1. WORKSHOP ON FEED THE FUTURE INNOVATIO LAB – April 20th – 21st , 2016
WORKSHOP ON FEED THE FUTURE INNOVATIO LAB – April 20th – 21st , Protea Hotel Courtyard, Dar es Salaam - Tanzania       TOPIC: AN OVERVIEW OF GENDER IN TANZANIA’S WATER POLICIES AND THE MAIN CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN’S ACCESS TO WATER   Prepared and Presented by: Eng. Mary .K.Mbowe, Assistant Director, Ministry of Water and Irrigation – Tanzania.  

2. 1.0 Introduction
NAWAPO Statement: Women play a central role in the use , management and protection of water resources and thus should be involved fully in the decision making process .
Policy and related activities
introduces elements of devolution
influenced by national policy instruments eg. The National Development Vision 2025, local government Reforms and MDGs
address issues of poverty and economic development
incorporate water sector reforms as one of several related components
when combined, offer a multi-sector approach to poverty reduction and economic growth.
National Water Sector Development Strategy (NWSDS) sets out the strategy for implementing NAWAPO 2002 and guides the formulation of the sectoral investment programmes.

3. Policy and related activities………
NAWAPO 2002 Section 4.8 States on Gender Sensitivity,
goal is to make sure that active and effective participation of women and men at all levels in water supply programs.
identifies the burden of women who are searching for water and being guardians of the living environment.
improvement of gender participation in water supply programs must have a fair representation of women various water entities,
programmes to be based on what both men and women in rural and urban communities know, want, and able to manage, maintain and pay for
raise awareness, train and empower women to actively participate at all levels including decision making, planning, supervision and management.
NAWAPO recognizes the existence of low income groups in the urban and peri urban areas..
appropriate social equity considerations put in place so that a basic level of water supply and sanitation service is provided to the poor at affordable costs.

4. Policy and related activities………
Vision 2025
Policy stipulates the Tanzania Vision 2025 for achieving a high quality livelihood for its people,
good governance through the rule of law and develop a strong and competitive economy.
targets include a high quality livelihood characterized by sustainable and shared growth and freedom from abject poverty in a democratic environment aiming at gender equality
Gender Policy
Water is among the priority sectors for Gender Budget initiatives in the Government Budget since 1999.
Ministry of Water made a firm commitment in its Medium Term Strategic Plan to promote gender equality and enhance women participation in decision making process up to 30% by year 2010.
Gender disparities contribute to the shaping of the response of the micro-level to macro-economic measures
underestimation of women’s economic contribution, leads to the formulation of macro-economic packages which can be only partially effective or even have long term negative results.

5. The Laws
Water Supply and Sanitation Act, No.12 of 2009 contain the following Gender sensitivity: Section 6: The Ministry responsible for local government to ensure the execution by local government authorities functions connected with the implementation of the Act and in particularly to:-
(c) Facilitate provision of low cost appropriate technologies for water supply and sanitation services to communities; and
(d) Create a conducive environment for community and private sector participation in development, operation and management of water supply and sanitation services
In gender mainstreaming , the Water Supply and Sanitation Act includes special position for female in the composition of Boards of Water Authorities,

6. The Laws…………..
Elaboration of provisions in the Water Supply and Sanitation Act is as follows:
Section 6(c) Provision of low cost technologies for water supply and sanitation helps women in the rural areas to bear the burden of searching for water and guardians of the living environment water
Section 6 (d) creation of a conducive environment of water supply and sanitation will reduce diseases associated with lack of safe water and poor hygiene and sanitation.
Section 10 (2) in the First Schedule with fair representation of women in village water-user entities will speed up the development of access to clean and safe water.
Water Resources Management Act No. 11 of 2009, incorporates the gender mainstreaming provisions, that is provided in the composition of members in the Basin Water Boards, Catchment and Sub-Catchment Committees. The Second Schedule to the Water Resources Management Act under para 1(4) Section 22(4) states that at least one third of members of the Basin Water Board shall be women.
the third schedule under para 1(3) requires one third of the members of Catchment and Sub-catchment Water Committees to be women;

7. Strategy
Ministry of Water crafted the National Water Sector Development Strategy (NWSDS, 2006 – 2015) which indicated how the Sector would implement the National Water Policy to achieve the National Stratergy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty {NSGRP} targets.
strategy stipulated the gender sensitivity in Section 8.6 up to
identified the problem statement where by inadequate gender disaggregated data and information at all levels in the Water Sector affected the reliability of information on how different gender groups are affected.
It stated clearly the main areas to focus for gender inclusion in Water Sector and the direction to make sure active and effective participation of both women and men in the provision of water supply and sanitation services.

