CASE STUDY EVALUATION FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE MULTI VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY PILOT PROGRAM FOR A SECOND GENERATION COMMUNITY BASED WATER SUPPLY PROJECT

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1 MULTI VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY PILOT PROGRAM FOR A SECOND GENERATION COMMUNITY BASED WATER SUPPLY PROJECT FOR EXPANSION OF EXISTING WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS ACTIVITY

2 GENDER PERSPECTIVE MULTI VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY PILOT PROGRAM FOR A SECOND GENERATION COMMUNITY BASED WATER SUPPLY PROJECT FOR EXPANSION OF EXISTING WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS ACTIVITY INDONESIA INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE November 2010

3 INDONESIA INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE This document has been published by the Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative (IndII), an Australian Government funded project designed to promote economic growth in Indonesia by enhancing the relevance, quality and quantum of infrastructure investment. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australia Indonesia Partnership or the Australian Government. Please direct any comments or questions to the IndII Director, tel. +62 (21) , fax +62 (21) Website: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report has been prepared by Gaynor Dawson, International Gender Specialist, who was engaged under the Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative (IndII), funded by AusAID, as part of this Activity. Any errors of fact or interpretation are solely those of the author.

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5 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION... 1 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND... 2 CHAPTER 3: KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY... 3 CHAPTER 4: CHALLENGES FOR IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY... 4 CHAPTER 5: GENDER EQUALITY OUTCOMES OUTCOME INDICATOR: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS WITH REGARD TO GENDER EQUALITY INCREASED OUTCOME INDICATOR: ATTITUDE TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IMPROVED OUTCOME INDICATOR: PRACTICES RELATED TO GENDER EQUALITY IMPROVED Increased access to information Participation in training Increased participation in management and decision making Services provided to the poor, including poor female headed households OUTCOME INDICATOR: POLICY, REGULATORY AND PROCEDURAL CHANGES TO IMPROVE GENDER EQUALITY INSTIGATED OUTCOME INDICATOR: PARTICIPANTS AND DECISION MAKERS KNOW THAT INDII HAS A GENDER STRATEGY WHICH REQUIRES GENDER EQUALITY TO BE ADDRESSED IN ITS ACTIVITIES... 9 CHAPTER 6: RECOMMENDATIONS i

6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Proportion of women and men in training... 7 Table 2. Percentage increase in women s participation in CBO management... 8 ii

7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION IndII s gender strategy provides the framework and plan for integrating gender equality in the design and implementation of IndII activities. The strategy is in line with AusAID s gender policy and GOI s gender mainstreaming regulations and the aims of its National Medium Term Development Plan. Indicators applied in this evaluation were: Knowledge and skills with regard to gender equality are increased Attitude towards gender equality is improved Gender equality practices are improved Policy, regulatory and procedural changes to improve and sustain gender equality have been put in place Counterparts/community representatives know that IndII has a gender strategy which requires gender equality to be addressed in its activities Improvements to gender equality are sustainable. 1

8 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND The project aims are to link 25 Community Based Organisations to credit financing through a commercial (micro-finance) bank; introduce private sector participation programs that will support the ability of CBOs to improve performance in two districts; and introduce service obligation agreements between local governments and CBOs with associated monitoring through benchmarking. It is a 12 month project expected to be completed in June The activity is classified as a Type D project according to IndII s gender strategy because of its community level focus and likely multiple gender equality aspects. Gender training was provided by IndII to some members of the consultant team, including the community facilitators, prior to their mobilisation in early June. Following the training, the consultants developed a gender responsive action plan (GRAP) appropriate to the steps and tasks they would undertake in implementing the project. Response to the GRAP by the East Java facilitator was that the GRAP was useful, though it needed adjusting to the situation and could not be applied everywhere. At the time of this case study, the project had identified 30 CBOs to participate in the project. Nine CBOs from West Java have been selected and 21 from East Java. In East Java, many of the CBOs were formed previously under the WSLIC program but in West Java most were formed under the local government with funding from the Local Government Budget (APBD) and National Government Budget (APBN). There were gender responsive aspects to WSLIC implementation based on its gender action plan but none that were known of in the local government funded CBOs. Activities which had been implemented at the time of the evaluation focused on capacity building of CBOs to prepare them to access credit to improve their water supply systems. Institutional and Community Development, Technical training and Financial training had been provided to CBO representatives to assist them to become legal entities and to develop their investment proposals for development of their water supply systems. The organisational constitutions (AD/ART) were being prepared with the assistance of the consultants or had already been agreed. There had been limited socialisation activities involving communities. Five CBOs (19% of the total of 26 CBOs which have submitted draft proposals) were visited and discussions held with committee members, consumers and village heads. Existing CBO piped water infrastructure such as pipes, meters and taps were observed at selected houses in each village visited. 2

