Article

Gender Differences in Time and Energy Costs of Distance for Regular Domestic Chores in Rural Zimbabwe: A Case Study in the Chiduku Communal Area

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Abstract

Rural women spend excessive time and energy costs of distance to carry out routine domestic chores. The drain these chores have caused on daily time and energy budgets has adversely affected nutritional needs and health maintenance in most rural settings of sub-Saharan Africa. Survey results in a rural study site in Zimbabwe based on selecting and quantifying routine trip generating chores indicate that such trips, often with head or back loads, make heavy demands on time and energy particularly of female members of the household. As women's labor is critical in agriculture in Zimbabwe, the opportunity cost of time and energy used up in trips has significant implications not only for household food production but also for overall welfare of the household.

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... 169 Bodily Harm Women and girls feared, risked, or experienced, varied harms related to their water and sanitation circumstances and activities. 48,49,64,76,87,121,127,129,130,144,[154][155][156][158][159][160][163][164][165]167,168,170,172,173,[175][176][177][183][184][185]187,200,212,217,230,243,244,247,262,263,282 Many noted exacerbated experiences for women who were pregnant or elderly, had pre-existing conditions, and/or perform activities in harsh weather. 121,129,130,155,160,163,165,167,168,170,173,175,185,217 Reported risks of and actual harm linked to water and sanitation ranged widely, with reported water fetching related harms in particular resulting in serious and long-term consequences. ...
... Although existing measurement is limited, this review illuminates how water and sanitation circumstances and conditions have resulted in myriad negative impacts to women's well-being that remain unmonitored and under-evaluated. Illustratively, considerable research shows how compromised water and sanitation environments have contributed to women's risk or experience of harassment or physical and sexual violence; 47,48,56,62,72,75,87,94,96,97,109,121,124,129,130,139,154,[157][158][159][160][161]163,165,[167][168][169][170][172][173][174][175][176][177]184,185,187,200,203,212,217,219,[224][225][226]229,237,241,[243][244][245][246][247][248][249][250][251][252][254][255][256] compromised mental wellbeing; 2,62,76,82,86,94,109,125,149,151,154,156,158,159,161,163,164,171,174,175,178,184,187,188,191,195,215,257,260,261,266,269,275 resulted in illness, infirmity, and bodily harm 48,49,51,56,62,64,67,72,76,87,97,104,108,109,121,127,129,130,140,144,[154][155][156][158][159][160][163][164][165]167,168,170,[172][173][174][175][176][177]181,[183][184][185]187,188,194,200,206,209,211,212,217,[225][226][227]230,233,[242][243][244][245]247,258,259,[262][263][264]270,271,273,274,276,282 or limiting of hygiene, food, and water; 62,72,84,86,109,121,130,151,154,160,165,170,178,183,184,186,188,198,210,215,218,267 and suppression of urination, defecation and menstrual hygiene needs, 2,48,167,170,174,176,177,200,203,210,215,221,222,224,226,227,233,234,236,256 among other impacts. However, estimates of the burden of inadequate WASH remain focused on disease outcomes. ...
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Background Water and sanitation programs historically have focused on women's instrumental value in improving effectiveness and impact of programs, though focus is shifting to consider how programming and conditions may contribute to women's empowerment an gender equality. To date no systematic review has comprehensively assessed and synthesized evidence on water and sanitation and women's and girls' empowerment. The primary aims of this review were to: a) identify empirical water and sanitation research that engaged empowerment and/or empowerment-related domains from a pre-specified conceptual model; b) tabulate and report how empowerment-related terminology was used, where and when research was conducted, what methods were leveraged, and if water and/or sanitation was the primary focus; c) synthesize findings by empowerment domain and water and/or sanitation focus. Methods and Findings The conceptual model of women's and girls' empowerment developed by van Eerdewijk et.al (2017) informed our search strategy and analysis. The model presents three interrelated domains (agency, resources, institutional structures) and 13 sub-domains of empowerment. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CABI Global Health, PsycINFO, CINAHL and AGRICOLA for any peer-reviewed sources presenting research related to water and/or sanitation and either empowerment and/or related terms from the conceptual model (4 May 2020). Systematic and ancestry and decendency searching identified 12,616 publications, of which 257 were included following screening, representing 1,600,348 participants. We assessed all studies using the Mixed-Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT). We followed the 'best-fit framework synthesis' approach for analysis, using the domains and sub-domains of the conceptual model as codes to assess all included sources. During coding, we inductively identified two additional sub-domains relevant to water and sanitation: privacy and freedom of movement. Thematic analysis guided synthesis of coded text by domain and sub-domain. The majority of research took place in Asia (46%; 117) or Africa (40%; 102), engaged adults (69%; 177), and were published since 2010; (82%; 211). A greater proportion of studies focused on water (45%; 115) than sanitation (22%; 57) or both (33%; 85). Over half of articles use the term empowerment yet only 7% (17) provided a clear definition or conceptualization. Agency was the least commonly engaged domain (47%; 122) while the Resources domain was dominant (94%; 241). Measures for assessing empowerment and related domains is limited. This review was limited by only including sources in English and only includes menstruation-focused research in the context of water and sanitation. Conclusions Water and sanitation research specifically engaging women's and girls' empowerment in a well-defined or conceptualized manner is limited. A substantial body of research examining domains and sub-domains of empowerment exists, as does research that illuminates myriad negative impacts of water and sanitation conditions and circumstances women's and girl's well-being. Available research should be used to develop and evaluate programs focused on improving the life outcomes of women and girls, which has only been minimally conducted to date. A more comprehensive 'transformative WASH' that includes gender-transformative approaches to challenge and reduce systemic constraints on women's and girls' resources and agency is not only warranted but long overdue.
