Abstract
Central and South Asia together form 26 per cent of the global population and are rich in biodiversity. Many of the ecosystems, however, are vulnerable to climate change which has the potential to disrupt the availability of and access to water, energy, and food. In these regions, women constitute about half of the population and are stakeholders both as consumers and producers, besides being active agents of change. Needless to say the issues of gender and the associated nexus are critical for addressing challenges emanating from climate change and biodiversity losses. Hence, it is essential to examine and ensure participation of more women in policy planning and implementation around the nexus of water, energy, and food security, including in agriculture. This chapter provides an overview of the challenges and issues existing in the food, water, and energy nexus, through a gender lens. Taking note of the existing status of women in Central and South Asia across the three sectors, the chapter highlights various promising practices of different stakeholders to enhance capacities and financial resources, provide adequate infrastructure, and a work environment conducive to encourage gender-balanced processes and strategies. Highlighting the issues and challenges, the chapter concludes that gender mainstreaming needs to be an intrinsic aspect of policies and processes, across the three sectors. Challenges related to assessing and institutionalizing gender inclusion need utmost attention and require transformative and unique solutions. With the right balance of training, education, enabling environment and policy planning, as well as implementation, the nexus will become more gender inclusive and sustainable.
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1 Introduction
With the growing demands for food, water, and energy amidst escalating impacts of climate change, developing countries are facing serious challenges to effectively adapt towards the efficient use of limited resources. In this regard, the policies and interventions put in place are generally sectoral in nature with limited interconnections and interdependence among the three sectors—water, energy and food. In the recent past to facilitate greater climate change adaptation, the concept of a water–energy–food nexus (Rasul and Sharma 2016) has gained momentum. It is realized that a nexus approach is a potent tool to enhance resource optimization and encourage greater policy coherence for food, water, and energy security (Coghlan et al. 2022). Access to land, water, energy resources, technology, training avenues, and financial services ensures livelihood security and acts as a safeguard against economic shock (FAO 2017).
Central and South Asia together form 26 per cent of the global population and are rich in biodiversity. Many of the ecosystems, however, are vulnerable to climate change which has the potential to disrupt the availability of and access to water, energy, and food. In these regions, women constitute about half of the population and are stakeholders both as consumers and producers, besides being active agents of change. Needless to say the issues of gender and the nexus are critical for addressing challenges emanating from climate change and biodiversity loss. Hence, it is essential to examine and ensure participation of more women in policy planning and implementation around the nexus of water, energy, and food security, including in agriculture. Their limited adaptive capacities and restricted access to resources arise from prevailing socio-economic inequalities, patriarchal culture and gender stereotypes, which are manifested through differences in property rights, lack of employment and unequal access to information and resources. The constrained roles and undervalued positioning of women in resource governance and production, are hindrances to achieving gender equality in society.
This chapter provides an overview of the challenges and issues existing in the food, water, and energy nexus, through a gender lens. Taking note of the existing status of women in the three sectors, the chapter highlights various promising practices of different stakeholders to enhance capacities and financial resources, provide adequate infrastructure, and a work environment conducive to encourage gender-balanced processes and strategies.
2 Background
2.1 On Water
Globally, women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours a day collecting water (WHO and UNICEF 2017). In Asia, on a daily basis, women and children walk an average of 6 km to access water. The economic cost of women’s unpaid work as water collectors is enormous with the figure for India alone equivalent to a national loss of income of about $160 million (ADB 2014).
2.2 On Energy
It has been realized that energy consumption patterns and impacts of ‘energy poverty’ differ between men and women and both benefit differently from recent increased access. Women spend more time in unpaid energy intensive labor, which include cooking and laundry, whereas men consumed more energy in outside activities like transportation and dining. In developing countries, women spent nearly 1.4 h a day collecting fuel wood and water, and nearly four hours are spent cooking. Indoor air pollution from using combustible fuels for household energy caused 4.3 million deaths in 2012, with women and girls accounting for six out of every ten deaths. In rural households in Central and Southern Asia, the proportion of households with reliance on solid fuels is as high as 89 per cent (UN Women 2018). Innovative approaches, for example in Nepal, having access to solar-powered irrigation for women has increased cropped areas by close to 30% and significantly reduced dependency on costly diesel pumps (Fauconnier et al. 2018).
