in Senegal offer their female clients technical assistance and additional basic services42.

A 2006 study examines the complexity and diversity of women's informal financial practices using data from surveys conducted in Senegal. It suggests women’s financial practices are constantly shifting between short and long-term horizons, between the requirements of daily survival and the demands of community solidarity, and between personal aspirations and collective constraints.

These practices illustrate a desire among women in Senegal to practice financial self-discipline, and to create income-generating opportunities. The socio-economic diversity among these entrepreneurs is underscored, yet informal financial arrangements are both a product and producer of gender inequalities and inequalities among women in Senegal43.

Education Forty percent of adult women are literate, compared to 65 percent of adult men, which affects the ability to use written materials to build knowledge and skills. The ratio of female-to-male employment in Senegal increased by 14 percent between 2006 and 2011, while during the same period, years of education of the working age population increased 27 percent for females and 13 percent for males, reducing gender gaps in education. The IMF investigated the impact of this increase in education on female employment in Senegal. They found that the improvement in years of education can explain up to 44 percent of the observed increase in female-to-male employment ratio, and the remainder can be explained by a decline in the discrimination against women in the labor market44.

According to the 2020 UNESCO study on Inclusion and Education, only one percent of schools in Senegal have separate toilets for girls, the lowest of 45 developing countries, resulting from the low priority attached to girls’ education. Although the government has focused on girls’ enrolment

41 https://www.pseau.org/outils/ouvrages/pseau_eau_genre_developpement_durable_fr.pdf 42 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487530?seq=1 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229871702_Women_and_Money_Lessons_from_Sen egal 44 https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/11/08/A-Quantitative-Analysis-of- Female-Employment-in-Senegal-48716 https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/11/08/A-Quantitative-Analysis-of-Female-Employment-in-Senegal-48716 https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/11/08/A-Quantitative-Analysis-of-Female-Employment-in-Senegal-48716 at elementary level, the focus on improving WASH facilities has remained a neglected subject45.

While girls’ enrolment has increased in the past ten years, dropout rates are high. Poverty is a major barrier, with twice as many children from the richest households than the poorest households attending primary school. Children are used as a coping mechanism in response to economic shocks, with girls quitting school, marrying or going to work. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse and economic exploitation with no access to protection services46. More than 54 percent of young mothers dropped out of school between 2011 and 2014 and only 15% resumed their education47.

Climate, water and gender Rainfall In the Sahel is characterized by high variability on inter‐annual and inter‐decadal timescales, making long‐term trends difficult to identify. Statistically significant decreases of around 10 to 15 mm per decade have been observed between 1960 and 2006 in the southern regions of Senegal (during the wet season - June through September)48. Crop and climate models predict regional climate change impacts on yields of various crops. However, at an individual level, people experience the impacts of climate change differently depending on their position in society, determined by gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, and local culture. Climate change adaptation strategies will therefore be different for women and men.

A study in Kaffrine showed that differential access to weather and agricultural information clearly affects men and women’s abilities to adapt to climate change. Men are more likely than women to access information from formal networks because of cultural norms. Women largely depend on family members, neighbors and traditional sources, along with radio, to meet their information needs. Women in Kaffrine generally have less access to various types of information than men, including predicted start of the rains, livestock production related information, and pest and disease outbreaks. Despite limited access to information, when women did have access to information, most say they are able to use it. Lack of awareness will continue to drive women’s underperformance in reaching their potential49.

E. Patterns of power and decision-making A study on Gender and Markets in West Africa found that roles, responsibilities and challenges of women and men in markets vary depending on activities and the type of market. A case study from Senegal found that women processors in the town of Koungheul are decision-makers in economic activity while the men of the community are mainly large grain producers and are active wholesalers who agree to involve women in community decision-making. Women producers from Darou Nendigui are more confined to traditional activities of small retail businesses without added economic value. Unlike men, who are better integrated into the wholesale business, the market does not allow women to generate income because of low cereal production. Female producers

45 https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2020/inclusion 46 https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/senegal_56856.html 47 https://senegal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/ETUDESURGROSSESSESENMILIEUSCOLAIREAUSENEGALjuin2015.pdf 48 https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/senegal/climate-data-historical 49 http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/129754/filename/129965.pdf https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/senegal_56856.html http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/129754/filename/129965.pdf and marketers of Sinthiou Malem play an important role in the marketing of vegetable products for other women of the surrounding communities, while men are in more traditional sectors such as livestock and transportation50. Polygamy has declined in the last decade but remains common in West Africa. Having more than one wife is authorized under civil law in Senegal, and 32% of married women in Senegal are in polygamous marriages, with implications for intra-household dynamics and colleciton of meaningful household data51.

F. COVID-19, Gender and WASH The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on women and girls and gender dynamics more broadly across multiple sectors in Senegal. In a policy note in February 2021, IFRI reported multiple consequences of COVID-19 on rural Senegalese women, including travel restrictions, unemployment, closure of schools, stores and mosques, food shortages, increased burden of care, and fear of sickness and death52. Further, a UN Women Policy Brief cites the need to address the increase in unpaid care work as a result of the pandemic, a burden that falls disproportionately to women and girls53. A July 2020 Letter to the Editor further identifies COVID- 19 related disruptions to the agriculture and food sectors as likely factors resulting in setbacks to gender equality in Senegal54.

In April 2020, COVID-19 impacts on domestic violence and other forms of GBV were already being seen. IUCN provides water and environment-relevant examples across five themes.

