Gender focus

Key to ensure that water and sanitation services are sustainable over time

Gender focus

Women’s participation is essential to realize the human rights to water and sanitation and ensure that services are sustainable over time.

Therefore, the gender approach is present in all Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation programs from their conception and execution.

This means the programs have indicators of women’s participation and involvement, gender diagnostics are carried out, and specific empowerment and capacity-building activities are established.

Highlights of activities in 2022:

Ecuador
Through the Water and Sanitation Program in dispersed rural communities in Canton Portoviejo, which is carried out with the support of the European Union, meaningful community development work has been carried out with women, who in 2021 formed the Agrupación Hermanas de la Tierra (Sisters of the Earth Association). One of the group’s representatives, Yoli García Vera, participated, invited by the Spanish Cooperation, in the LATINOSAN Congress, held in October 2022 in Bolivia. There, she was able to share the arrival of water in the rural area from which she comes and the process of social change that the program has brought about, especially since the formation of the Association.

Related News:

Innovation and gender focus: two of the cross-cutting areas of the VI Edition of Latinosan

Uno de los temas clave de esta edición de Latinosan fue el de la innovación, que estuvo muy presente de forma transversal en diversos espacios y ponencias. Además, una de las conferencias magistrales abordó específicamente este aspecto, bajo el título: «Gestión e Innovación como respuesta a las necesidades de saneamiento para todos». En esta sesión participó Carmen Jover, jefa del Departamento del Fondo de Cooperación sobre Agua y Saneamiento de España, quien habló sobre el «Rol de la cooperación en la gestión e innovación para el cumplimiento del derecho humano al agua«.

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Haití
In Haiti, as in other countries where the Fund works, the link between women and water is indisputable and dominant, as they provide practically all the water used in households. They know where the water sources are and the service hours of the public kiosks, and they are in charge of collecting, storing, and managing the water. In addition, they recycle it in order to use it efficiently and know its quality: they use less clean water for washing and irrigation and try to preserve it from contamination. They also impact its conservation and are almost entirely responsible for agricultural production for self-consumption, which is fundamental for the country’s food sovereignty.

So far, thanks to the program implemented in Haiti, the water distribution networks of 12 cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants will be rehabilitated and extended, as well as a large number of systems in rural areas, and access to water has so far been improved for nearly half a million people throughout the country.

Related News:

FCAS interventions contribute to achieving equal gender opportunities

El Fondo de Cooperación para Agua y Saneamiento (FCAS) es un instrumento de la Cooperación Española que tiene como principal objetivo asegurar el acceso a agua potable y saneamiento a las poblaciones más necesitadas de América Latina y el Caribe. Desde el Gobierno de España se han desembolsado 791 millones de euros en donaciones que han conformado, junto con las aportaciones de las contrapartes locales, una cartera de 1.276 millones de euros. En Haití, concretamente el programa del FCAS comenzó en el año 2012 y sigue ejecutándose. Al final de este, se habrán invertido cerca de 100 millones de dólares en la mejora de las infraestructuras de agua y saneamiento del país, así como en el refuerzo de capacidades técnicas.

Read article (Spanish) >>