... The main finding of the study was that the mother of the household bore the greatest time and energy costs of transport related domestic chores, especially during school hours when the female school going children are not at home (ibid.). These studies show that girls in rural areas also bear a significant, albeit relatively smaller proportion of the burden of transportation in doing daily chores (Mehretu andMutambirwa, 1992: 1681). Crehan argues that from an early age girls in the rural areas are socialised to do women's work (1992: 118). ...
... Much of these jobs are carried out on foot and include head loading and it is the women that participate in most of these trip-generating activities. Similar findings emerged from the case study of Chiduku, were it is estimated that 70% of the trip-generating domestic household chores are done by women (Mehretu andMutambirwa, 1992: 1682). ...
Thesis
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Literature and case studies on transport and school goers lacks analysis of the influence of transport on school goer's experiences and opportunities. The research presented in this case study examines the extent to which transport - either private or public - determines school goers access to places, experiences, and opportunities. The research was based on a study sample of about 1 474- schOol goers within a 45-kilometer radius of Pietermaritzburg. The study was sited at ten schools. School goers in grades one, four, -seven and nine formed the study sample. Their ages ranged between 6 to 27 years. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection this case study focused on the activities within the school and home environments. Data collect focused on analysing the modes of travel to and from school as well as recreational and sport activities that school goers engage in. Findings and the review of literature in this case study show that the role of ransport in the lives of school goers is linked to the daily activities they engage in. Accessing schooting, sporting, recreational and educational facilities increases school goer's experiences and opportunities. In rural and some remote urban settlements problems of accessibility and mobility limit and localise the experiences and opportunities for school goers.
... Women bear the brunt of energy expenditure on domestic tasks and it is suggested that their high energy expenditure may exacerbate problems of malnutrition. Mehretu and Mutambirwa (1992) examine responsibility for load carrying chores in rural ...
Thesis
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An observational study of Maasai women and girls was carried out in an agro-pastoral community in Northern Tanzania. This study reveals that the majority of female labour time during daylight hours is consumed by the task of child-care and the domestic subsistence activities of wood and water collection. The allocation of time among domestic activities is examined from an evolutionary perspective. Demographic data collected in this study allow patterns of child-care to be related to the degree of genetic relatedness which exists between infants and their carers. It is argued that the investment of time in the care of children by non-maternal carers represents an altruistic behaviour for which the ultimate explanation lies in the selective advantage conferred upon the carer. This advantage may take the form of an improvement in the inclusive fitness of the carer or a benefit to be derived from a reciprocal act at some future time. The patterns of domestic wood and water collection are examined. The results suggest that the contribution made by a girl during her period of residence in her natal household is sufficient to cover not only the additional demands for these resources which she represents but also those of a sibling. This finding is discussed in the context of competing evolutionary and economic theories of demographic change.
... Having access to water on premises results in a greater quantity and quality of water than when it is located off premises (Brown et al., 2013;Overbo et al., 2016) and is generally associated with positive health outcomes such as the reduction of diarrhoea (Overbo et al., 2016). A lack of access to water on premises means that water must be fetched: women and children, who generally hold the task of fetching water (Graham et al., 2016;Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992 et al., 2011), spend time at the expense of other activities such as education, work (e.g. farming, households, or other), or hygiene practices, and are exposed to different physical health disorders associated with the weight of carrying water (Geere et al., 2010(Geere et al., , 2018Geere and Cortobius, 2017;White et al., 1972). ...
Article
Background: Increasing the quantity of water available for consumption and hygiene is recognized to be among the most efficient interventions to reduce the risk of water-related infectious diseases in low and middle-income countries. Such impacts are often associated with water supply accessibility (e.g. distance or collection time) and used to justify investment in improving access. Objective: To assess the relationship between the water source location and the quantity of water available in households from low and middle-income countries by identifying the effects of interventions aiming to improve access, and to compare the indicators and measures used to collect information. Methods: We systematically searched seven databases (i.e. Cairn, Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, Web of Science, Women's Studies International) along with grey literature for articles reporting indicators and measures of accessibility and quantity. We found 6492 records, of which 20 studies were retained that met the review's inclusion criteria. Results: Most studies were conducted in rural settings and provided suggestive findings to describe an inverse relationship between accessibility and quantity. Overall, a wide range of indicators and measures were used to assess water accessibility and quantity in the selected studies along with their association. The lack of consistency raised concerns regarding comparability and reliability of these methods. Conclusions: The review findings support the hypothesis that the quantity of water available in households is a function of the source location, but the inconsistency in study outcomes highlights the need to further investigate the strength and effects of the relationship.
... Rural women and girls spend all if not most of their time and energy on routine domestic tasks, which involve head loading and carrying children often in unsafe environments. Mehretu and Mutambira's (1992: 1680-1681 case study of the Chiduku district in Zimbabwe, for example, shows that women (and girls) had much higher participation rates for the trip-generating household chores/work. Women were responsible for 62% of the water collection, 57% of the laundry activities, 63% of the fuel wood collection and 48% of trips to the market. ...
Book
Full-text available
POTGIETER, C.-A., PILLAY, R. & RAMA, S. 2006. Women, Development and Transport in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. Cape Town.
... A great deal of the transport time of rural people, particularly women, is spent on paths close to the village that are used to access water, fuel wood, fields, pastures and village amenities (Assefa Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992;Bryceson and Howe, 1993;Fernando and Porter, 2002;Lema, 2007). Footpaths are also the main way in which most rural people start their journeys to connect to the road network, transport services and towns. ...
