TRADITION ,WOMEN AND WATER: AN ASSESSMENT OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN RURAL WATER AND SANITATION PROJECTS IN NORTHERN GHANA.

Abstract

The low influence by women in the management of water and sanitation facilities in rural northern Ghana appears to undermine the delivery of sustainable water and sanitation services to rural communities over the past decades. The Community Water and Sanitation Programme of the Government of Ghana has, since inception, under cored the importance for all actors, both public and private to ensure optimal gender mainstreaming in the delivery of water and sanitation services. Achieving the expected results, however, have fallen short of expectation arising in part, as revealed in this study, from the neglect of traditional mores, indigenous knowledge systems and practice, and the low participation by women in the planning and formulation processes for delivery of rural water and sanitation services. On going planning for gender' work is, by and large, enacted by 'experts and rolled out with varying levels of involvement by rural women themselves. The low level of direct participation by women, as corroborated by this study arises from a broader subordinated position that women occupy in relation to the decision making system within communities. Evidence on the ground clearly indicate a dire need to empower women and raise their position to a level that will ensure their effective participation in decision making and create space for direct engagement in the planning process as equal partners with men. This study adopted a mix of tools to gain a deeper understanding of the existing relationships at community level and the underlying paradigms that preserve an inequitable power relation that, ironically, contradict existing levels of responsibility for ensuring water availability and use at household level. To achieve the research goal and objectives, the study used various methods (qualitative and quantitative) in data collection and analyses. These included Case Studies, Focus Group Discussions, Observations, In-depth interviews and Questionnaires. The main findings are that: existing mainstreaming strategies that aim at empowering women have largely neglected or ignored deep indigenous systems and mores at formulation and planning resulting, paradoxically, in strengthening the male dominated status quo. iii Second, that women continue to play major 'de facto' roles over the collection and use of water at household level. Third, that there are no obvious or deep seated 'cultural' barriers to combining 'modern' and 'traditional' tenets for mainstreaming gender or promoting women's empowerment. Fourth, that mainstreaming efforts and attitudes should be refined and retooled to ensure deeper appreciation of the local context and promote direct involvement by women at community level in the at all stages ofthe project cycle. The study makes a number of recommendations: formal recognition by sector players of the indigenous mechanisms and mores for consensus building and decision making at community level that ensures practical engagement and buy-in by existing power holders; Retooling for change agents that ensures adequate community immersion and engagement; harnessing synergy by combining desirable attributes of the local and exogenous tenets; addressing the strategic imperative for women's empowerment that addresses the position of women in society and contextualizing gender