#9: The end of the beginning

Alas, this is the final post of my ‘Water in Africa: A Feminist Perspective’ blog. Here, I will summarise the discussions I have proposed over the last few months, reflecting upon what I have learnt and what more there is to learn about water and women’s development in Africa.  

 

Since my first blog post, I have been determined to embody the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) ethos to “leave no one behind” by amplifying the matters concerning women and water development in Africa. I referenced the SDGs, especially SDG 5 (achieving gender equality) and SDG 6 (available adequate water supplies) as being critical to women’s development. These goals, and a multitude of the other SDGs, acted as a base throughout my blog when analysing strategies that sought to improve water and sanitation facilities in Africa.  By accompanying my posts with diverse rural and urban case studies, I aimed to represent Africa as a diverse socioeconomic and environmental landscape, in contrast to a stereotypical homogenised representation of Africa as critiqued by Binyavanga Wainaina. 

 

Importantly, through studying the ‘Water and Development module’, researching and writing for my blog, I have learnt that the problems associated with accessibility to adequate water and sanitation must be viewed from a feminist lens. In implementing strategies to alleviate these problems, too much power is often placed on infrastructural developments, such as the construction of water sources and toilets. These developments fail to focus on deeper gendered issues intrinsically linked to pervasive sociocultural norms (Amantia, 2014). Development initiatives must move beyond improvements to just increase economic growth or to tick off an NGOs checkbox through tokenism. Hence, regardless of these infrastructural improvements, development interventions need to focus on participatory methods, education and open dialogue with both men and women to challenge traditional gender stereotypes. These interventions will move towards the ‘promotion and expansion of capabilities’ which lead to sustainable development for women, effectively targeting the UN SDGs (Sen, 1999).

 

My mind has been opened to the shocking and multidimensional issues experienced by women, not only in Africa but worldwide. Although this is my final post, my interest in the water and development topic and its intersection with gender will continue to grow in and beyond my studies. I hope that readers of the blog have learnt something which they can use towards recognising and fighting for equality for women. This is the end of the beginning of a much-needed movement towards development for women and its intersection with the water agenda. 

Thank you for reading!

Sophia