Technical Report
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This review examines how transport investment and transport services affect poor people in developing countries
... In most developing countries, women are intrinsically tied to water (responsible for collecting, storing, protecting and distributing water), long journeys to the nearest wells and carrying heavy pots of water can damage bones (WHO, 2014) Carrying heavy loads over long periods of time causes cumulative damage to the spine, the neck muscles and the lower back, thus leading to early ageing of the vertebral column (Mehretu & Mutambirwa, 1992;Dasgupta, 1993) GolamKibria_CC_ Impacts_ Women_LDC & Developing Countries_14 Sep 2018 63 ...
Presentation
Women in the least developed countries (LDCs) and developing countries in Africa and Asia are responsible for food production (agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture), the collection of water, and biofuel (wood, non-timber forest products) from forests, cooking, the management of natural resources (forestry & fisheries) and taking care of children and the elderly. Climate change is projected to cause a severe impact on rural women via crop failure, food and water contamination, shortages of biofuel and clean water, diseases and natural disasters etc. The environmental degradation due to climate change will force women to move further to obtain natural resources such as clean water and fuel-wood and increase the likelihood of exposure to harmful chemicals and biological toxins and diseases. This presentation highlights the roles of women on social, economic and environmental sectors and impacts of climate change on the livelihoods of poor women in developing countries and some novel measures to reduce impacts and threats of climate change
... The fact that public transport is often less than satisfactory on non-radial and non-peak routes, on which women rely more than men, can severely limit the time available for other activities (Bamberger et al., 1999;Fernando and Porter, 2002 ). On the other hand, a great deal of the transport time of rural women is spent on paths close to the village that are used to access water, fuel wood, fields, pastures and village amenities (Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992;Bryceson and Howe, 1993;Fernando and Porter, 2002;Lema, 2007). Footpaths are also the main way in which most rural women start their journeys to connect to the road network, transport services and towns. ...
Conference Paper
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Mobility is experienced differently by women and men, as they use different modes of transport for different purposes and in different ways depending on their socially determined reproductive, productive, and community related gender roles. Women's transport needs in south Asia are hardly sufficiently documented, let alone adequately addressed by transport planners and providers. A literature search was undertaken of the data bases, Google Scholar, JSTOR: Journal Storage, SpringerLink, SCOPUS and GEOBASE for papers published for different years. The search terms were 'gender', 'transport', 'mobility', 'travel behaviour', 'Transport Poverty', 'public transport accessibility and affordability', 'transport facilities', 'disadvantages', 'transport constraints', 'public transport'. The literature review revealed the unique barriers regarding transport accessibility as well as transport disadvantages that face urban and rural women in south Asia. This systematic review will help transport planners identify, design, and assess gender-responsive transport projects in order to solve the transport burden of south Asia.
... Gender intersects with other relations of power to ''form and re-form our water world'' (Zwarteveen et al 2012: 3). In the literature on gender and water, there is growing recognition of the role of the intersection of caste, class, and gender in shaping water insecurity at the household level (Mehretu and Mutambirwa 1992;Cleaver and Elson 1995;Crow and Sultana 2002;van Koppen 2002;Sultana 2009;Zwarteveen et al 2012;Joshi 2013;Kulkarni 2014). ...
Article
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The present article argues for better assessing how drinking water supply interventions affect gender relations. This requires going beyond conventional “water burden” indicators such as time spent collecting water or distances walked to a water source. Based on research in the Shivalik hills of northwest India, the article shows how men's expectations of water uses changed when interventions brought piped water supplies to the area. Though the interventions reduced the distance women walked to reach water sources and the drudgery of negotiating steep mountain slopes, there was an increase in the volume of water women were expected to carry. Following the interventions, men began performing many water-use functions in the privacy of their homes rather than at public water sources, and women were forced to carry more water home for these purposes. The decline of common property resource institutions also resulted in greater dependence on piped water supplies, further increasing the volume of water women must carry. Employing a qualitative research design relying on semistructured interviews, direct observation, and participatory rural appraisal tools, the study described here makes a case for more qualitative assessments of water supply interventions' impacts on mountain women's quality of life. This would yield a better understanding of women's water burdens.
... A study in the resource-deficit Chiduku Communal Area in eastern Zimbabwe in the early 1990s (where there was no electricity and kerosene was expensive) showed that women spent 4.1 hours a week on fuelwood collection and 10.3 hours on water collection. Women provide 91% of the household " s total effort in providing both of these household needs (Mehretu and Mutambira, 1992). This is not to say that fuel-saving stove programmes are misguided (see below for the benefits of such programmes); however, they should be appropriately targeted and be in line with women " s priorities. ...
... However the utilisation of this energy source poses major environmental problems (soil degradation, deforestation, desertification, reduction of CO 2 sink), health (pulmonary diseases and eyes) and women occupation (91%) (Mehretu & Mutambira, 1992;WHO, 2000). Moreover, the availability of wood becomes rare in certain zones because of their overexploitation, which obliges women and children to cover long distances for their collection. ...
Article
Full-text available
Human dejections and agro-pastoral residues biogas potentials of the Comoé river catchment (CRC) were evaluated using agricultural and population statistics, and the indices of residues biogas productivity. The CRC contains an annual biogas volume of 318x106 m3. This energy resource is by far higher than the energy needs of rural population in Côte d'Ivoire. But this resource is unequally distributed in the CRC localities. Ferkessédougou department contains the maximum potential (172.7x106 m3) of biogas. The agricultural residues among the others wastes contained the highest biogas potential (124.8x106 m3). The complexity of biogas production from agricultural solid organic residues makes these substrates inappropriate to household exploitation. In the other hand, centralized unit can be installed in Ferkessédougou and Abengourou to produce biogas from these residues in the aforementioned localities. Small decentralized units could be established in the localities containing livestock waste. Biogas production using agropastoral organics residues must be preceded by sensitizing of populations, in order to reduce their traditional utilisation habit and to fight against taboos.