2.3 On Food
In South Asia, 69% of the women are engaged in agriculture. The proportion ranges from 28 per cent in Sri Lanka to a far higher 74 per cent in Nepal, with more than 50 per cent in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Bhutan. Despite the crucial role played by women across all regions they still face constraints that limit the equality in terms of access to resource and its governance and thus undermine their productive potential and capacity.
Asia reports the highest gender-gap in terms of land holding by women. Female land ownership is 16.3 per cent in Sri Lanka, 4.6 per cent in Bangladesh, 12.4 per cent in Kyrgyzstan, 8.1 per cent in Nepal and 11.7 per cent in India (FAO 2015). Bhutan is the only country in South Asia where 70 per cent of farmland is owned by women. Women participate in agriculture as unpaid or low paid seasonal laborers, without much recognition as agents of production and are therefore likely to be left out of social protection systems (Rapsomanikis 2015; OCED 2021).
In Central and South Asia, there exists a gender gap due to food security; the gender gap in prevalence of food security is measured as the difference in percent of males who are food insecure to the percent of females; it is highest in Pakistan at 11.5 per cent and lowest in Bhutan at 0.2 per cent (UN Women 2018). The data in UN Women Report (2018) also highlights gender disparity in access to finance. In countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey, the gender gap in owning a bank account is nearly 30 per cent, though smaller gaps are found in economies like Sri Lanka and India (The Global Findex Database 2017). A gap is also prevalent in leadership position at all levels of national, municipal, and local governance. A study of female water professionals revealed that in South Asia technical posts occupied by women is only 5 per cent, and that almost all women interviewed felt that their skills were highly underutilized (Grant et al. 2017). In Kazakhstan, only 20 per cent of the paid positions in local water governance institutions (e.g., water users’ associations) are held by women (UNESCO WWAP 2021).
3 Challenges
On average, only 35 per cent of countries had gender focal points in their ministries linked to natural resource management. Among those, the ministries of agriculture recorded the highest and ministry of water resources is recorded the lowest score (Fauconnier et al. 2018). These gender inequalities in accessing and controlling assets not only undermine women’s economic potential and capacities, but also impose high costs on the economy. If women have the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 per cent. These gains in agricultural production alone could lift some 100–150 million people out of hunger (FAO 2017; World Bank 2017). Further, a study carried out by the International Water and Sanitation Centre across 15 countries found that projects that ensured the full participation of women at all stages were more sustainable and effective (van Wijk-Sijbesma 1998; OCED 2021).
Evidence from 121 rural water supply projects studied by the World Bank shows that the projects are six to seven times more effective than others when women are involved (World Bank 1995; OCED 2021). A UNDP research on 44 water projects across Asia and Africa shows that communities use water services more sustainably when both men and women are engaged in policy-design. When faced with scarcity in these communities, women are key in ensuring equity and justice in resource management, as well as peace and stability (Trivedi 2018; OCED 2021). Thus, opportunities for women’s participation in all levels of natural resource governance should be advanced.
