Thursday, June 13, 2013

In Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, a new online tool tackles violence against women and girls- from UN Women

In Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, a new online tool tackles violence against women and girls

UN-Habitat studies show that women in urban areas are twice as likely as men to suffer some form of violence, especially in developing countries.[1] Violence is a daily reality that disproportionately affects women and girls in the poorest districts of any city. Owing to their poverty, survivors among these populations have less access to support services, or they simply do not have the necessary information.
In Brazil, sexual violence is a problem. Although reported cases reflect only a fraction of actual occurrences, data from the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Public Security in 2012 show that compared to 2011, there was a sharp 23.8 per cent increase in cases of estupro (crimes which include rape and other violence) reported to the police in Rio de Janeiro.[2]

At the Educap NGO, dedicated to education and prevention in the Complexo do Alemão favela in Rio de Janeiro, Wayne Cristine Felix de Souza (left) and Lorena Ferreira Costa (right) check out the website developed under the “Rio for Women” programme. Photo credit: Gisele Netto

In recent years, the Brazilian Government has invested heavily in mobile telephone networks and in broadband. “LAN houses” (establishments offering public Internet access) have also become popular across the country,[3] including in the favelas.[4]

Leveraging this wider access to technology, on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2013, UN Women, UNICEF and UN-Habitat launched an online website which also works as a smartphone app that brings together information on support services for women and girls who are survivors of violence.
“The objective is for the tool to be used by women and girls. Even if they are familiar with the Maria da Penha Law, which is the Brazilian law against gender-based violence, they don’t know exactly where to go to get help, which service to request or where to get more information about their rights,” explains Rebecca Tavares, UN Women Representative in Brazil.

With a large part of the population using mobile technology and computers in the favelas,[5] the online tool was created so that anyone with a smartphone or computer and Internet access can use it to get information about assistance and services for survivors of violence. It provides abuse hotline numbers, information about rights, as well as the responsibilities and locations of Specialized Women’s Attention Centres, which provide psychological, social and even legal support. The tool also details steps to take after being raped, along with geographical positioning systems so users can locate the closest women’s centre, police station, medical centre and public prosecutor’s office.

At the same time, young women leaders in various marginalized communities are being trained by the NGO Cedaps (Health Promotion Centre, in Portuguese) to teach their peers about the website/app, and how to identify and address gender-based violence.

They are also using smartphones to take photos and videos of safety risks such as faulty infrastructure, obscured walking routes and lack of lighting, in order to create interactive digital maps of the favelas, which are being shared with local authorities and used to develop targeted interventions.

Nubia Felix (right) is one of the project’s community trainers in the favela of Complexo do Alemão. Photo credit: UN Women/Gisele Netto

“There is a lot of violence here and women are frightened to take action,” says Nubia Felix de Jesus, aged 18. She is one of 25 young women in the favela of Complexo do Alemão who are being trained as community trainers in the use of the online tool in 10 favelas.

In most of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, there is a lack of basic public security services and urban planning. Since the mid-1970s and early-1980s, the void has been filled by large organized crime factions involved in disputes over drug trafficking. Women, youth and children, especially girls, face particular risks in this context. They are victims of abuse that ranges from harassment to sexual assault and rape. This daily reality restricts their freedom to participate in education, work, political and economic life.
“Many women are economically dependent on their husbands. They do not work and are afraid for their children. So they put up with it,” Nubia explains. “I want to keep learning so that I can help these women, and tell them exactly where they can find help.”

Safe Cities and the favelas
Globally, UN Women’s Safe Cities initiatives are active in nearly 20 capital cities. Implemented along with UN agencies UNICEF and UN-Habitat and many other partners at a national and local level, they are engaging municipal leaders, as well as women’s, men’s and youth organizations to ensure that women, youth and children can enjoy public spaces without fear of violence.

Launched in June 2011 as part of the Safe Cities initiative, the “Safe and Sustainable Cities for All” Joint Programme is a five-year endeavour in eight cities, including Rio de Janeiro. It seeks to increase safety, prevent and reduce violence, including sexual violence and harassment, and mobilize and empower women’s groups, youth and children’s advocates to shape their urban environment.
The “Safe and Sustainable Cities for All” programme is locally called Rio por Ellas, (Rio for Women). It was set up in 10 of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas: Batan, Prazeres, Cidade de Deus, Cantagalo/Pavão/Pavãozinho, Borel, Macacos, Complexo do Alemão, Salgueiro, Rocinha and Andaraí – which have undergone the government’s so-called “pacification” process.