9 CHAPTER 3: KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY CHAPTER 3: KEY ACHIEVEMENTS IN IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY Women s involvement in CBO committees increased: The project has increased the numbers and proportion of women in the CBOs. Despite the fact that all the committees and their members were in place prior to the implementation of the project, the community facilitators have managed to encourage 6 committees to add additional women members, 5 in East Java and 1 in West Java. In addition, in 6 CBOs in East Java, women who had been committee members originally but who had dropped out of their involvement leaving men to run the CBOs, had been motivated by the facilitator to take up their roles again. Institutionalisation of increased participation of women in committees: Where an organisational constitution (AD/ART) is not yet in place, the project is endeavouring to include a clause to state that women and men should be given equal opportunity to be selected on the executive (pengurus) of the CBO. Where communities agree to having a quota, a minimum quota of 30% women members of the executive will be included in the clauses. 3

10 CHAPTER 4: CHALLENGES FOR IMPROVING GENDER EQUALITY Culturally, men are seen as the heads of household, the household s representative in public and as the leaders of the community. Women are viewed and tend to view themselves as being primarily concerned with managing the home and looking after children although many also worked in income earning jobs. They often say that they are shy to take on public roles and be involved in decision making. Some also said that they were too busy with their domestic and income earning work. Nevertheless, there are some changes to these norms with women increasingly being elected to leadership positions such as village heads and camats. Within the project villages, one of the villages is headed by a woman in East Java (Wagir). The cultural norms which place women in follower roles to men appear stronger in West Javanese/Sundanese culture than in East Java. Women were sometimes reluctant to be involved in project activities because of the demands on their time of their domestic responsibilities and their income earning work. Many women interviewed in East Java and some in West Java were factory workers. Most other projects that the participating communities had been involved in, with the exception of WSLIC in East Java, had had no requirement for gender equality so the communities had little previous information or experience in increasing women s involvement especially in decision making. 4

11 CHAPTER 5: GENDER EQUALITY OUTCOMES CHAPTER 5: GENDER EQUALITY OUTCOMES 5.1 OUTCOME INDICATOR: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS WITH REGARD TO GENDER EQUALITY INCREASED Finding: There is evidence of increased basic knowledge and understanding about gender equality amongst village level decision makers involved with the project. Participants interviewed stated that the Institutional and Community Empowerment training raised the need to improve gender equality and increase the involvement of women in CBO committees. The project s facilitators followed this matter up after the training with requests that more women were involved as members of the CBO committees. The project facilitators have taken opportunities to raise gender equality issues with village leaders and CBO committees. 5.2 OUTCOME INDICATOR: ATTITUDE TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IMPROVED Finding: There is a growing supportive attitude to improving gender equality through the activity although the consultants have to continue to remind and encourage community leaders about the need for gender equality and its benefits for the community. The consultants have informed decision makers in the community and CBOs that gender equality, especially in participation, is a requirement of the activity. Informal efforts by the facilitators have also been made to influence men to support initiatives to increase gender equality in the CBOs but the facilitators said that they have to continuously remind decision makers about the gender equality principles of the activity. Nevertheless, during the interviews there was expression by male and female community leaders of the need to enable both women and men to be involved in the activity and to work together. Respondents in Sumber Agung stated that it was good to have requirements in a project to ensure that both women and men were involved. The male members of the CBO in the village had taken the initiative to ask a woman to become the secretary. In West Java, there was less evidence of a supportive attitude to gender equality amongst the people interviewed. Stereotypes in roles are still evident with women involved in health activities related to water supply and men being on the CBO technical teams which respond to complaints and make repairs to the system. Nevertheless in many of the villages women expressed an interest in being on the technical teams to fix the system during the day and, in Wagir, men were interested to have more involvement in health and hygiene activities. Some men said that they would be happy to have women on the technical team but 5

12 would be embarrassed if the women had to do physically arduous work. Women were taking on responsibilities such as meter reading and payment collection. 5.3 OUTCOME INDICATOR: PRACTICES RELATED TO GENDER EQUALITY IMPROVED Increased access to information Finding: More work needs to be done to ensure that in all villages in the project, women in the community have equal access to information with men. Consultation meetings regarding agreement to participate in the project and investments, contribution and tariffs have been held. The consultants encouraged the responsible village organisations to invite women to the meetings but with mixed results. In some meetings there were no women and yet in others there were up to 30% women. Reports did not provide information as to whether the time or location of meetings had a bearing on the proportion of women who attended or whether there were other factors. The consultants have encouraged community decision makers to select appropriate channels to ensure women have equal access to information (see Monthly Report May 2010). However, the outcome of this has not been fully tested. In Wagir, the village head stated that information about the project activities would be conveyed through the various levels of village government to the neighbourhood level where the heads of household would be called to be given the information. This excludes the majority of women from direct access to information because they are not household heads and their husbands will represent them at the meetings. During the meeting in Wagir, women listened intently to the community facilitator explaining the project and there were signs that they were not aware of many of its aspects compared with the men who were present Participation in training Finding: The proportions of women participants in the Institutional and Community Empowerment and Finance trainings were higher than the proportion of women in the CBO committees (see Table 2). The implementing consultants noted that women who attended the Finance training were more capable. This reflects an overall impression from the case studies that it is usually only the most able and skilled women who are selected to participate in training and leadership positions. In comparison, less capable men are frequently chosen. The consultant has worked to encourage women s increased selection for participation in all training activities, including in the technical training. Those making the selection at community level were encouraged by the facilitators to ensure that women had the opportunity to participate. 6