4 Gender Mainstreaming: A Concerted Approach
In order to tackle issues, gender mainstreaming is considered a plausible way for developing nations to ensure gender equity, particularly in natural resource management (Tantoh et al. 2021). Gender mainstreaming can be instrumental in helping countries address other national and global challenges (poverty, inequalities, social justice, climate change, etc.), and should thus be integrated into holistic and cross-cutting national policies which contribute to the achievement of the many related SDGs (GWP and UNEP-DHI 2021). In this chapter, some of best practices, mechanisms, and tools have been highlighted, which are existing in Central and South Asian countries, to mainstream gender in the nexus—water, energy, and food. Drawing inspiration from the report by GWP and UNEP-DHI (2021), some of the gender mainstreaming mechanisms and practices can be grouped into 4 categories:
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Enabling Environment—Political Will and Legislative Framework. A clear commitment by government can drive the process of mainstreaming gender equality and inclusion in national management plans and national development policies. More often than not, these efforts are inspired by the targets of Agenda 2030, international commitments, and/or by requirements related to funding opportunities provided by international financial institutions.
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Women’s Participation in Governance. Women should seriously participate in the whole value chain of resource governance including policy formulation and not just as end-users. This requires a balanced number of women to be at leadership positions within central government and private organizations. At local government levels, women participation and leadership can support transformation of social norms and can lead to greater investment in public services by the local government.
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Effective Monitoring and Planning. Monitoring and evidence-based planning are the key pillars of any gender mainstreaming strategy. To meet the development priorities of a country, policy planning and monitoring are to be based on evidence-informed inputs, derived out of sex-disaggregated data. Furthermore, gender monitoring in each sector shall be integrated in national monitoring frameworks, rather than executed as separate processes.
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Awareness Raising, Capacity Building, and Education Activities. There is a need to challenge gender stereotypes, which have caused limitations to women’s roles in planning, management, and decision-making. These clichés are often significant barriers to gender mainstreaming. It requires a change of mentality through awareness, capacity development, and education.
The proceeding section attempts to identify and examine the aforementioned dimensions across the three sectors—water, energy, and food. The discussion draws upon extensive review of literature and secondary data, available in public domain.
5 Promising Practices and Interventions
5.1 Enabling Environment—Political Will and Legislative Framework
In context to the policy landscape in the water sector, while efforts are being made in some countries to encompass gender inclusion as an integral part, there is still a long way to go. In India, The National Water Policies of 1987, 2002, and 2012 are not reflective of any gender-related element; they neither provide any concrete guidelines or recommendations to make gender-inclusive policies and practices. However, the National Policy for Women 2016 recognizes that the lack of the availability of water puts additional burden on women; it recommends that the design of programs and projects must be implemented while keeping women in mind as significant water users. It also suggests the need for involvement and training of women in initiatives on conservation and utilization of water (GWP and UNEP-DHI 2021). In Nepal, the national irrigation and drinking water policies are relatively progressive in terms of gender and social inclusion. As a result of concerted efforts, gender mainstreaming has improved the gender and social inclusion (GESI) units in most ministries and line departments. The National Water Policy (1999) and the Coastal Zone Policy (2005) of Bangladesh include gender considerations, and the National Women Development Policy (2011) provides an overarching framework for gender mainstreaming (GWP and UNEP-DHI 2021).
The energy sector has some unique interventions in the region. In Sri Lanka, some of the development processes are driven by ‘Mahinda Chintana’—a collaborative effort by the National Development Programme (NDP), the Regional Development Programme of the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Mahinda Chintana identifies women as pioneers of development, prioritizes empowering women and reducing inequalities between men and women. The key elements are promoting quality and productive employment as well as gainful economic activities for women, the equitable representation of women in decision making, and recognizing women as heads of households, with equal rights of access to useful resources, finance and infrastructure. The phenomenon has considerable impacts on enhancing women’s position in energy access and governance.
Likewise, India’s Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) Report prepared by the Planning Commission, provides the broad framework for guiding national energy policies (Norad 2011). The report paves the way for more gender-aware energy policies. The IEP report makes a number of recommendations that are of relevance. The chapter on energy recognizes that women, being the main energy users and primary energy suppliers, are most affected by restricted liquified petroleum gas (LPG) supply, and that this poses one of the most difficult barriers to the empowerment of women. The chapter on energy recognizes that women, being the main energy users and primary energy suppliers, are most affected by restricted liquified petroleum gas (LPG) supply, and that this poses one of the most difficult barriers to the empowerment of women. To address this aspect, India’s flagship program, the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aims to improve access to clean cooking energy in the country by providing free LPG connections to poor households. Women have been the biggest beneficiaries of the smokeless kitchen initiative (Norad 2011).
