Young women spend their days looking for water, Jamam refugee camp, South Sudan. Photo: Alun McDonald, Oxfam / Flickr.
However, gender and other social categories (e.g. age, ethnicity, caste, disability, marital status) can mediate who benefits from WASH services and in which ways. As progress in gaining access to safe WASH services has not occurred equally, there has been a focus on mainstreaming gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in interventions. Despite awareness in the sector of the importance of promoting gender and socially inclusive WASH services, evaluations of interventions focus largely on technical or health outcomes, while social outcomes are not included.
This report includes systematic mapping of GESI outcomes in the context of WASH interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (see linked journal publication). It also includes evidence synthesis on violence-related outcomes in the context of WASH interventions with analysis of barriers to, and facilitators of, change in violence-related outcomes. Finally, the report includes the synthesis of outcomes on time use, time savings and alternate uses of time associated with WASH interventions.
This evidence brief provides policy-relevant insights from a comprehensive mapping of evidence of GESI outcomes related to WASH interventions.
This review collates the literature on GESI outcomes in the context of WASH interventions and highlights knowledge gaps and clusters in the evidence base.