In 2008, the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Public Security undertook an initiative establishing Police Pacification Units (Unidades de Policía Pacificadora)[6], to prevent drug trafficking, gang violence and to also address the epidemic of violence against women and girls in the favelas.
In 2012, the Safe Cities programme started off with surveys involving women, men and youth residents of the ten favelas. One of the unanimous responses was that people said they did not know about the network of support services for victims of violence. They did not know who to ask, what organizations exist to help, what course of action victims should take, or what support should be given in each case in terms of health, security, justice or psychological support.

According to Rayne Ferretti, UN-Habitat Programme Coordinator in Brazil, the lack of information was common to all the communities studied. “That’s why the app could be a great public service.”
The lack of awareness was what led to the smartphone/online tool, which will facilitate access for women and girls who are victims of violence to the information and support services available through the Network for Tackling Violence against Women in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

“Every girl, every woman has the right to live without violence. But when violence occurs, we have to ensure that she finds the necessary support and services to deal with the situation and protect herself so that it doesn’t happen again,” says Luciana Phebo, UNICEF Coordinator in Rio de Janeiro.

To download the app to a smartphone, users can go to the website of the Council for Women’s Rights of the State of Rio de Janeiro and click on the banner, or visit: http://216.119.149.140:8080/swomen.
Hope in Complexo do Alemão

Little more than two months after it was created, the project is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, in places where social services have very little presence, results are evident.

Kelly Gregorio describes how the initiative is already showing results. Photo credit: UN Women/Gisele Netto

“A local woman accessed the site, she found the nearest Specialized Women’s Police Station, and she reported her husband who was beating her,” says Kelly Gregorio da Silva, aged 29, another community leader in the Complexo do Alemão favela. “She went back to live with him; she didn’t leave him … but she had the courage to report him. She knew where to go and he had to answer to the police.” To build on this tool, UN Women and partners have initiated a new collaboration with Microsoft which will help to assess how this and other safety apps are actually used by women and girls in shantytowns, and access to services can be further improved. Along with Rio de Janeiro, other cities participating in this project include New Delhi and Marrakesh.

Related links:

María da Penha Law, a name to change a society
Speech by Michelle Bachelet: Reclaiming Public Spaces for the Empowerment of Women and Girls
UN Launches Initiative to Make Cities Safer for Women and Children
Watch an information video about the app (in Portuguese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx4F4cLG0kQ

[1] F. Vanderschueren, 2000, “The Prevention of Urban Crime”. Paper presented at the Africities Summit of 2000, Windhoek, Namibia. Quoted in UN-Habitat, 2006, State of the World’s Cities 2006/2007, p. 144, Nairobi.

[2] Data from the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Public Security’s “Women’s Dossier”. The monthly average totalled 502 victims, or 17 victims a day.

[3] Brazil has over 100,000 public Internet access centres, otherwise known as LAN (Local Area Network) Houses. According to a 2012 study on Internet access by Brazil’s Internet regulator, 57 per cent of poor children aged 9-16 use public places such as LAN houses or cybercafés, versus only 15 per cent of upper-class respondents (page 269).

[4] Favelas are poor and unregulated urban settlements, many of them in the heart of tourist areas. They are shantytowns built without permission or official registration. There is a partial or total lack of a State-provided sanitation, electricity, telephone network or running water. It is estimated that, in Rio de Janeiro, there are more than 1.7 million people living in just one of the city’s 968 favelas.

[5] A 2013 study reveals that in favelas across the country, 89 per cent of households have a cell phone and 31 per cent have a computer with Internet at home (complemented by computer access in schools and LAN houses).

[6] The Government plan established community police in poor neighbourhoods and favelas, especially in the state capital. It aims to break up the drug trafficking gangs that controlled these areas as if they were actually parallel states. Today, there are 33 UPPs established in the most well-known and central favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Social Service Delivery and Corruption in Bangalore

http://ptfund.org/2012/07/empowering-women-bangalore-india/

Empowering Women in Urban Slums to Fight Corruption in Service Delivery in Bangalore, India

Categories: Case Studies, Publications, Sector: Social Services, Sector: Social Services: Social Safety Net

Corruption in a variety of government administered safety net programs has prompted the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), an Indian Public Charitable Trust, headquartered in Delhi, to take action. CFAR is working on a range of issues such as advocating for the rights of the urban poor, strengthening implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, and HIV/AIDS. CFAR is active in 37 slum settlements across 7 cities of Delhi, Jaipur, Pune, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Bangalore. A key intervention of CFAR in Karnataka, is ‘Monitoring of Government Food Schemes and Schemes for Vulnerable Women through Community Participation and Action to Create Transparent Governance’, supported by PTF. The project aims at empowering women to advocate for corruption-free service delivery, giving power to communities to hold the government accountable in five slums in Bangalore City.