... Tel est le cas en Côte d'Ivoire où la principale source d'énergie des ménages demeure la biomasse (97%) (IEA, 2000 ; PNUD, 2003 ; ESMAP, 2005). L'utilisation de cette source d'énergie pose des problèmes environnementaux majeurs (dégradation des terres, déforestation, avancé du désert, réduction des puits de CO 2 ), de santé (maladies pulmonaires et d'yeux), ainsi qu'une occupation abusive des femmes (91% du temps) (Mehretu et Mutambira, 1992 ; OMS, 2000). En outre, la disponibilité du bois devient rare dans certaines zones en raison de leur surexploitation ; ce qui oblige les femmes et les enfants à couvrir de longues distances pour la collecte. ...
Article
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La potentialité en biogaz des excréments humains et des résidus agropastoraux du bassin versant du fleuve Sassandra (BVS) a été évaluée à partir des statistiques agricoles et de la population, ainsi que des indices de productivité de biogaz. Egalement, la mise en œuvre des technologies de production de biogaz dans ledit bassin a été analysée. Le BVS renferme un potentiel énergétique total de 604,2 x 10 6 m3 de biogaz. Ce potentiel est supérieur aux besoins énergétiques annuels du monde rural en Côte d’Ivoire (1 800 GWh). Cependant,celui-ci est inégalement réparti entre les localités. En considérant les différents résidus, la contribution des résidus agricoles (541 x 10 6 m3) est plus importante par rapport à celle des déchets d’élevages (45,7 x 10) et celle des excréments humains (17,5 x 10 6 m3). La complexité de gestion des digesteurs utilisant des résidus agricoles solides ne permet pas de les conseiller pour les productions domestiques de biogaz. Toutefois, des unités industrielles peuvent être installées à Soubré, Daloa et Issia où des quantités élevées de résidus agricoles sont générées. Par ailleurs, de petites unités décentralisées de production de biogaz peuvent être installées dans les petites localités pour exploiter les résidus d’élevages. Mots clés: Agriculture, biogaz, élevage, production, résidus, Sassandra
... However the utilisation of this energy source poses major environmental problems (soil degradation, deforestation, desertification, reduction of CO 2 sink), health (pulmonary diseases and eyes) and women occupation (91%) (Mehretu & Mutambira, 1992;WHO, 2000). Moreover, the availability of wood becomes rare in certain zones because of their overexploitation, which obliges women and children to cover long distances for their collection. ...
Article
Full-text available
Human dejections and agro-pastoral residues biogas potentials of the Comoé river catchment (CRC) were evaluated using agricultural and population statistics, and the indices of residues biogas productivity. The CRC contains an annual biogas volume of 318x106m3. This energy resource is by far higher than the energy needs of rural population in Côte d'Ivoire. But this resource is unequally distributed in the CRC localities. Ferkessédougou department contains the maximum potential (172.7x106m3) of biogas. The agricultural residues among the others wastes contained the highest biogas potential (124.8x106m3). The complexity of biogas production from agricultural solid organic residues makes these substrates inappropriate to household exploitation. In the other hand, centralized unit can be installed in Ferkessédougou and Abengourou to produce biogas from these residues in the aforementioned localities. Small decentralized units could be established in the localities containing livestock waste. Biogas production using agropastoral organics residues must be preceded by sensitizing of populations, in order to reduce their traditional utilisation habit and to fight against taboos. Keywords: Agriculture, biogas, population, residues, river catchment.
... Most of the early investment was in major trunk roads, but in the 1970s, as rural development objectives were pushed to the fore by Western donors, rural roads gained in importance in World Bank lending to the transport sector, in the expectation that this would spur rural produce marketing, trade and commerce (Barwell and Howe, 1979; Edmonds, 1998). 1 Ironically, Hirschman's and Wilson's scepticism regarding the catalytic effect of roads was largely overlooked, even though rural roads located in areas of low population density with negligible commercial activity were far less likely to generate the traffic volumes and significant reductions in vehicle operating costs that trunk roads could be reliably expected to effect. Furthermore, a succession of field studies beginning in the late 1970s started documenting the realities of rural transport, suggesting that rural road investments had a limited impact on the lives of rural dwellers because the major share of rural travel and transport is bound up in domestic tasks such as water and firewood collection which generally involve walking on off-road paths (Howe and Richards, 1984; Barwell et al., 1985; McCall, 1985; Curtin, 1986; Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992; Bryceson and Howe, 1993; Porter, 1995; Fernando and Porter, 2002). The inadequacy of rural road maintenance under the stringent controls on government spending during the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s made rural roads more and more ephemeral in sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 1988; Riverson et al., 1991). ...
... A study by Mehretu and Mutambira (1992) measured the time and energy used by different family members in transport connected with regular household activities. Chiduku Communal Area in eastern Zimbabwe is a resource deficient area with a high population density. ...
Article
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The aim of this paper is to review existing evidence on the role of renewable energies in bringing gender equity. The paper first explores the evolution of thinking on gender and energy, in particular that practitioners no longer specifically focus on women and stoves (often referred to as “household energy”). Next, the reasons why gender analysis can help those people trying to increase the dissemination of renewable energy technologies are presented. There is a brief description of the gender aspects of household energy, and how different renewable energy technologies can contribute to drudgery reduction and time saving, particularly for women. The role of women in renewable energy is analysed. The paper concludes with an analysis of lessons learnt and recommendations. However, the point has to be stressed that there is now only beginning to emerge information about gender and energy in the South, and there is very little information about the situation in the North. The data that are available are primarily in the form of case studies, mainly related to stoves programmes and rural electricity grid extension. The systematic collection of gender-disaggregated statistical data by energy ministries does not occur and it is very rare to find energy project evaluations that use gender analysis. This means that much of the analysis should be seen as only as indicative, although this does not invalidate the recommendations since many of these are linked to the general situation of women having fewer assets than men.
