The slippery slope of participatory development

As global water insecurity increases, good water governance is key in mitigating its effects. Effective water governance must incorporate multiple stakeholders to efficiently protect, allocate and share water resources between people and the environment. Women are deeply involved in daily decisions of water use for productive and reproductive work, therefore contribution of their knowledge and understanding can be key to effective water governance. 

Women collecting water from water pump in Malawi

It is important to distinguish the slight difference between water management and governance; management of water is something women do daily, based on gendered division of labour on a household level, however governance is about who holds the power to make decisions, who has the voice and means to impact water decision making. Therefore, it is crucial that women are involved in the governance of water, to tackle power imbalances and exclusion of women in decision making. This in turn is crucial for sustainable development of water resources, which can help in breaking cycles of poverty and reducing effects of water insecurity and adaptability to drought periods. Yet despite this, women are highly underrepresented in water governance and decision making at all levels. 

Does bottom-up always work?

Participatory development is a “bottom-up” approach that aims to incorporate all stakeholders and their voices in decisions and development initiatives over resources, which affect them. Participatory development can sometimes be obscure and while being “gender-aware”, it often omits relationships of power, social hierarchy and politics, which impede the involvement of women in water governance and development. Over the years, development organisations have been more inclusive and sensitive to gender equity in water management but development projects must consider local dynamics of gender and power and reposition women and their roles in everyday life. 

Local water governance in a peri-urban setting 

In an urban settlement in Blantyre city in Malawi, a legal, community-based Water User Association (WUA) in 2010 was created to tackle the issues of clean, reliable, and safe water supply in high- density informal settlement. The water is made available by kiosks and boreholes and was introduced in order to regulate the pricing and politics of water in the area. It was promoted as being socially just and inclusive, where the community could discuss, and where women could be heard, empowered, and included in decision making. However, becoming a member of the Association was difficult, and while being promoted as a bottom-up participatory development scheme, most decisions were made by the board, instead of the community. The formation and management was strongly influenced by the local MPs, so despite the promotion of the WUA as apolitical, they hinge almost entirely on political power. Most importantly, the inclusion of women in the decision making was unsuccessful due to difficulties in gaining membership, as well as lack of a safe and enabling environment for women to express their needs and ideas, based on local customs and norms.

Women at water point in Blantyre


Why can bottom-up be counter-intuitive? 

I chose this example specifically to slightly scrutinise the nature of a bottom-up approach and how it can sometimes entrench and perpetuate the same problematic ideas that it is aiming to tackle. The Association is a form of water governance, however complexities within its legal structure and obscurity made it difficult for women to engage or even have knowledge about the decision-making process. It is also difficult to remove the importance of politics in bottom-up approaches- political influence can make or break development. 

Social norms and gender norms must be accounted for in water development projects, to create spaces for women to freely expresses their concerns, ideas and views, without shame or barriers to power or voice. These indirect effects of bottom-up approaches can inhibit the inclusion of women and thus affect their participation in development. It is of great importance to consider local gender dynamics in order to successfully incorporate them into water politics and governance. Gender injustice will continue, if development does not prioritise women in these discourses. 


Comments

  1. ArzooDecember 6, 2021 at 5:33 AM

    Hi Wiktoria! This was a very good read critiquing bottom-up approaches to water management and governance, especially because in recent decades participatory development is promoted as the solution for equity and inclusivity issues, and this blog deconstructs very well why this is actually not the case. Do you know of any bottom-up approaches to water management and governance in Africa where they done participatory development well? I look forward to your response! :)

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