Corruption Problem Addressed

Info

CSO: Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR)
Years: 2009 – 2010
Country: Karnataka State, India
Amount: $13,850 USD
Sector: Controlling Corruption in Delivery of Social Services: Social Safety Net

Corruption Problem: Widespread corruption in the delivery of safety net programs
Tools employed: Capacity Building, Citizen Monitoring, Coalition Building, Community Mobilization, RTI, Survey, Advocacy, Social Audit

Corruption is pervasive in India’s welfare and social safety net programs and has deprived citizens, especially the poor and most vulnerable, of their rights and entitlements frequently and across the country. Building on its prior work with communities in four slum settlements in Bangalore City, CFAR held group discussions with community member to identify roots, effects and symptoms of corruption targeting the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.

During the deliberations, one of the participants concluded, “We do not even know when the shopkeeper opens his shop [Fair Price Shop (FPS) – mandated to distribute food entitlements to eligible families under the PDS scheme]. Moreover the quality of food grains that we get is not good at all. We have filed complaints several times but to date have not received any response.” This sentiment was echoed by other citizens, “When we ask the personnel why such a small quantity is being given, she says this is what the government has allotted.”

CFAR confirmed these observations conducting a pilot baseline survey. Out of a sample size of 302 households, only 135 respondents had a ration card. The analysis of the 135 card holders revealed that 127 were BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders, however only 63 card holders were distributed rations. Further research revealed a number of malpractices in the distribution of rations and improper functioning of ration shops and the non-functioning of vigilance committees.

Similarly, and with respect to the ICDS program, the survey showed that although there were 60 children that had been enlisted with the Department of Women and Child Development, there was no actual Anganwadi center for children to visit. Furthermore, the existent ICDS centers served the improper quality and quantity of food to children. Development committees were not functioning and there was a lack of basic amenities at the Centers.

Actions Taken by CFAR

The first phase of the project focused on the identification and prioritization of corruption problems to be tackled. This effort included strengthening and scaling up women-led forums across 5 slum settlements in Bangalore. CFAR concentrated on establishing and strengthening women-led community collectives. These women’s collectives consist of members who have decided to come together under a common banner, Daksha Samuha, to claim their rights and entitlements. After being trained in filing RTI applications, the women were divided into two groups: Community Advocates who actively participate and initiate action, and Community Volunteers, who converge during large scale events, such as public hearings, consultations, demonstrations, etc.

CFAR facilitated conducting five public hearings

Thanks to the reputation CFAR has built over the years, and though informal in nature, these women’s forums have become a sought space for the community to seek justice and address grievances. Some of the forum members also participate in government-mandated grass-roots bodies, such as AnganwadiDevelopment Committees under the ICDS scheme and in vigilance committees under the PDS.

CFAR focused on capacity building and community empowerment and established a variety of advocacy tools through which the communities’ voices could be heard and government authorities targeted: The RTI-trained community advocates filed petitions, held public hearings, requested and conducted social audits, advocated with government agencies, and networked with other campaigns and movements. Emphasis was placed on evidence-based advocacy using visual documentation and case studies to show the horrific and often times appalling state of public service delivery.

Over the course of the project, three public hearings were held on issues affecting basic amenities in the ICDS, and four consultations (two on the Food Security Act, one with FPS owners, and a fourth to declare and publicize two model ration shops). For the consultation with FPS owners, the ground work was laid through establishing a relationship with the Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies (KFCS) officials, and the President of FPS owners’ association.

Sample of an RTI Application

Impact and Results Achieved

Results of the first phase include:

47 RTI applications submitted.

28 trained members of the Daksha Samuha (community group), including in-depth knowledge on the usage of the RTI Act, entitlements under various ration card formats, and social benefits.

Training on conducting negotiations with the government and other stakeholder, including engaging with the media.