... A study by Mehretu and Mutambira (1992) measured the time and energy used by different family members in transport connected with regular household activities. Chiduku Communal Area in eastern Zimbabwe is a resource deficient area with a high population density. ...
... Zimbabwean men do only 27 percent of the farm labor, 38 percent of the livestock care, 19 percent of the fuel gathering and chopping, and 4 percent of the domestic tasks, including cooking, water collection, and child care (Johnson 1988). In one rural study, Mehretu and Mutambirwa (1990) focused on seven important routine household chores and found that women (and their daughters) do most of the walking and carrying and thus have the higher energy expenditure. Many of the trips needed for various activities were made by children. ...
Book
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You can access the full text on this World Bank website: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1994/06/01/000009265_3970128113943/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
... This study uses cooking as the domestic chore that epitomises traditional gendered domestic relationships, and because it has been upheld in gender and energy literature as one of the most burdensome of women's tasks (Tinker, 1980; Mensah-Kutin, 1990; Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1998; Calvo, 2002). The title 'Whose turn is it to cook tonight?' is used ironically because it is almost always women's turn to cook, optimistically for that time in the future when the answer might change, and symbolically to refer to all gendered domestic roles and relations, and in particular those tasks which require energy services for their completion. ...
Article
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1 This report is an output of the Collaborative Research Group on Gender and Energy (CRGGE) with support from the ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) under KaR research project R8346 on "Gender as a Key Variable in Energy Interventions". For more information and other publications of the CRGGE and the DFID project see www.energia.org/crgge.
... (45). Globally, more than 50% of poor women suffer malnutrition and iron deficiency (23), and thus it should not be surprising that, especially during the dry season in rural India and Africa, 30% or more of a woman's daily energy intake is spent just in fetching water (58,59). When several trips are not possible, rural and periurban families make do with 10 liters or less per person per day, even if they live within 1 km of an improved source, and thus have "access." ...
Article
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That women play a central role in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water is one of the four internationally accepted principles of water management. This principle is especially important for the developing world where millions of women lack access to water for their basic needs. The objectives of this chapter are to summarize what is known about women with respect to water and about water with respect to women as well as to provide a sense of the current debates around these themes. A review of the literature suggests that the lack of gender-disaggregated data on the impacts of water policies, and underlying disagreements on how gender and development should be theorized, makes it difficult to reach robust conclusions on which policies can best assure poor women reliable access to water for their lives and livelihoods.
... Some women interviewed reported, with pride, that they work so hard that they do not sit down all day, and that when the rest of their work is done, and they can sit down at night, they take up the handicraft or sewing work through which they hope to make a little extra money for their family. Other evidence confirms this picture of women's workload: one study found that rural Zimbabwean women spend 30 hours per week on trip generating chores alone -primarily water and firewood collection and marketing (Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992). ...
Article
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ABSTRACTA number of case studies of NGO projects have suggested that NGOs may have an important role to play in addressing environmental problems in developing countries. Drawing on research conducted in Zimbabwe, this analysis seeks to broaden and contextualize the discussion of NGO involvement in sustainable development initiatives. It reviews the theoretical basis for the current emphasis on NGOs, assesses the environmental problems in Zimbabwe within their historical and social contexts, and summarizes the findings of recent research on the characteristics of the NGO sector in the country. The purpose is not to evaluate specific NGO environment projects, but rather to assess the mechanisms through which the NGO sector as a whole might make a significant contribution to sustainable development, and the problems in doing so. It is argued that one major obstacle faced by NGOs is the demand made upon them to find simple, neat and comprehensive solutions to complex development problems. The tendency on the part of donors and NGO supporters to expect success stories is called here the ‘magic bullet syndrome’, and it is argued that this emphasis on simplicity and on success is unrealistic and counterproductive.
... Loads can weigh up to 40 kilograms, which is considerably more energy intensive than even the heaviest agricultural work done by women, and carrying water accounts for 12–17% of daily energy intake in some East African research (van Wijk-Sijbesma, 1985 ). In a context of environmental degradation, (Chiduku Communal Area) which is by no means at the extreme of environmental stress, where water supplies are increasingly unreliable, the task of water collection has been estimated to require over 30% of average daily per capita calorie intake (Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992). 10 The ergonomics of water carrying have also been shown to place serious strains on the bodies of carriers, leading to spine deformities, arthritic disease, and occupational injuries (Page, 1996). ...
Article
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This paper is not a critique of waterpolicies, or an advocacy of alternatives, but rathersuggests a shift of emphasis in the ways in whichgender analysis is applied to water, development, andenvironmental issues. It argues that feministpolitical ecology provides a generally strongerframework for understanding these issues thanecofeminism, but cautions against a reversion tomaterialist approaches in reactions to ecofeminismthat, like ecofeminism, can be static and ignore theagency of women and men. The paper draws attention tothe subjectivities of women and their embodiedlivelihoods as a more useful approach to understandingthe ways in which women relate to water in bothirrigated agriculture and domestic provisioning.
... 446447. 14. Mehretu and Mutambirwa (1992), pp. 1679-1681, 15 ...
Article
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Rural household travel patterns have been largely ignored in African transport studies. Over the past 10 years, however, village-level surveys have been undertaken which reveal the predominance of female porterage in rural transport. Donor agencies are now focusing efforts on “appropriate” technology interventions to directly enhance rural mobility and to indirectly improve agricultural productivity. Preliminary evidence, however, suggests that men rather than women are the main beneficiaries of appropriate transport technology. This paper asks why and suggests a number of methodological refinements to future rural transport studies to generate the information necessary for devising programs with a higher likelihood of effective assistance to rural women transporters.
