Fao paper on

Gender-sensitive Monitoring in the Context of Water Governance and Food Security

In many instances, available data related to access to water, food security and other resources is not disaggregated by sex and other dimensions (such as age, ethnicity, etc.) making it difficult to conduct quantitative assessments and to monitor trends.

As alluded to above, recognition of intersectional discrimination needs to inform interventions made to tackle any of the challenges highlighted here. Data collection should be sensitive to the fact that women are not a homogeneous group and that women’s experiences will vary on the basis of intersectional discrimination. The World Bank has noted that “it may be relevant to also consider ethnicity and caste alongside gender (both as comparative indicators and when collecting data), as women of lower castes or ethnic minorities are usually in the worst situation” (World Bank, FAO and IFAD 2009: 233). Unfortunately, quantitative data on gender inequality in the NENA region is generally limited and rarely further disaggregated.
The lack of sex-disaggregated data can be attributed to the sources used in the context of global monitoring, namely mainly household surveys. These are carried out at the level of the household, not the individual. It is true that questionnaires for household surveys cannot be expanded in an unlimited way, and there is a huge demand to include additional questions and modules. However, rather than accepting methods of data gathering as unalterable, one needs to seek to understand the underlying assumptions. Surveys reflect a unitarian understanding of the “household as a single decision making unit” (Cafiero 2012: 29). The implicit assumption is that there are no inequalities among household members (Cafiero 2012: 29). By conducting the survey with the usually male “head of household,” the implicit assumption is that he – as a benevolent patriarch – takes care of his family and distributes resources and services within the household on an equal basis. Such assumptions and the resulting structure of household surveys hinder the assessment of gendered dimensions of food insecurity – and qualitative data suggests that such intra-household inequalities exist (UN Women 2014: 63; IDS 2014: 22-23; Winkler et al. 2014: 137).
The development of indicators for monitoring of the SDGs presents an opportunity in several regards. Gender equality in general is gaining increasing attention and there is broad recognition that monitoring efforts and indicators in the context of gender equality will need to be constructed in a broader manner than for the Millennium Development Goals (Winkler et al. 2014: 126). There is also increasing awareness for inequalities more generally, accompanied by efforts to improve monitoring in this regard (JMP 2014; Winkler et al. 2014). Monitoring in other areas shows that disaggregation by sex and gender-sensitive monitoring is feasible. Data on the burden of water collection by women has been presented as a regular feature (JMP 2011). Moreover, for instance in the education sector, monitoring gender inequalities has long been standard practice.¹⁸
Recently, new approaches to monitoring seeking to capture inequalities (including gender inequalities) in the context of food security and water governance have emerged. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale developed by FAO allows for an assessment at the individual level based on an experience-based scale. As such, it allows for analysing gender disparities. The method was piloted in 2013 in four countries through the Voices of the Hungry project and became operational at the global level in 2014 through inclusion in a Gallup World Poll (FAO 2014b: 15).
A different type of dataset is provided by AQUASTAT, FAO’s global water information system. It collects, analyses and presents data on availability of water resources, on different types of water uses, on water withdrawals, on irrigation and similar information (FAO 2015). AQUASTAT also seeks to include gender-sensitive and disaggregated data. In the recent country profiles of AQUASTAT, a specific paragraph on women and irrigation has been included. Moreover, AQUASTAT conducted a pilot study through the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to collect gender-disaggregated data in water and agriculture with the aim of developing gender-sensitive indicators (FAO AQUASTAT 2014). The study provided very detailed and interesting information at local level, including on the gendered division of labour, decision-making, access to training, membership in organizations and other factors.
Initiative on Gender-Sensitive Water Monitoring
by the World Water Assessment Programme
On a broader scale, the ongoing initiative by UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) on gender-sensitive water monitoring seeks to develop a gender and water parity index and an associated indicator framework as a global standard. A comprehensive set of indicators has been developed that is currently being pilot-tested and will subsequently be validated before being promoted for global use. AMCOW has already endorsed these indicators. They cover the areas of water governance, WASH services, decision-making and knowledge production, transboundary water management, and water for industrial and agricultural uses. Acknowledging the complexity of gender relations, the methodology combines a number of different methods including individual and group interviews divided by gender, participant observation, self-assessments, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. Some suggested indicators are of particular interest in the context of the intersection of water governance and food security: number of male and female staff at different levels; intensity of male and female participation; perceptions of gender discrimination or equality in decision-making, including at household level; presence of gender strategy; percentage of irrigated farms owned / managed by men and women; and the gendered division of labour (Greco 2014). The full list of suggested indicators is reproduced in Annex 3.
One of the challenges in moving forward with the initiative will be to find a balance between collecting meaningful and detailed data and feasibility constraints in global monitoring processes. Yet, even at this stage, the initiative contributes to raising awareness for the need for meaningful gender-sensitive data on water governance and the fact that collecting such data is indeed possible.