Nepal has also developed sector-specific policies: (1) The Rural Energy Policy of Nepal (2006) recognizes the role of women in the collection and management of traditional fuel. It outlines the implications of traditional fuel on their health as well as on children’s education. The policy promotes women’s participation in community management of renewable energy systems, and links energy with other sectors, to be supportive of women. (2) The Nepalese Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy is another example of a detailed and focused document targeting the disadvantaged sections of society, including women. In 2013, the Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy recognized and addressed income-related barriers and aimed to enable low-income and remote, rural households to use renewable energy technologies and attract private sector entrepreneurs.
The food and agriculture sector have been witnessing some national level interventions in this context. In India, the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997–2002) called for the removal of gender discrimination in property ownership, advocated for women’s land ownership, and suggested changes to bring in gender inclusiveness in land-related laws. India’s National Policy on Farmer Producer Organizations and the Mahila Kisan Sashakthi Karan Pariyojana are examples of policies that provide scope for developing gendered agricultural value chains in the country. Promotion of state—supported land leasing by women’s collectives, has empowered landless women agricultural laborers to participate in the agricultural value chain (Manjula 2021).
In Bangladesh, joint ownership of land by husband and wife is promoted by the Khas Land Management and Distribution Policy (Manjula 2021). On similar lines, the government of Nepal have been issuing Joint Land Ownership Certificates, to enable translation of men’s exclusive land rights to joint ownership with their wives (Manjula 2021). Nepal has approved the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) (2015–2035), with emphasis on the integration of Gender Equity and Social Inclusion throughout the ADS process. It recognizes women farmers as independent farmers and ensures adequate budget provision, women’s access to and control over agricultural resources and produce as well as women’s leadership, among others.
In Sri Lanka, a chapter on women’s rights has been included in the National Human Rights Action Plan (2017–2021) which led to the formulation of the National Action Plan on Women-Headed Households. It addresses the livelihood and food security needs of this vulnerable population group (FAO 2017).
The design and implementation of a national gender policy is generally coordinated by the line ministry responsible for gender equality. There are very few countries in the world where a single dedicated ministry for gender equality exists. An example is Kyrgyzstan, with a gender unit, which is the main national gender machinery that operates under the Ministry of Labour and Social Development. The ministry has established a gender policy department, the primary tasks of which are to make proposals defining priorities, formulating national gender policies, and to conduct analysis of gender issues and to monitor policy implementation across sectors. Another example is Nepal, as already discussed.
5.2 Women’s Participation in Governance
With regard to women’s participation in water-related governance processes, some countries are actively involving them in decision making bodies in the three sectors. For instance, in context to water, Nepal has established a legal quota for women’s participation in official community water management groups, like Water User Associations. The 33% quota is of particular interest as it is the country's most central policy measure on gender equality, cutting across the irrigation, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors. In relation to the transboundary cooperation on the use of water resources is the sharing of the Chu and Talas River basins in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it was observed that the country offices of the secretariat are headed by women, and the Working Groups under the Secretariat of the Commission are also dominated by women (OSCE 2020).
Women at leadership positions have made considerable impacts in mitigating issues of climate change. In India, one-third of seats on the gram panchayats (village councils) are reserved for women. This has led to more investments in drinking water infrastructure and better availability of public goods (Klugman et al. 2014). Nevertheless, urban municipalities are yet to realize equitable representation of women.