... While there is no known evidence of these patterns in Zimbabwe, it has been shown that women, particularly in rural areas, are overworked. Men only perform 20% of the labor required for rural households in Zimbabwe (Johnson, 1988), and it has been shown that rural women and their daughters have higher energy expenditures than men (Mehretu & Mutambirwa, 1990). In addition, their access to food resources may be more limited. ...
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The relationship between household decision-making and married women's anthropometry--based on data from the 1994 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey--is analyzed. Power is based on whether the wife has say over major purchases, her working, or the number of children. It is found that women who have no say in household decisions are significantly more likely to have a lower body mass index and chronic energy deficiency. Furthermore, women's resources affect this relationship: it is strongest among women who have no cash income of their own. Social factors in Zimbabwe that may explain these results are considered.
... Furthermore, a succession of field studies beginning in the late 1970s started documenting the realities of rural transport, suggesting that rural road investments had a limited impact on the lives of rural dwellers because the major share of rural travel and transport is bound up in domestic tasks such as water and firewood collection which generally involve walking on off-road paths (Howe and Richards, 1984;Barwell et al., 1985;McCall, 1985;Curtin, 1986;Mehretu and Mutambirwa, 1992;Bryceson and Howe, 1993;Porter, 1995;Fernando and Porter, 2002). The inadequacy of rural road maintenance under the stringent controls on government spending during the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s made rural roads more and more ephemeral in sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 1988;Riverson et al., 1991). ...
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Within current poverty reduction programmes, focus on the social-welfare millennium development goals is widening to embrace a concern with infrastructural investment, particularly for remote areas. The previously popular assumption that rural disadvantage can be remedied by road-building is resurfacing. Using survey data from Ethiopia, Zambia and Vietnam, this article explores how effective such investment is in addressing mobility and social-service accessibility in rural areas. The findings indicate that, in extremely remote areas, road improvements may catalyse the expansion of social-service provision, as evidenced in Ethiopia. However, given the poor's relative lack of motor vehicles and ability to pay for public transport, they are, by no means, a sufficient condition for enhancing the mobility of the rural poor. Copyright (c) The Authors 2008. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Overseas Development Institute..
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Statistics show that in India, 20% of the rural areas are still devoid of essential quantity and quality of water. Daily water carriage by women folk for drinking and household activities is common in rural India. Traditional methods of carrying water on the head, shoulder, and waist or by hand are tiring and impacted by numerous factors like weather conditions, distance, walking path, etc. Such activities lead to adverse health consequences like musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the long run. Water carriage by women in hilly areas of North-East India is challenging from multiple perspectives. The prevailing practice of on-head carrying of water is a risky and time-consuming task. The risk and drudgery are enhanced due to slippery, uneven, hilly terrain, no support structure/mechanism for climbing up-down, bad weather conditions, and long-distance travel. The people, especially the women in hilly rural areas, face tremendous hardship to carry water, but there is a lack of reported research and thereby, appropriate intervention to resolve the issue. Following the literature review, it is evident that various attempts have been made to supply drinking water in hilly areas. However, many of these interventions are not feasible/influential due to prevailing climate conditions. There is a need to strengthen such traditional practices through appropriate context-specific design interventions. Hence, it aims to document the current scenario and various challenges faced by the women of North-Eastern hilly areas to develop a proposal for the most feasible interventions.
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Historically, water and sanitation programs have focused on women’s instrumental value in improving conditions and behaviors. No reviews have synthesized evidence on water and sanitation and women’s and girls’ empowerment. This review a) identified empirical water and sanitation research that engaged empowerment and/or empowerment-related domains; b) reported empowerment-related terminology used, research locations, methods leveraged, if water and/or sanitation was the focus; and c) synthesized evidence. A conceptual model of women’s and girls’ empowerment, which includes three interrelated domains (agency, resources, institutional structures), informed the search and analysis. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CABI Global Health, PsycINFO, CINAHL and AGRICOLA for peer-reviewed sources presenting research on water and/or sanitation and either empowerment and/or related terms from the model (4 May 2020). We identified 12,616 publications; 257 were included, representing over 1,600,000 participants. We used the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and followed the ‘best-fit framework synthesis’ analysis approach, using the model domains and sub-domains as codes. We inductively identified two additional sub-domains relevant to water and sanitation: privacy and freedom of movement. Thematic analysis guided synthesis of coded text. The majority of research took place in Asia (46%; 117) or Africa (40%; 102), engaged adults (69%; 177), and was published since 2010; (82%; 211). The greatest proportion of studies focused on water (45%; 115). Over half of studies used the term empowerment, yet only 7% (17) provided a clear definition or conceptualization. Agency was the least commonly engaged domain (47%; 122); the Resources domain was dominant (94%; 241). Measures for assessing empowerment are limited. Inclusion of only peer-reviewed sources in English is a main limitation. Well-conceptualized water and sanitation research that engages women’s and girls’ empowerment is limited. A more comprehensive ‘transformative WASH’ that includes gender-transformative approaches to challenge and reduce systemic constraints on women’s and girls’ resources and agency is long overdue.