COVID-19 has driven increased domestic violence at home: quarantines, market impacts and food shortages increase household tensions and result in domestic violence, while increased household responsibilities to collect and manage natural resources can increase exposure to COVID-19, which can increase stigmatisation, isolation, and GBV. Additionally, the pandemic has affected livelihoods - employment and livelihood losses can increase pressure on common resources, leading to men overtaking subsistence and income generating activities from women.

The pandemic has further compounded vulnerabilities due to climate change. The role of women and girls in collecting and managing natural resources is critical in refugee camps and temporary shelters, which are often overcrowded and face greater scarcity of food and hygiene resources.

As seen in droughts, increased resource insecurity due to the pandemic may lead to a rise in child marriage, to gain bride wealth, or lessen food needs within a family. Women are at increased risk of sexual exploitation and abuse by authority figures in relation to accessing and controlling pandemic response services and resources to cover basic needs – e.g for water, fuel, agricultural inputs, or food for households and/or livestock care – particularly as disaster profiteering and prices may increase. Finally, women environmental human rights defenders may be at increased risk of violence as resources become scarce.

50 https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000036201/download/ 51 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01340567v2/document https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HKQeEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r &cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false 53 https://gbvguidelines.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/COVID-19-and-the-care-economy- Immediate-action-and-structural-transformation-for-a-gender-responsive-recovery.pdf 54 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-020-01089-w https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01340567v2/document

Project designers and implementers need to recognize that GBV is pervasive and constant, and understand the linkages between GBV and environment issues including water and WASH. They should prepare by identifying and facilitating information-sharing to prevent and respond to GBV and COVID-19, including referrals for affected individuals to appropriate services, responding to reports of GBV with a people-centred, and specifically survivor-centred, approach, and documenting GBV. Other steps include addressing GBV in environmental programming and preventing unintended exacerbation of GBV in COVID-19 recovery plans55.

III. Recommendations WASH is an important springboard to improve health and productivity and development programs should explicitly examine gender issues and proactively integrate gender and equity into WASH activities. Improving inclusion of women, youth and differently-abled people as decision-makers in WASH is a persistent challenge that must be addressed to ensure sustainable solutions in the sector. Recommendations for the Project are grouped into a) project research, monitoring and evaluation; and b) activity design implementation.

Project research, monitoring and evaluation

● Undertake and publish additional research on gender, including roles and decision-making, for WASH products and services within the program implementation areas, including stakeholder consultations to uncover existing grey literature or operational research.

Incorporate gender considerations, including potential unintended effects, into research designs where applicable. Take into account the heterogeneity of women’s experiences across intersecting patterns of access/advantage and menstrual hygiene management in public institutions. Quantitative information should be supplemented with discussion of gender issues in a qualitative manner with narrative.

● Develop monitoring indicators of: 1) women's empowerment. 2) active and actual participation of women in water management committees and in technical training, 3) gender workload, 4) changes in gender composition of water management committees, 5) accessibility to water, water collection by children, and gender ratios for water collection, especially when collection times are great. These should be accompanied by rigorous qualitative and participatory surveys, to better characterize the complexity of gender and water management issues56

● Identify entry points for WASH programs to shift gender roles to promote shared responsibility for household tasks, e.g. for water collection, and strengthen negotiation and decision-making at household and community level (based on research results).

● Ensure that evaluation SOWs consider gender-related questions and collect sex-disaggregated (and age and other relevant categories) data for project monitoring.

● Identify opportunities for constructive male engagement.

Activity design implementation

● Project should enable activity-level gender analyses and apply findings to program design, monitoring and evaluation with appropriate indicators to measure outcomes and impact.

55 https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/union/files/doc/c-19-gbv-env-v2_1.pdf 56 https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/12/972/htm https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/union/files/doc/c-19-gbv-env-v2_1.pdf https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/9/12/972/htm

● Assess and evaluate the capacity of NGO partners to address gender and equity issues internally and externally and provide capacity building as needed.

● Include gender training for staff and beneficiaries as it relates to WASH in project capacity building activities, and incorporate the knowledge and experiences of both men and women in all other water/WASH technical training.

● Use formative research to develop targeted, gender- and context-specific marketing materials as women and men may have different motivations for latrine adoption/water connection than men. Incorporate other sources of inequity in WASH into marketing efforts.

● Ensure that behavior change activities (i.e., messaging, images) are gender responsive and strive to be transformative, and do not inadvertently create pressure for women and girls to adopt hygiene behaviors to become a “better” or “ideal” caretaker or add to workload.

● Identify local leaders, particularly women, to champion WASH in behavior and in public fora.

● Identify and provide opportunities for women’s leadership, such as on water users’ committees, community sanitation sales agents, and support women to be effective advocates of equity in these roles.

● Identify gender-specific WASH issues such as MHM, design of female-friendly latrines, and alleviation of workload and time constraints.

● Coordinate with USAID-funded activities in other sectors such as health and education to promote consistent messaging and programming on gender (and WASH).

● Develop more innovative and adaptable financing that responds to the diverse needs of women, with complementary measures to challenge systemic gender and other inequality.

● Promote peer trust in populations targeted for infrastructure investments and collect disaggregated data on trust by gender and other variables (wealth, age, ethnicity, etc.)57.

● Improve water and gender literacy of local governments and residents through institutionalized modules, likely through G2G activities

57 https://iwaponline.com/wp/article-abstract/14/1/127/19624 https://iwaponline.com/wp/article-abstract/14/1/127/19624