Bolivia: GWA members engender Bolivia's water policy

The government of Bolivia uses a social strategy for its water and sanitation projects with the objective of developing a basis for sustainable services. At the end of 2007 the Drinking Water and Basic Services Department planned to update its “Guidelines for Community Development”, which are part of the social strategy. GWA members used this opportunity to advocate to mainstream gender equity into the guidelines. This initiative was well received and accepted by the then vice-minister, who is a member of GWA.

To support the government in revising the guidelines, a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was formed of representatives of NGOs and stakeholders, including GWA. The main challenge for GWA was to ensure that all the members of this group and decision makers in the water sector were convinced of the need to integrate a gender equity perspective into the guidelines. But how could we achieve this?

The first problem was the different levels of understanding by the members of this multidisciplinary group. While some work with gender theories on a daily basis, others did not know anything about gender equity. A single set of top-down information would not have met these different needs. Instead, every group member was mentored according to their own specified needs by a contracted GWA member. This more personal approach helped to integrate the gender concept.

Formulation of indicators

As part of the process, quantitative and qualitative indicators for mainstreaming gender were developed based on the experience of Bolivian NGOs. These indicators are designed to show what progress has been made and after careful consideration they were accepted by the TAG. However, it became clear that the quantitative indicators were better accepted than the qualitative indicators. For example, a quantitative indicator before the construction of new infrastructure could be “the percentage of men and women taking part in the decision making”. A qualitative indicator would be “measures are taken to support women to take part in decision making in the project; like meeting times that are appropriate to women, child care available during meetings, etc”. The importance of qualitative indicators was not well understood and the difficulty in measuring their use was a main obstacle. This is perhaps not surprising, since there is more experience in the use of quantitative indicators.

In addition, some decision makers in the Department of Drinking Water and Basic Services, considered “gender” to be a foreign concept not applicable to the Bolivian socio-cultural context. As a result it was decided to develop a “Menu of Indicators” within the guidelines for monitoring and evaluation. These indicators address gender issues, but offer choices. Users of these guidelines and decision makers can choose the indicators that they feel are most relevant. The indicators are in a menu in an annex, but that does not mean that they have been marginalised. The guidelines always acknowledge the different needs of men and women as well as the importance of men and women participating under equal conditions, and were approved by the government in August 2008.

Reasons for success

Flexibility with respect to the formulation of indicators and the individual mentoring process ensured acceptance of the process of gender mainstreaming by decision makers and members of TAG. “Training on the job” and the creation of an operational tool like the “menu of indicators”, succeeded in breaking through the false concept that gender issues can only be dealt with at a conceptual level. It forced decision makers and those writing the strategy to take gender mainstreaming further than just talking about it.

The next step is, without doubt, the development of methodologies that permit the use of qualitative indicators to be measured, as well as capacity building to further this process. No less important are the continued efforts for mainstreaming gender equity in all water and sanitation strategies and policies, be it through dialogue or more actively, something that all GWA members are committed to.