The Agriculture Development Strategy (2015–2035) of Nepal, targets that farmland ownership by women, individually or through joint ownership, shall reach to 50 per cent by 2035, from 10 per cent in 2010. It recommends equal wages for women in agriculture, encourages equitable representation of male and female farmers in agriculture development programs, as formulated in the Gender Equity and Social inclusion (GESI) sectionFootnote 1 within the Division of Food Security, Agribusiness Promotion and Environment (FAO 2019).
In India, the government clearly specifies that all beneficiary-oriented schemes under the Ministry of Agriculture should ensure inclusion of a minimum of 30 per cent women farmers and spend at least 30% of funds on the same group (Manjula 2021).
In Sri Lanka, the new constitution of 2015 guarantees women’s representation in an unprecedented manner via various government structures and at the leadership level. The new Local Authorities Election Amendment Act, 2017 has made it mandatory to have a woman as the chair or vice-chair of the village councils, municipalities, and district coordination committees (Krishnamohan 2018). The Act states that half of each four-member ward committee members should be women. At the national level, The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs and Social Security is the nodal agency responsible for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. The 2018 budget highlights ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’, a government program designed to support entrepreneurs by providing credit and interest subsidies. The credit plan, which has been allocated nearly USD 5 million, will specifically support small- and medium-scale enterprises owned by women. The budget document suggests the assistance will be mainly directed to rural women and youth. The approach is female-targeted rather than gender equitable (FAO 2018b).
5.3 Effective Monitoring and Planning
In the context of water, the Groundwater Resources Governance in the Transboundary Aquifers project in Central Asia collected and assessed sex-disaggregated data and developed an inventory of policy instruments that affect gender equality in science. The gender analysis tool is currently used to improve the socio-economic and legal assessment of groundwater use (UNESCO WWAP 2021).
In India, the ‘Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Management’ Project identified gender-sensitive indicators for monitoring and evaluation of the project. A midterm review of these indicators identified a need for amendments, leading to the expansion of support for women and other vulnerable groups beyond self-help groups to include entrepreneurial activities. The results showed significant benefits for and empowerment of women. Fifty per cent of the beneficiaries of livelihood development activities were women. Also, women’s overall annual workdays for firewood collection decreased from 120 to 35 days. Moreover, 50 per cent of the Gram Panchayat representatives were women (while the national average was 33 per cent). In the Panchayat elections, 304 village level project staff and project-formed self-help groups (and farmer interest group members) were elected for various positions in Panchayat Rai Institutions and 73 per cent of those elected were women (World Bank 2016).
The Kyrgyz Republic Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project demonstrates effective use of gender-sensitive indicators and monitoring for assessing development outcomes, while promoting the involvement and empowerment of women in water governance. A qualitative socioeconomic assessment carried out in each village documented the role of women and children in household water collection and management. The decrease in women’s workload was identified as a key intermediate outcome. According to an impact evaluation study, 66 per cent of women claimed their workload was now “much easier and less” and 31 per cent claimed that it has improved. Further, the evaluation data showed that more than 60 per cent of water union leaders were female, and two or three women were on each water union board (World Bank 2016).
In Nepal, as the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) section within the Division of Food Security, Agribusiness Promotion and Environment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development acts as a focal point for the gender disaggregated database management and gender responsive budget allocation and utilization. In 2014, the Ministry established a five-member Gender Responsive Budget Committee chaired by the Joint Secretary of Planning for the promotion of gender equality, to implement policies, plans and programs under GESI (FAO 2019; Adhikary 2019).
Some countries have a common model, encompassing all sectors, to monitor gender inclusion. For example, the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic supervises the collection of gender-sensitive data and compiles statistics in relation to the implementation of the law (FAO 2017). The FAO’s AQUASTAT database includes specific gender-related indicators that support the collection of reliable and comparable data on gender and agricultural water management, giving more visibility to women’s roles and potential in sustainable water governance, which are often underestimated. This information is also used for advocating for equitable water governance in existing policies and projects and for addressing the specific constraints of female farmers in gaining access to and control over water resources (UNESCO WWAP 2021).