Filing of new applications for BPL ration cards for approximately 1,000 people (out of 1,030 who did not have ration cards) which resulted in 371 newly issued BPL cards.

Three public hearings covering 550 people or 67% of the 820 households on issues of basic amenities, PDS and Right to Housing.
Based on the complaints filed by the Daksha Samuha, the KFCS took back twice inedible grain allotted to FPS shops. Furthermore, one ration shop was seized.
Following a public hearing, two new bore wells and two additional water tanks were installed to ensure proper water supply for the 242 residents. Additionally, all households were given an electricity connection, the main road was paved and proper drainage lines were laid. A sweeper was assigned to clean the area three times a week

Based on the feedback received from the community, corruption in the area appears to be declining. Some 362 BPL cards were issued without any bribes being paid. Similarly, other beneficiaries, such as widows (275), senior citizens (170) and disabled persons (7) are receiving pensions, and 400 senior citizens now avail of the mid-day meals without paying bribes.

More significantly, a culture of fighting corruption has been created amongst the forum members and is not limited to PDS and ICDS. The Daksha Samuha now works with government maternity hospitals. The women trained by CFAR no longer depend on the CSO, but show the courage to fight independently and organize the community to achieve additional results.

Documentation

Project completion reports (PCRs) and Project completion assessments (PCAs) of the EBJFI-implemented project can be accessed at www.ptfund.org under the “Where-we-work” tab.

The CFAR website can be accessed at www.cfar.org.in

For further information please contact cfarupap@gmail.com

Prepared by: Shramana Majumder, CFAR; Indira Sandilya, PTF; Karti Sandilya, PTF; Johannes Tonn, PTF

Download Empowering Women in Urban Slums to Fight Corruption in Service Delivery in Bangalore, India

Tags: Advocacy, Capacity Building, CFAR, Citizen Monitoring, Coalition Building, Community Mobilization, India,RTI, Social Audit, Survey

BY PARTNERSHIP FOR TRANSPARENCY FUND (PTF) ON JULY 17, 2012

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Gender-Based Violence- Dhaka's Slums

http://www.icddrb.org/media-centre/news/4032-study-reveals-alarming-prevalence-of-gender-based-violence-in-dhakas-slums

Study Reveals Alarming

Prevalence of

Gender-Based Violence in Dhaka’s

Slums

A baseline study undertaken by icddr,b and Population Council in the slums of Mohakhali, Mohammadpur and Jatrabari reveals that women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights are consistently being violated, with gender-based violence occurring at alarming rates. According to the study, 76% of the women surveyed had endured physical or sexual abuse during the past 12 months, with 43% having suffered both physical and sexual abuse. 85% reported that their husbands restricted their access to health care.

The findings were shared at a seminar organised by the action research project Growing up Safe and Healthy (SAFE): Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Violence against Adolescent Girls and Women in Urban Bangladesh, which was held on Thursday, 12 July 2012 in the Sasakawa Auditorium. In her closing speech, Chief Guest, Advocate Tarana Halim, Hon'ble Member of Parliament, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh commented that “We must implement existing laws to give the women of Bangladesh their rights.”

Dr. Ruchira Tabassum Naved, Principal Investigator of the SAFE project and Research Group Coordinator of the Gender, Health, Human Rights & Violence against Women Research Group (under the Centre for Equity and Health Systems) said, “Our findings clearly demonstrate high rates of child marriage and denial of other sexual and reproductive rights of the women and girls in the slums. We hope SAFE will be able to show which interventions are useful and which are not.”

Ms. Ella de Voogd, First Secretary, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN), Dhaka was present as special guest while the event was chaired by Dr. Tasnim Azim, Director of Centre for HIV & AIDS. Funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the SAFE project is implemented by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, icddr,b, Marie Stopes Clinic Society, Nari Maitree (We Can Campaign) and Population Council.

The Study Design

The study aimed at obtaining pertinent baseline information on sexual and reproductive rights and violence against women in Dhaka slums. It included a qualitative study and surveys of two separate groups of men and women. The survey of girls and women included 4458 women aged 15 to 29, while the men’s survey included 1617 men aged 18 to 35. Qualitative data was collected through interviews of men, women, girls, key informants and focus group discussions.

Major findings and themes

The project’s baseline survey and formative research findings were presented on four themes related to sexual and reproductive health rights and gender-based violence in Dhaka slums. The findings were presented by researchers from icddr,b and The Population Council.