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We model intra‐household dynamics in two rural provinces of Mozambique through the lens of computable general equilibrium (CGE) methods. The main features of our modeling framework are: 1) a household social accounting matrix that captures allocation of labor and resources, and transfers among household members; 2) the explicit use of social norms in labor allocation across gender; 3) a mechanism that links agricultural production to time poverty; 4) identification of leisure as a commodity that is being produced. Simulation results and sensitivity analyses show how social norms interact with the allocation of labor and resources at the household level to impact farm production or limit the gains from technological improvements. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
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Earth is undergoing inevitable changes in its climate as a result of both natural and man-made activities, e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, rapid urbanization, population growth, agricultural intensification, etc. Women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change as they are more likely to be economically dependent than men and have less access to education and information that would allow them to manage climate-related risks to agriculture and livestock. Women make up the majority of the world’s poor population. They tend to suffer more from the impacts of climate-related disasters and severe weather events due to regional cultural norms and unfair distribution of roles, resources, and power, especially in developing countries. Their role in combating climate change is seldom appreciated even though they give priority to their families even in the times of droughts and scarcity of food and water resources. This paper sheds light on climate change and its relation to women in different scenarios of the changing climate. These include agriculture, biodiversity, water, natural disasters, wars, migration, pollution, health and sanitation, education, disempowerment, security, social and psychological and human rights. Lastly, to mitigate the effects of climate change on women, recommendations to involve international funding organizations are also discussed.
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This chapter examines the impacts of climate change on water resources and their effects on women and girls in the Global South. The amount and timing of rainfall are some of the main manifestations of climate change on the earth’s surface, thus affecting the livelihood and well-being of societies. The abundance or scarcity of water affects not only in the form of droughts and floods but also in the availability of basic needs, such as food and shelter as well as health and infrastructure. For instance, higher temperatures and changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are predicted to affect the availability and distribution of precipitation, snowmelt, stream flow, groundwater storage, water quality, and sea levels. These changes will have the greatest impacts on the poorer and more vulnerable societies in the Global South which are not adequately prepared for such changes. The majority of the population living under poverty in the Global South are women, and thus faced with the main brunt of the impacts of water shortage. Countries where greater than 25% of the population have no access to improved sources of drinking water are mainly concentrated in Sub Saharan Africa and semi-arid regions in Central Asia, including Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia. Most of these countries also experience high levels of gender inequality.
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This chapter outlines the ways in which gendered roles and relationships shape the processes and outcomes of water resource management. It locates this discussion in the context of water management policies over the past decades, especially the realisation that improved water management cannot be achieved by technical means alone and the consequent shift towards a recognition of the role of women as water users and managers. This has, however, led to the assumption that involving women in decision-making and in operation and maintenance of water supplies ensures more effective water management and more equitable outcomes. The body of literature around water management discourse and practice, on the other hand, shows that, while gender has been nominally ‘mainstreamed’ into international policy making, its translation into practice has been constrained. Policy and practice have barely recognised the complexity of gendered water relations and the tenacity of social barriers that perpetuate unequal access and benefits. This chapter sets out key issues in understanding the gendered nature of water resource management, illustrates the intersection of gender and poverty, and offers some examples of promising directions in overcoming inequalities. Gender and water in international policy. A number of shifts in policy approaches to gender and water have occurred since the 1980s, with varying emphasis given to welfare, efficiency and empowerment concerns. These have laid the foundation for the various ‘actions’ to change the plight of women.
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Introduction Bangladesh is a country of rivers and floods but groundwater is still a vital resource because it provides bacterially safe water and helps produce food for millions of people. In rural and urban areas almost the entire population rely on groundwater for potable water. In the early 1990s some 97% of the population used it for drinking, but this has now come down to about 80% due to the detection of arsenic in shallow groundwater. Use of groundwater in irrigation is increasing every year, and now more than 74% of the irrigated area is covered with groundwater. The country's industries also rely on groundwater for most of their water needs. Though Bangladesh has abundant rain and surface waters, these sources are not available when water demand is the most. Therefore, groundwater can be considered as the country's most important natural resource for ensuring public health and food security. This chapter provides an overview of groundwater contamination in Bangladesh. Brief descriptions of water availability, current use, and hydrogeological aspects are also included to give a wider perspective. Section 25.1 outlines the groundwater resources of the country, water demands by various sectors, and the status of current uses. Section 25.2 describes the hydrogeology of the country including its aquifer systems and groundwater dynamics. Section 25.3 sets out the contamination problem with special emphasis on natural arsenic and urban contamination from Dhaka city.
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Rapid urban development and industrial growth puts direct and indirect pressure on freshwater resources in many water-scarce basins. Direct pressure derives from domestic and industrial demands, while indirect pressure relates to an increasing urban food demand. In fully allocated basins, both demands can often only be met by reallocation of water (for example, from irrigated agriculture, which is in most cases the largest water user), and through conscious efforts to reuse urban return flows (Falkenmark and Molden, 2008). Using waste water volumes (which are continuously increasing) can have negative environmental and health effects in cases where a large share of the waste water is returned untreated to surface water bodies; however, this problem can be addressed and the water remains a significant resource that cannot be overlooked. Such water has a natural place along the rural–urban gradient in integrated water resources management (IWRM). When scope for increasing water supply has become exhausted, another response to water demand pressure is water conservation – increasing water use efficiency or introducing water reuse at source. The speed and extent of any adaptation to water pressure varies between countries and their understanding of IWRM, and depends on the strength of various drivers such as the country's political economy, the technology available, and shock events (Molle, 2003). Taking India as an example, the World Bank expects that demand for water for industrial uses and energy production will grow at an annual rate of 4.2% up to 2025 (World Bank, 1998), even though the projected population growth rate will decline from 1.4% to 0.9% between 2006 and 2025 (GoI, 2006).
