Message 13: Jaime Hoogesteger

In this response Jaime Hoogesteger points out that the relevance of gender mainstreaming to water management arises due to the impact of such activities on social structures. Interventions in water management thus have the ability to change systems by virtue of the fact that various stakeholders have to be involved. And this is where the potential to change these existing orders and structures lies.

The Whys?

1. Why is it important to mainstream a gender perspective in agricultural water management? (A maximum of 3 points preferably with supporting cases or examples)

Water management and all other activities related to it have an impact on social interactions and structures, therefore any change in water management and or a production system will also affect the relations there exist between men and women of different age groups and classes. Thus, practitioners, extension workers, scientists and policy makers will always directly or indirectly affect these social relations when trying to direct or change certain management and/or production dynamics. By being aware of this, actions and interventions can be designed to strengthen, break, change or adapt existing gender patterns and dynamics within the specific social, cultural, economic, technical and productive contexts.

2. Why is gender not mainstreamed in water management in agriculture? (3 points with evidence)

Social patterns of interaction are by nature gender sensitive, not only in agriculture but at all levels of society, including the people and institutions working with water management and agriculture. As such gender dynamics are often taken for granted or ignored. Therefore it is not possible to expect that socially engrained gender patterns of a whole society will not be reflected in the water and agriculture sector. The question that rises is: How can the blind lead the blind? … and… How can we make the blind see?... or we might even go so far as to ask… Is not every eye through which we look at gender relations within a specific context molded according to the discourses we carry with us?

Jaime Hoogesteger

Wageningen University