Infrastructure
Tools

WOMEN AND COMMUNITY-LEVEL DECISION MAKING

Poverty and livelihoods

It is always important to involve local people – in rural and urban areas - in making decisions on infrastructure priorities, technical choices and affordability. In the context of severely limited public resources, as well as limited potential for private sector involvement or employment creation, poor people rely on their own energy and resources. The best option for sustainable infrastructure services is often to develop the capacity of local community groups to manage and sustain basic infrastructure services themselves on a self-help basis.

Key Gender Issues

The case for improvements in infrastructure is often made with reference to women’s workload. Women are, for example, chiefly responsible for water collection; for the health care and sanitation education of children; and, in rural areas, for the majority of local journeys that might be assisted by improvements in access. Women are also the major users and suppliers of energy resources in marginalized communities.

In this context, there are both efficiency and equality arguments for increasing women’s involvement in community level decision-making.

From an efficiency point of view:

· choice and location of infrastructure services is often most appropriately made by women, since they are the active users

· women can be particularly well motivated to operate, maintain and manage community infrastructure services - even on a voluntary self-help basis - because of the time benefits they will enjoy

From an equality point of view:

· active involvement in decision-making in relation to infrastructure services can increase women’s confidence and status within their community

Lessons from experience

Needless to say, there are a number of pitfalls involved – and issues to think through – in relation to increasing women’s involvement in community level decision-making.

Interface between community groups and local government

  • Traditionally, women are most likely to be excluded from decision-making at the community level as well as in local/municipal government bodies. This means that gender issues and women’s concerns are often not well articulated or understood either at policy or operational levels
  • Community efforts are often frustrated by bureaucratic delays or unwilling staff at the local/municipal government level. Women are particularly vulnerable to bureaucratic obstruction because of their generally lower social status.

· Community based groups may be able to achieve considerable levels of women's participation, but the power to take or veto decisions may effectively lie elsewhere, at higher levels of the local administration, where women are not so well represented.

At the Community level

· Without explicit targeting and monitoring, "self help" community participation roles - operating and maintaining water points, for example - fall to women, whereas higher status decision making and management roles fall to men

· Women often lack status, mobility, language skills and literacy – and these factors combine to undermine their confidence and exclude them from processes of decision-making

· Very commonly, where women have been involved on community-level committees, they have been token representatives with a passive role and few real responsibilities.

Good practice

1. Gender analysis

Before taking action to involve women in decision-making, it is important to be fully aware of existing gender roles, structures and attitudes in relation to decision-making at the community level.

See TOOLS – OUTLINE GENDER ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK.

2. Action to promote gender equality

Planning to increase womens’ participation

· The necessary time, funds, and modes of strengthening women's participation need to be specified in project documents, in an integrated way so that it cannot easily fall off the agenda.

· Strengthening women's participation should be one of the explicit project objectives and should be included in the job descriptions of project workers.

· Criteria for monitoring and evaluation of women's participation must also be established

Increasing women’s involvement in consultation and decision making

  • Practical measures are needed to ensure that project information reaches women, that they are able to attend meetings and that meetings provide a forum in which they can actively participate:

· Women themselves will often have insights on the best way to work around male dominated power structures.

· Open discussions may facilitate women's participation but specific measures may also be needed to overcome the deference or muting of women's views in front of men.

· Particularly in large communities, it may be necessary to hold follow up large meetings with smaller planning groups, including key women representatives, where women’s roles and responsibilities can be elaborated in more detail

· Working with existing women's NGOs or community organisations is a way to involve women directly. However, such organisations tend to be monopolised by more affluent women with more free time, and may exclude poorer sections of the community.

  • Take steps to strengthen the gender sensitivity of CBOs and networks
  • Given the limitations on poor women's time, considerable outreach work and flexibility is required about when and where to meet. One approach in water projects has been to arrange meetings in situ at water supply sites

Gaining the support of men

  • Early consultation with men, particularly community leaders, and attempts to promote positive attitudes towards women's active participation among them are important. Where women are involved in separate activities or training, the potential advantages should be explained, and/or complementary or parallel activities organised for men.
  • Men’s negative attitudes to women’s increased involvement have often shifted once the benefits to the community, households, and women themselves were demonstrated.

Promoting women’s active role in committees

· For women who are unused to assuming positions of authority, considerable groundwork may be needed to develop self confidence and assertiveness skills for dealing with village authorities

  • The quality of women's participation in committees, as well as the quantity, needs to be improved. Women representatives may need special training, in leadership skills, confidence building and communication, but this should be done in conjunction with training for men to avoid alienation
  • Women's involvement in selecting candidates is likely to result in a higher and more dynamic level of women's participation.

Links with local authorities

  • Focus on building gender sensitive partnerships between local authorities and communities. Support and train community group representatives to negotiate effectively for services through developing advocacy skills and building managerial and technical skills.

Promoting accountability

  • Develop activities that will increase information to marginalised groups about the services and resources they can expect e.g. service charters setting out standards of provision.

· Provide training for staff in municipal authorities so that they are aware of gender issues, needs and rights as well as their role in delivering gender-aware responses.

 

©1999 DFID