Child marriage is highly prevalent in Dhaka’s slums. One-third of girls in the study were married before the age of 15. About 61% of marriages were arranged and 31% involved a dowry. It is common to find cases where girls and women were married without their consent. Researchers found that 30% of the women were not asked for consent in their marriage and 28% did not want to marry.
An overwhelming majority of women had inadequate knowledge about both sexual and reproductive health rights. Denial of this information results in a myriad of sexual and reproductive health issues. For example, over half of women did not know about sexually transmitted diseases and an alarming 87% did not receive medical attendance during postnatal care within 42 days of delivery. This data supports the notion in Bangladesh that information about sexual health and reproductive rights is taboo.
About 90% of women reported that they were exposed to controlling behaviour of the husbands and 85% reported that husbands restricted access to health care. In the last 12 months, 76% of women endured physical or sexual abuse, and 43% had endured both physical and sexual abuse. Even though abuse is so common, women rarely seek help.
Unmarried adolescent girls also experience multiple forms of violence at home, in romantic relationships and in the community. Because circumstances in the slums have begun to shift to allow girls to become important contributors to family income, girls have become more mobile and independent. Unfortunately, these new roles have advanced more quickly than the traditional, patriarchal ideology that condones the control of girls through further restrictions and violence.
In order to address the denial of sexual and reproductive rights and the high rates of gender-based violence, researchers recommended the following: 1) creating strong inter-agency and inter-disciplinary partnerships in order to change the cultural norms that inhibit sharing of information, knowledge and problems related to reproductive and sexual health rights, 2) addressing society’s violence-condoning attitude, 3) creating safe spaces that offer formal and informal support and are sensitive and specific to the needs of women and girls, and 4) testing different interventions focusing on the above.

Status of rights of girls and women in Bangladesh

Despite considerable improvements in a range of gender equality indicators in education and health, child marriage, early conception and gender based violence remain significant impediments to achieving gender equity in Bangladesh. The law provides for penalties for those responsible for marriage of girls aged under 18 but more than 60% of girls in the country continue to get married before they reach 18. Legal and policy reforms to address gender-based violence have been limited in impact because less than 2% of married women who have experienced physical violence seek any kind of remedy or service. The situation is considerably worse for women living in urban slums. Dire poverty, insecure living arrangements, frequent squatter evictions, weak social networks, the absence of civic society institutions, absence of public services and poor coordination among the services compound the vulnerability of young women.

The SAFE Project

Launched in March 2011, the action research project is designed to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights and reduce the violence suffered by adolescent girls and young women living in the slums of Dhaka. The project works with adolescent girls and boys, and young women and men as well as with the local community leaders in urban slums. It seeks to provide context-specific strategies for vulnerable adolescents to build their social and health assets, with the eventual goal of improving their sexual and reproductive health and reducing violence against women.

The SAFE project raises awareness about women’s and girls’ rights through a combination of messages on prevention, service provision and on proposed legal and policy reforms. The project includes quantitative and qualitative research. Qualitative research will offer rich data to inform all phases of programme implementation and analysis of outcomes. An experimental design will allow comparison of changes attributable to the programme. This research project will measure young people’s vulnerability, social capital, and specific reproductive health knowledge, skills and preventive behaviours.

The project establishes links and creates a strong network between legal services and reproductive and sexual health service providers, human rights and women’s rights advocates, research organisations, and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

For details please contact Nasmeen Ahmed

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Sanitation/Hygiene

Gender implications of inadequate sanitation in Kampala

According to the World Health Organization, sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feaces ^[1]. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease worldwide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. However, according to the United NationsMillenium Development Goals report 2011, over two and a half billion people still lack access to improved sanitation ^[2]).Women being the main users and managers of sanitation facilities are considered to be essential in improving the sanitation status world over but since they do not have major decision-making powers and resources, their role is often limited.It is important for sanitation and hygiene programmes not only to focus on what women can do to improve sanitation but also what are the consequences of inadequate sanitation for women.

