This note is based on the first Water for Women Fund Regional Learning Event held in Nepal in 2019, titled ‘Systems strengthening for inclusive WASH – leaving no one behind’. The Event was jointly convened by the Water for Women Fund, together with SNV and gathered nearly 50 participants from Water for Women Fund projects and partners across seven countries. The note shares learning between Civil Society Organisations on new engagement with sexual and gender minorities in other country programs. The learning systems thinking provides a powerful way to address SGM inclusion in WASH in the context of broader patterns of exclusion.
Who might find this resource useful and why?
Who: WASH programme managers, implementing partners, researchers, gender advisors, policy makers, rights holder organisations.
Why: Transgender people are vulnerable and marginalised in many spheres, including in the provision of water and sanitation. For instance the former Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, notes, “Access to sanitation, menstrual hygiene and toilets for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people and an increased risk of gender-based violence”. There is a gap in what WASH professionals know about sexual and gender minority inclusion in WASH programmes. This paper provides insights from initiatives attempting to include transgender people in WASH programming, including Nepal, and reflections and recommendations to guide future practice.