13 CHAPTER 5: GENDER EQUALITY OUTCOMES Table 1. Proportion of women and men in training Training East Java West Java % women % men % women % men Institutional & community empowerment Finance Technical Data derived from consultants monthly reports East Java had higher proportions of women for the training in Institutional and Community Empowerment and Finance compared with West Java. Reasons for this could be cultural factors and also the ability and enthusiasm of the respective community facilitators to encourage the selection of women. Currently there are no women on any CBO technical teams and no women attended the Technical training. However, women who were interviewed in the field frequently stated that they were interested in being on the technical teams and ensuring that the system was working because they were the ones who most needed reliable access to water at the house. The education levels and quality of the women training participants in the Finance training was found by the consultants to be significantly higher than male participants Increased participation in management and decision making Finding: There has been success in increasing the numbers of women members of a number of existing CBOs and in reinstating previously inactive women CBO members to their positions. Overall, the consultant has worked to increase the number of women members of committees in 20% of the CBOs (6 of the 30 CBOs) initially selected to participate in the activity. In East Java, 5 of the 21 CBOs invited a woman to join their existing committee members. Most of these positions concerned the financial management of the committees. In addition, in some CBOs in East Java, women had been members but were not active. These CBOs were in fact run by men and the women members were not encouraged to be involved. Six women have become active again as a result of the clarification of their jobs and responsibilities within the CBO by the facilitator. Most of these women were secretaries and treasurers. In West Java, 1 of the 9 CBOs in the project had invited a woman to become a committee member. 7

14 Table 2. Percentage increase in women s participation in CBO management % CBOs where the number of women has increased % of women to men as members of CBO committee at project commencement (excludes health cadres 1 ) % women to men as members of CBO committee by end October 2010 (excludes health cadres) Women Men Women Men East Java 24% (5) 8% (15) 92% (174) 10% (20) 90% (174) West Java 11% (1) 8% (4) 92% (44) 10% (5) 90% (44) Overall 20% (6) 8% (19) 92% (218) 10% (25) 90% (218) Derived from data provided by the implementing consultants 1. The second generation piped water project does not include health activities Services provided to the poor, including poor female headed households Finding: The project currently supports the stand taken by many CBOs to service poor and disadvantaged households. It is unclear how the need for the CBO to repay loans might affect the cost of services to the poor or the inclusion of poor households. Three of the 5 CBOs visited stated that they had explicit policies and practices to provide for poor households, including poor elderly and female headed households, such as enabling them to connect for free or to repay the connection fee in instalments. The cost of water rose according to the amount of water used by the household thus enabling many poorer households who did not consume large amounts of water to pay less. In one village there was a flat fee for less well off customers. These approaches to support poor and disadvantaged households are not an outcome of the project because they are already in place but are supported by the project. 5.4 OUTCOME INDICATOR: POLICY, REGULATORY AND PROCEDURAL CHANGES TO IMPROVE GENDER EQUALITY INSTIGATED Findings: Efforts are being made to include gender equality clauses in those organisational constitutions (AD/ART) which have not yet been finalised. The results of these efforts could not be assessed at the time of the study. 8

15 CHAPTER 5: GENDER EQUALITY OUTCOMES 5.5 OUTCOME INDICATOR: PARTICIPANTS AND DECISION MAKERS KNOW THAT INDII HAS A GENDER STRATEGY WHICH REQUIRES GENDER EQUALITY TO BE ADDRESSED IN ITS ACTIVITIES Finding: Decision makers are aware of gender equality requirements for the project although this has to be regularly brought to their attention by the facilitators. 9

16 CHAPTER 6: RECOMMENDATIONS Besides encouraging the invitation of both women and men to meetings, village authorities are made more aware of the need to ensure that socialisation activities and project information reaches women and men through appropriate channels and in media forms that both can access. Put increased effort into ensuring that decision makers understand the gender equality commitments of the project and the benefits of including both women and men who have different experiences, skills and ideas in activities. In West Java, in particular, male decision makers in the community need to be convinced of the benefits of increasing the number of women involved in the project s activities. Develop strategies to increase women s confidence to be involved in activities and to ensure that meetings and other activities are at times and locations which are suitable for women. In West Java, in particular, there needs to be thought given to how women s confidence and interest in being involved can be increased. 10