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Status of sanitation in Kampala

Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. Uganda is a landlocked country located in Eastern Africa. It is bordered to the East byKenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south byTanzania. According to the 2012 Statistical Abstract, Kampala had 1.72 million people by mid 2012 ^[3]. According to UN-Habitat, 60 % of Kampala’s population live in slums and only 16% of slum dwellers have access to improved sanitation ^[4]. The Ministry of Water and Environment Sector Performance report (2010) attributes the development of slums and informal settlements in urban areas, especially in Kampala, which accounts for 35% of the urban population of Uganda to rapid urbanisation ^[5], These informal settlements and slums are characterised by poor sanitation practices. Many people do not have access to safe and private latrines and have to resort to rudimentary methods like open defecation or plastic bags commonly known as flying toilets. Most of the people in these areas are discouraged by the lack of property rights and high prices from investing in improved sanitation facilities. The majority of Kampala's poor (70%)households are tenants, only 30% of households own the houses they live in ^[6].

Gender implications

Inadequate sanitation puts a greater burden on women than men. Although there is common knowledge that the major impacts of poor and inadequate sanitation are diseases like diahorrea, women look at inadequacy beyond disease. According to the UN Millenium project, they can also be deprived of their right to dignity, privacy and safety ^[7]. Most slum dwellers rely on onsite sanitation facilities, which in most cases are located outside the house. Women, especially those living in slums, are exposed to humiliation and physical violence when travelling to communal latrines since these latrines are usually far from their homes and are shared by many people. According to a briefing note by "Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity" (Share) entitled “Security and Shame”, a study was conducted in Kampala in 2011 to explore whether women are exposed to humiliation, violence and rape as a result of inadequate toilet facilities ^[8]. Some of the findings from this study are stated below. The findings which are representative of many slum dwellings in Kampala are as follows:

There were not enough toilets to meet the needs of the population, meaning the available toilets were over-used and therefore filled up quickly. Most toilet facilities lacked facilities such as rubbish bins for the disposal of used menstrual pads or water for washing. This is demoralising and deprives a woman of her dignity since the toilet is considered the most private part in such communities for women to manage their menstrual periods. Menstruation is a natural process that occurs monthly in health adoloscent girls and pre-menopausal adult women. Girls begin to menstruate between the ages of 9 and 12. During a life time, a woman will manage menstruation on an average of 3,000 days ^[9], therefore it is important for menstrual hygiene to be incorporated in education curriculum right from an early stage in life to cause a sustainable impact among community members (both male and female).
Since toilets are inadequate and far away from homes, because of fear of violence and rape at night, people in these dwellings resort to using alternative options such as using buckets or "flying toilets" which are these plastic bags thrown from the home to dispose of waste. This practice is dirty and demoralising. It is a cause of shame to many women given the fact that they have to defecate in their homes in the presence of their families. Women felt shame because they felt the use of home toilets dirtied their homes and exposed their families and neighbours to diseases. This shame was extended to menstruation. Shame was also related to rape.
Women are responsible for managing scant household finances, meaning that they have to decide whether to spend money on toilets for their family or to resort to other options such as “home toilets”. Men are more likely to leave the community for work during the day and therefore have access to more or better toilets.
Men need less privacy and can urinate in the open without any sort of stigma, whereas women need a toilet both to urinate and defecate. This also meant that men needed the use of the toilet less and were not faced often with problems such as high latrine user fees or having to use a communal toilet. Women also expressed their feeling that men would be able to resist potential attacks, making them less vulnerable than women travelling within the community after nightfall.

Conclusion

Sanitation for the urban poor often lacks an institutional home ^[10]. Local Governments,landlords and tenants have few incentives to invest in quality services within informal settlements, including sanitation facilities, resulting into households sharing a few on-site latrines or relying on communally managed paying toilets. Given the cost implication, most of the urban poor who reside in such areas opt not to use the improved sanitation facility. Also, poorly designed toilets result into pit latrines with wide drop holes. This creates a fear that children may fall into the toilets. As a result, women and children opt for polythne bags or "flying toilets". Given the above scenerio, in order to adress gender inequalities in access to sanitation, it is important for the central governments, local governments, the private sector and local women's groups to create partnerships to overcome technical and financial barriers to women accessing sanitation. These activities should incorporate an aspect of menstrual hygiene since it is one of the unavoidable gender issues that araises and it continues in a females life time therefore it can not be avoided or taken for granted.

Secondly, women should be involved in major decision-making and planning of sanitation facilities. This would help in ensuring safety in access to and from the household to communal toilets. women are more knowledgeable about these facilities since they are their major managers and users.

The inputs of men, women and mixed groups should also be taken into consideration since people in the community have complementary roles in planning, decision-making and implementation of sanitation activities.

