Barriers to women's participation, leadership, and empowerment in community-managed water and sanitation in rural Bolivia

• DOI: 10.2166/h2oj.2022.021
• Publication Date: 2022-09-12T13:48:10Z
• Authors: Leigh Hamlet; V. B. Gutierrez; A. Soto; S. Dickin
• Keywords: leadership; TC401-506; wash; Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes; 0207 environmental engineering; 1. No poverty; 02 engineering and technology; 15. Life on land; 16. Peace & justice; 6. Clean water; River, lake, and water-supply engineering (General); empowerment; 5. Gender equality; 11. Sustainability; bolivia; women; TD201-500; community-based management

Abstract Enabling women to be meaningful participants and leaders in rural community-based water sanitation governance remains a challenge. While the benefits of barriers women's participation leadership have been reported on, there is limited understanding role empowerment addressing these challenges. To help bridge this knowledge gap, we used household survey measure men Tupiza watershed, Bolivia, key informant interviews with identify leadership. Overall, among respondents, fewer than were disempowered. Community-level factors, especially those related comfort speaking community meetings reporting service problems, contributed more disempowerment, as did household-level factors work balance input into decisions about who participates activities. Among interviewed leaders, many felt their positions costly households challenges obtaining technical training local government assistance, which not only disempowered them but also was likely tied poor delivery health outcomes communities. We discuss implications our findings for Bolivia future research opportunities.