8. Programme
Currently, the Government of United Republic of Tanzania is implementing a Water Sector Development Program (WSDP; July.2007 – June, 2025) which is being implemented in the phases of 5 years each. Phase one ended in 2015 and now on phase two.
WSDP covers four components; (i) Water Resources Management and Development ( ii) Rural Wate Supply and Sanitation (iii) Urban Water Supply and sanitation and (iv) Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building.WSDP phase two has added a component on Sanitation..
development objective of WSDP is to strengthen sector institutions for integrated water resources management and improve access to water supply and sanitation services. By the end of the program, the GoT will have met the Vision 2025, increasing water services to meet targets for improved water supply and sanitation coverage across all segments of the population.
It also have in place a sustainable regulatory framework for comprehensive water resources management and development.

9. Programme…….. Development and implementation of WSDP adopts Sector Wide Approach to Planning (SWAP)
eliminate overlaps and duplication of efforts in water resources management and development
implemented simultaneously in all Local Government Authorities, Basin Water Offices and invariably all Water Supply and Sanitation Authorities in the country.
objective WSDP is to alleviate poverty through improvements in the governance of water resources management and the sustainable delivery of water supply and sanitation services.
Paying attention to gender relations and using gender-sensitive tools for planning which contribute to better project planning and management, and increase the success of water projects.
Gender-sensitive approaches and tools for water sector are important for achieving efficiency, social equality and gender-equality goals.

10. Planning  
Water Sector has indicated the goal for gender sensitivity. The plan is to make sure that women are involved in planning, designing and managing water programmes.
Should be supported by the establishment/develop mechanisms which ensure that women and men are equally consulted in Water Resources Management and Water Supply and Sanitation planning. The process of planning enable women and men to have fair representation of both in Water Sector executive and advisory boards countrywide.
facilitation of data in planning process is crucial therefore the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data must be considered as an engine to the planning and budgeting processes. .

11. CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN’S ACCESS TO WATER
Water Sector faces various challenges concerning gender mainstreaming and the following are the few:
Weak Capacity in Gender Mainstreaming as no active representation of women in decision making entities such as Water Boards, Water User Association etc.
Given gender biases in education, women often have low literacy levels and thus low level of skills and gender awareness within the Water Sector.
When there is a serious issue Men have more experience than women when putting their arguments forward and feel more confident.
Women at all levels are not adequately mobilized to actively participate in community affairs such as Water Meetings and other development activities.
Prevailing traditional practices in communities such as those forcing women and girls only to fetch water and ensure cleanness of the environment.

12. Challenges……….. 
Limited allocation of resources for implementation of gender activities such as drilling of enough boreholes, construction of water schemes etc.
Most women in the Water Sector lack awareness on their rights especially in technical knowledge and the working condition.
Long walking distance in searching for water although water policy indicates the water points to be not more than 400m or half an hour go and return to water water points.
Gender discrimination to women and girls while searching for water in insecured sources eg. Sexual harassment, wild animals and school girls turnover.
Inappropriate technologies which are not user friendly for women, children and disabled eg. Hand pumps, distribution water points etc.
Economic constraints hinder Women and vulnerable groups to access safe and clean water.
Policy does not provide clear guideline for rainwater harvesting although could contribute on prevailing to water scarcity.
. Etc

13. Conclusion
The importance of Gender mainstreaming is to enhance the Water Sector be able to critically to identify strengths and weaknesses of its development plans and programmes particularly on; Establishment mechanism for women information sharing including networking women professionals in water sector and environment, Establishment of mechanism for enhancing women capacities to participate effectively in sector decision making and allocation of enough resources for gender activities.

14. WATER IS FOR YOUR LIFE THANK YOU FOR LISTENING