References

↑ http://www.who.int/topics/sanitation/en/
↑ http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/11_MDG%20Report_EN.pdf
↑ http://www.ubos.org/index.php?st=pagerelations2&id=31
↑ UN-HABITAT (2007). Situational Analysis of informal Settlements in Kampala: Cities without slums sub-regional programme for eastern and southern: kivulu (Kagugube) and Kinawataka (mbuya 1) Parishes. Nairobi:UN-HABITAT.
↑ http://www.mwe.go.ug/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&Itemid=0&gid=62
↑ http://www.nadel.ethz.ch/publikationen/Kampala_Policy_Brief.pdf
↑ UN Millenium Project (2005) Health,dignity and development: what will it take? Task Force on Water and Sanitation.London:UNDP.
↑ http://www.wateraid.org/documents/insecurity_and_shame_uganda_final_low_res.pdf
↑ http://www.irc.nl/page/40593
↑ http://www.wsp.org/wsp/sites/wsp.org/.../WSP-gender-water-sanitation.pdf

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Access to Water

Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World

This article is based on an article in Poverty In Focus (by International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)) Number 18, August 2009 by by Hulya Dagdeviren and Simon A. Robertson, University of Hertfordshire.

It highlights the difficulties of expanding utility networks in slum areas, which include technical barriers and a lack of land and housing tenure. The authors make a case for stronger public interventions.

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The problem

The problem of inadequate access to safe water is nowhere more pressing than in the slums of the developing world. Most countries in which a large proportion of the urban population live in squatter settlements are unlikely to meet the water-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This article argues that market-oriented policies make little, if any, difference in those circumstances.

Trends in Slum Development

About a third of the world’s urban population lived in slums in 1990, and the total number of slum dwellers might rise to 1.5 billion by 2020. Slum growth has been particularly marked in Africa where, on average, more than 70 per cent of the urban population live in informal settlement areas.

Public policies towards slums are highly politicised. They are influenced by factors such as the strength of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other social groups, as well as by the politics of slum management. So far, governments have dealt with squatter settlements and the associated problems in three ways:

clearing slums through forced or legal evictions;
applying public policies that range from benign neglect to occasional interventions; and
regularising settlement conditions.

Forced evictions are still used extensively, especially in Africa and Asia, where over 14 million people were evicted between 1998 and 2006 (UN-Habitat, 2007).

Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World

The increase in urbanisation and its disproportionate concentration in informal settlements pose problems for the expansion of water and sanitation services. Table 1 provides data on access to safe water in the countries with the largest slum populations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where conditions are particularly drastic.

Table 1:Access to Safe Water in Countries with the Largest Slum Population (%), Source UN-Habitat (2007)

UN-Habitat’s original database, which includes a larger number of countries, shows that urban access to improved water facilities declined in more than a third of African countries during the period 1990–2004. In many cities, there is a notably low rate of access to water through private household connections from network infrastructure. More than two-thirds of the urban population in Africa depend on water from non-residential connections. In half of the African countries, the share of residential water connections either declined or was static.

Lack of access to safe water in general, and lack of residential supply in particular, is positively correlated to the proportion of the population living in unplanned settlement areas. An important trend in Africa, and to some extent inAsia, is that improvements in access to safe drinking water were frequently accompanied by a decline in residential connections during the period 1990–2004. In other words, more people now rely on public standpipes, boreholes, “protected” wells and springs.

Challenges for Public Utilities in Improving Access to Safe Water in the Slums

1. Technical difficulties of infrastructure extension

The supply problems facing public utilities are exacerbated by a number of barriers that make it impractical to build the network in some slum areas. The most important are:

The topographical location of settlements in previously unused land such as hills, ravines, flood plains and desert land.
The physical conditions of the settlements, which are marked by a random and haphazard development pattern and overcrowding.
The quality of the materials used to build housing units, such as thickened mud, plant leaves and stems, tin and plaster boards, which are unsuitable for permanent water pipes and taps.

2. Lack of tenure for land or housing

The result of the invasion of public or private land, can pose a significant obstacle to the provision of water services. This is because provision by utilities and the extension of water services by local authorities often depend on the existence of legal tenure for property. These two issues are challenging for public policy. Overcoming the difficulties associated with the settlement conditions outlined in (1) requires relocation of slum dwellers to more suitable areas and enforcement of housing standards. Granting full tenure in order to tackle the problems associated with the insecurity of tenure outlined in (2) may raise property prices and encourage the development of new slum areas. Dwellers may sell their plots and squat elsewhere. The policy may benefit the non-poor, especially property merchants. Opposition to redistributive policies, involving relocation and/or the formalisation of slums, can be testing for governments.