5.4 Awareness Raising, Capacity Building, and Education Activities
The ‘Tajikistan Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Improving Social Accountability’ (TWISA) program established Community Advisory Boards to hold local water service providers accountable and to set up complaint and feedback mechanisms. Women were encouraged to participate, and they received targeted trainings on their rights as consumers. While it was challenging to maintain equal levels of female and male participation, it was beneficial to have women leaders involved (Oxfam 2020).
In Nepal, under the Trans-boundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) program, Oxfam has promoted similar opportunities for women’s leadership in water governance to increase social accountability. Oxfam established Women Empowerment Centres (WECs), which host regular community meetings run by trained social mobilizers. The Centres aim to sensitize women on their rights around riverine water resources, and to involve them in transboundary water resources planning and decision making (Oxfam 2020).
The World Bank Group’s Central Asia Knowledge Network, under the Central Asia Water and Energy Program (CAWEP), aims to promote gender equality in water resource management in Central Asia and Afghanistan by raising awareness and promoting knowledge exchange on gender issues among academic and expert communities in the region. The Central Asia Knowledge Network has partnered with the Kazakh-German-University to implement a project supporting young academics at universities and research institutes in Central Asia and Afghanistan who are conducting research in the fields of water and energy conservation and/or climate change, particularly those with a strong focus on the gender aspects of water resource management.
In Bangladesh, The Blue Gold Programme found that leadership of women (and men) developed within water management groups (WMGs), empowering them to stand as candidates for local government (Union Parishad) elections. In 2016, 20 women from Blue Gold-supported WMGs were elected (GRF 2017).
While looking at the energy sector, some initiatives have made attempts to enhance capacities of women at the grassroots level. One such interventions is of Barefoot College in India, that provides training to middle-aged women from villages worldwide to become solar engineers. The trainers are illiterate or semi-literate grandmothers who maintain strong roots in their villages and play a major role in bringing sustainable electricity to remote, inaccessible villages. In the last decade, over 2,500 women solar engineers have reached over 1 million people in 1,300 villages worldwide in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the South Pacific islands (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare 2021). Similarly, the Sakhi Unique Rural Enterprise (SURE) by Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a non-profit organization in India, engages rural women in the supply chain to bring clean energy products—such as improved cookstoves, water purifiers, and solar products. The rural women entrepreneurs are called Sakhis, meaning “friend” in Hindi. Across various sectors, the work of SSP has reached 145,000 women across 6 states, and set up 97,000 micro-enterprises that are catering to clean energy and basic health services (Bhandari 2019).
In Nepal, The Women Network for Energy and Environment (WoNEE) is a national-level network of grassroots women working on policy advocacy, capacity building and awareness raising for economic empowerment in the energy sector (Namati 2020).
The KAZENERGY Women Energy Club in Kazakhstan is a dialogue platform for female workers of the oil, gas, and energy sector to share experiences and facilitate the development of talents and skills necessary for professional and personal growth. It includes representations from different institutions including National Commission for Women, the Council of Business Women of Atameken (NCERK), state authorities, major international organizations, as well as representatives of oil, gas, and energy companies of national and international reputes.
Certain organizations have a regional focus in capacity building and developing collectives. International networks such as the Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment Initiative (C3E), Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE), Women in Solar Energy (WISE), Entrepreneurial Women in Renewable Energy (EWiRE) and the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET) are also spreading ideas, mobilizing support and providing encouragement, to build a cadre of women leaders in the energy sector, particularly in Asian regions.
Even in sectors related to food and agriculture, efforts are being made to enhance the capacities of women farmers and spread awareness about their legit rights. In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, drawing on Article 16 of the “UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”, awareness and sensitization of local officials was undertaken and linked with protecting women’s rights as well as improving the effectiveness of related interventions. Through this initiative, women were provided with legal advice and logistical support for land claims. The media has been actively involved, widely broadcasting the message “Land in the Right Hands!” to support women’s equal rights. As an outcome, the proportion of women owning family farms in Tajikistan rose from 2 to 14% between 2002 and 2008 (FAO 2017).
