Water and Gender in Africa

As has been highlighted in the comments of several of my previous blog posts, one of the biggest barriers to gender equality is financial inequality.  As was stated by Asongu et al. in their paper " Inequality and gender economic inclusion: The moderating role of financial access in Sub-Saharan Africa ", 'women in the sub-[Saharan] region are the poorest and least included in the formal economy in the world and the exclusion of women represents a significant waste of development resources. No society can sustainably develop (politically, economically and socially) if the majority of its population is excluded from contributing to economic development ' (2020).  In fact, 'the cost of gender exclusion in the sub-region is estimated at about 2.5 trillion USD' ( ibid ). This amount of money would make a huge difference to achieving targets 6.1 and 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), referring to access to drinking water and sanitation. In fact, a Unice...

Having extended the debates surrounding water and sanitation in Africa in this week's seminar and lecture, I wanted to look more at a specific initiative that is being used to combat the problem of period poverty: reusable sanitary products.  Around the world, there has been a boom in the sale of reusable sanitary products; an affordable and sustainable alternative to existing disposable products which produce huge amounts of plastic waste and are less economical. I believe that not only are reusable sanitary products a more eco-friendly alternative to existing products, but they could play a crucial role in the global fight against period poverty.  Due to the longer-lasting nature of reusable sanitary products, they are a much more cost-effective and efficient means of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) to those who may not be able to afford or have consistent access to disposable sanitary products. The effects of period poverty in Africa are felt most strongly in rural areas...

This week, the lecture focus was sanitation. As a result, I wanted to look into the term "period poverty". I have heard this term countless times and yet I have never looked into how this issue plays out in real time.  One of the definitions for 'period poverty' or menstrual health management (MHM) was not having access to soap and water to be able to wash during menstruation, as well as not having access to facilities where menstrual products can be disposed of correctly ( Tull, 2019 ). Period poverty is therefore clearly related to the problem of access to clean water.  Research by UNICEF has highlighted a shocking statistic that '65% of females in Kibera... had traded sex for sanitary pads due to the prevalence of period poverty and the shame, stigma and public health misinformation which surrounds menstruation' ( ibid ). Though it is important to acknowledge that this statistic is only indicative of the wider issue (and UNICEF Kenya stated that this inform...

Having looked in my past two blog posts at broad issues relating to gender and water across Africa, this week I wanted to focus in on a specific case study. Oladosu Adenike, an author and self-proclaimed " ecofeminist " who has featured in my previous two blog posts, champions the experiences of those from her region of Lake Chad, and so this is where I would like to focus this blog post.  The region of Lake Chad covers the countries of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad and has been an area particularly affected by the activity of insurgence group Boko Haram, a feature which makes it a poignant case study in relation to gender. Boko Haram activity has resulted in around '192,000 refugees across the Lake Chad Basin and 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria and tens of thousands in Cameroon' ( Oyewole, 2015 ).  The lake itself, situated between the Sahel and Sahara deserts is 'prone to wide variation in area' due to fluctuation in desert rainfall, ...

COP26 , the upcoming climate conference being held in Glasgow between 31st October and 12th November, provides an interesting opportunity to examine the role that women are playing in Africa's current fight on climate change.  In my previous blog post, I looked at Oladosu Adenike's Guardian  article entitled " It makes economic sense for women to lead the fight against the climate crisis ", in which she stated that women in sub-Saharan Africa specifically are 'bearing the brunt of a crisis they did nothing to cause' which is the quote I would like to open this second blog post with (2021).  Urmilla Bob and Agnes Babugura, both South African academics, wrote an interesting overview of the relationship between gender and climate change in Africa in their paper entitled " Contextualising and conceptualising gender and climate change in Africa " (2014). They highlight the fact that it was at COP13 in Bali, 2007, where the Global Gender and Climate Allia...

When beginning my research for this blog, looking at the relationship between  water and gender in Africa, I was astounded by how much material was already out there on this topic; a fact which made choosing a starting point for this blog a difficult task.  Before even beginning to think about the theme of water and gender, I read Binyavanga Wainaina’s article entitled “ How to Write About Africa ” (2005). This was an eye-opening read and highlighted countless mistakes that are commonly made when writing about Africa, many of which I’m sure I would have made as someone that has grown up in the UK knowing very little about the continent of Africa other than that which is filtered into mainstream media. Equally, the only insight I had into “Water and Development in Africa” came from the countless appeals seen on TV during events such as Comic Relief and Red Nose Day. My lack of understanding and insight into this topic was a huge contributing factor in choosing this module and t...