Can Privatisation of Utilities Provide an Answer?

Thus far, policies geared to improving access to water have emphasised the importance of market-oriented solutions (World Bank, 2004). The shift towards private or commercialised services has meant that direct public investment in the water sector has declined. But the resulting gap has not been offset by private sector investments (Estache, 2006). Where public utilities have been privatised there have been numerous problems related to cost recovery, affordability and regulation of services. Private service providers have not performed better than public operators. Nonetheless, though the outcomes have been disappointing, the drive for privatisation continues with renewed emphasis following a short period of critical reflection.

The potential for privatisation is even more limited in countries where a significant proportion of the urban population live in squatter settlements. In these settlements, the multifaceted nature of the problems (such as tenure, technical difficulties in building water infrastructure, widespread poverty, high population turnover) seriously constrain the capacity of privatised utilities.

Types of Informal Water Services in the Slums and Their Limitations

In the middle- and upper middle-income countries, slums are often supplied from the public network. In low-income economies, however, the provision of water in informal settlements is dominated by community-managed water schemes and small-scale private suppliers.

Community managed water schemes

Typically, these are facilitated by NGOs that help the community to build a shared water point such as water kiosk, which is then managed and run by people employed by the community’s members. These small-scale projects are crucial to the provision of water in the absence of other alternatives, but they are not problem-free. Water charges are higher and cross subsidisation is not feasible because the projects do not benefit from economies of scale. Their long-term maintenance can be difficult because of a lack of social cohesion, financial resources, and technical and management capacity.

Small-scale private water suppliers

Some 50 per cent of the urban population in Africa obtain water from small suppliers. These include water tankers, street vendors and other water re-sellers (that is, households with a piped supply or wells in their yards selling water to those without access). Their services are problematic for three reasons. First, their prices are much higher, partly because they lack economies of scale. Second, the quality of the water is highly dependent on the quality of sanitation services in the locale. Finally, where regulation is absent (which is often typical), prices may be subject to collusion. While it is desirable to regulate small, private suppliers, it is intrinsically difficult and costly to do so because of their size, variety and number.

Policy Recommendations

There are three fundamental reasons why governments should play a more active role in the provision of water and sanitation. First, universal access to safe drinking water has positive externalities in the form of lower rates of illness and mortality, an associated increase in productivity, and reduced medical costs. The returns from universal water coverage can be significant, varying from US$4 for each dollar invested in sub- Saharan Africa to US$17 inLatin America (Table 2). Second, privatisation is not an option in poor and low-income areas where services are not profitable.

Table 2: Cost-Benefit Ratio of Achieving Universal Water Coverage, Source Hutton et al. (2006)

Finally, as outlined above, there are specific failures associated with non-state, small-scale supply systems. In short, solutions to the lack of safe water services in the slums of the developing world lie in the following approaches:

1.Coordinated public sector interventions

Improving water services depends heavily on upgrading slum conditions more generally. Urban planning and tenure issues require multifaceted interventions within the remit of governments. That requires thinking outside the “water and sanitation box” (IIED, 2003).

2. The expansion of public network utility

Long-term policy should be devised in light of the costs and benefits of alternative systems of provision. There are serious doubts about the potential gains of both privatised network utilities (where planning and development challenges persist) and small-scale service providers (because of pricing and quality issues). Ultimately, these concerns can be resolved by investing in the expansion of the public water and sanitation network.

References

Estache, A. (2006). ‘PPI Partnerships vs. PPI divorces in LDCs’, Review of Industrial Organization 29, 3–26.

Hutton, G., L. Haller and J. Bartram (2006). “Economic and Health Effects of Increasing Coverage of Low Cost Water and Sanitation Interventions”, HDR Office Occasional Paper. New York, UNDP.

IIED (2003) Water and Sanitation: Water Will Deliver the Improvements Required for Urban Areas. International Institute for Environment and Development. London.

UN-Habitat (2007). Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. Un-Habitat. Nairobi.

World Bank (2004). Reforming Infrastructure: Privatization, Regulation, and Competition. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Index of Topics

Thursday, June 13, 2013