Since 2014, a joint United Nations initiative for accelerating progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women was undertaken in seven countries including Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. Based on an integrated approach, it targets the same group of female farmers to build capacity and provide technical support, in order to promote gender-responsive rural institutions and policies. By the end of 2017, the program reached over 50 000 beneficiaries. As a result, the participating groups were able to increase their agricultural productivity and the nutritional level of their families. Furthermore, they had access to credit and started their own businesses, thereby improving their incomes (FAO 2017).
In India, to improve agricultural productivity and water-use efficiency, the FAO collaborated with the Uttar Pradesh Department of Agriculture to establish a project called “Farmer Water School (FWS)”. It organized training to enhance the capacity of farmers and improve farming practices related to water management, soil nutrients and pests, and make informed decisions at crucial stages of the crop production cycle. As per FAO (2018a), a total of 6720 women were trained to take on leadership roles in the future FWS, which are to be exclusive for women.
A regional conference Promoting Socially Inclusive Rural Development in Europe and Central Asia (2017) helped share experiences, build networks, and strengthen political commitment for reducing gender gaps in agriculture. The conference brought together high-level officials from more than 20 countries and resulted in a Joint Call for Action, a unique framework for addressing rural gender issues in Europe and Central Asia (FAO 2018a).
6 Conclusion
In the present paper, discussions revolve around gender-related issues and challenges in water, energy, and food related sectors. Efforts have been made to present some of the best practices, mechanisms, and tools that exist in different countries in order to advance gender mainstreaming initiatives in the given sectors. While there are initiatives at different levels across geographies, the major challenge is to scale them up, and have them adopted and implemented elsewhere. Although there are methodological and practical issues and challenges, a beginning has been made, at micro level, particularly in cases where rural–urban and metropolitan cities/states/provinces have climate/water/energy/agriculture policies.
Some of the issues highlighted in this chapter, align with the larger discourse on women in science. Suggestions drawn from some of the relevant research and publications will also help in gender mainstreaming in the three sectors. One such document is UNESCO’s latest publication, entitled ‘A Braided River: The Universe of Indian Women in Science’ (2022)—an insightful document providing practical recommendations, to encourage, promote and retain women in science in the Indian context. Some suggestions which hold significance for this chapter include:
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Institutionalize counselling and training initiatives that target young, vulnerable, poor, and underprivileged women.
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Promote mentorships and strengthen professional networks to advance the status of women to leadership positions.
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Encourage relevant stakeholders to incorporate gender-inclusive benefits and work time arrangements in their employment policies.
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Support more studies and the collection of sex-disaggregated data for evidence-based decision-making.
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Vigorously implement state and national policies supporting women in their choice of education and careers.
It is needless to say that SDG 5 as a touchstone, is crucial for the sustainable transition and transformation to achieve other SDGs, particularly those linked with energy, water, and food security. It is essential to have a better understanding of linkages between SDG 5 and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, in the context of Central and South Asia. In order to ensure effective gender mainstreaming, an integrated and collaborative approach is required to reap the benefits of on-going interventions as well as to develop new frameworks. Capacity building, coupled with access to funding, infrastructure, and other vital resources can effectively enhance the positioning of women and provide them with equitable opportunities, in order to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Notes
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In Nepal, as the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) section within the Division of Food Security, Agribusiness Promotion and Environment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development acts as a focal point for the gender disaggregated database management and gender responsive budget allocation and utilization.
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Pandey, N., Midha, N. (2024). Gender Mainstreaming and the Nexus. In: Adeel, Z., Böer, B. (eds) The Water, Energy, and Food Security Nexus in Asia and the Pacific. Water Security in a New World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29035-0_7
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