Measuring Empowerment in WASH: Policy Brief – Ghana

Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is critical for gender and social equality, including women’s empowerment. This is because in many low-and middle-income countries women do the majority of water collection and management work. Therefore, women are more prone to negative impacts, such as exposure to water-related disease, missed educational opportunities, and unrealised economic productivity. It is also important to consider that some women may have less say in decision making about WASH services in their households and communities. Although gender disparities related to poor WASH services are well known, there is a lack of widely used quantitative indicators to monitor empowerment in the WASH sector.