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Conventional approaches to mapping poverty and vulnerability rely on statistical techniques for analyzing national census results in conjunction with much smaller auxiliary data sets. The resulting low-resolution maps offer only limited explanations for the causes of poverty/vulnerability, especially those related to the physical environment. Scientists have mapped land cover performance (or “land degradation” or “desertification”) on national scales using satellite remote sensing, but their efforts have rarely been incorporated into poverty/vulnerability mapping endeavors. This paper describes an alternative, comparatively low-cost approach that could make possible poverty/vulnerability mapping at high resolution across the inhabited territories of entire Sahelian countries. The new hybrid approach calls for close collaboration between a team of remote sensing scientists and a team of field workers engaged in social science, earth science, and biomedical research. Maps produced through this approach should help in targeting programs to alleviate poverty and could improve the efficacy of famine early warning and mitigation.
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Domestic firewood collection is compared across study sites in Malawi and Tanzania. The study focuses on accommodation of infant-care within wood collection, the influence of family size on firewood demand and the contribution of girls to firewood collection. Malawian women carry their infants on wood collection trips. The Tanzanian women leave their infants behind. The shorter trips of the Tanzanian women, and the ready availability of alloparental care may facilitate this. Mean per capita wood consumption was similar across the two sites. However, a marked economy of scale was evident in wood use at the Malawi site. Girls at both sites assist with wood collection. Their contribution appears more than sufficient to compensate for their own wood use. Having a daughter therefore need not represent a net energetic cost to a woman in terms of firewood acquisition and consumption. While family size and structure appear to influence firewood consumption and acquisition, differences in the environment between the two sites may underpin much of the variation. The longer journey times, heavier load, and less frequent journeys undertaken by Malawian women may reflect the steep terrain and risks associated with firewood collection within a national park.
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The gap between gender policy as adopted by governments and donors, and the inclusion of gender issues in energy planning practice at project level, is great, despite the fact that there are many manuals available which demonstrate how to go about gathering gender-based data and analysing this. This gap is partly due to difficulties in translating policy into achievable objectives at project level, which in itself is due to differences of opinion on what the motive is for including gender as a variable. Three main motivations are identified, and is it shown that once this has been done, the choice of planning tools, instruments and approaches for gender sensitive energy project planning falls more easily into place.
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In the early 1970s a general disenchantment with development efforts in Third World countries led to a search for alternative development strategies and a growing awareness that women, like the poor, were peripheral to the development efforts of major aid donors. In 1972 the United Nations designated 1975 as International Women's Year, highlighting the need to involve women in issues of economic development. During the past 20 years the 'women in development' approach, which seeks to recognise and integrate women in aid policies and programmes, has been incorporated into the aid practice of most development agencies. This paper traces the efforts of large aid agencies over the past two decades to integrate women into their aid programmes and discusses the main limitations and weaknesses of the WID approach.
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Many agricultural populations are subject to chronic or seasonal undernutrition, reproductive women and children often being most vulnerable. This paper presents quantitative and qualitative data on food consumption, food distribution practices, food taboos, garden sizes and work effort to show how Lese horticulturalist women living in the Ituri Forest of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo attempt to alleviate nutritional stress. The Lese experience an annual hunger season when approximately one quarter of the population suffer from energy deficiency. Nutritional intake is also compromised by a complex system of food taboos against meat from wild forest animals. Anthropometric data collected over several years suggest that Lese women suffer from nutritional stress more than men during the hunger season. They also have more food taboos particularly during pregnancy and lactation. Their low fertility is compounded by nutritional stress. Despite these inequities, Lese women use several strategies to improve their food intake. Since they are responsible for all household cooking, they manipulate food portions. During the hunger season, they snack frequently, and increase their consumption of palliative foods. Women with more food taboos plant larger gardens to supplement their diet with vegetable foods. Although this results in their consumption of more daily protein, they work harder compared to women with smaller gardens. Women cheat in their adherence to specific food taboos by actively discounting them, or by eating prophylactic plants that supposedly prevent the consequences (usually illness) of eating tabooed foods. In addition, women resort to subterfuge to access desirable resources. Lese women do not reduce work effort during the hunger season, but adapt physiologically by reducing resting metabolic rates during periods of weight loss. These results point to the ability of Lese women to minimize the ecological and cultural constraints on their nutrition. More data, however, are required to assess the long-term effectiveness of these strategies.
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Land redistribution is being characterized as poverty alleviation for rural South Africa. This paper argues that the poor have less inclination to move the distances demanded by the redistribution, have less labor available for farming, are less able to afford the program’s up-front costs, have fewer farming-specific skills, and have less capacity to cope with agricultural risk. Therefore, the poor are likely to be rationed out of participation in the program, and the land redistribution will have little effect on rural poverty, unless demand-led targeting is dropped and ancillary programs are employed to make land redistribution attractive for the poor.
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Underlying this article is a recognition of the relationship between poverty and poor health and nutrition and a realization that poverty does not affect al/ the members of a household uniformly. We believe that households as a whole do not operate to promote the common good of all their members. Within conditions of chronic resource scarcity, some family members consistently fare worse than others. It is, therefore, necessary to identify intra-household factors that influence health and nutrition behaviour. Given the fact that household behaviour is determined by a number of factors, several types of intervention are proposed. To improve the chances of lasting success for development programmes, we advocate designing and testing educational messages that address all aspects of household behaviour.
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The relationship between women's social status and the survival chances of their children is explained and illustrated with examples. When women (and girls) have low status, relatively little social investment is made in them, and this is reflected in girls' and boys' differential mortality rates. Several health-related social investment indicators are given, and matched against children's mortality patterns by ecological regions of Africa and Asia. The cultural propensity to invest in girls (nutrition, education, etc.) and their resultant survival chances, are explained by ecology which in past centuries has largely determined agricultural economies that either had a high demand for female labour or did not. In the former, women are more likely to control the wealth they produce and use it for transactions that put others in their social debt, thus growing in social power. Policy implications of planning and implementing primary health care in these different types of societies are explored.
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