Peru: National Rural Water Supply and 69398 Sanitation Project (PRONASAR) PERU Project Team: Miguel Vargas Ramirez, Elizabeth Dasso Why? Water is generally a very scarce natural resource in the Andean region, where drinking and cooking represent the highest priorities, and in addition, irrigation represents a priority water use. It is also common that water availability decreases during parts of the year, which increase the difficulties of supplying water to the family. Women haul water, bathe children, wash clothes, and cook. Promotion of good hygiene habits among family members depends on women. Women are the primary beneficiaries of Water and Sanitation projects and are the most interested in the improvement and maintenance of these systems. In spite of that, women are not consulted in decision making processes; their concerns, ideas and necessities are not taken into account, and they are not trained in the use of the systems. What? The development objective of PRONASAR is to increase the sustainable use of new and rehabilitated water supply and sanitation facilities in rural areas and small towns while emphasizing improvement in hygiene practices and training in operation and maintenance. More specific objectives: • Implementing demand-responsive and sustainable basic water and/or sanitation services for approximately 1.3 million people in rural communities through the construction and/or rehabilitation of water points, piped systems and sanitation facilities as well as training in operation and management of water and sanitation facilities and extensive hygiene education; • Strengthening local communities' capacity to manage services, by (i) supporting an effective community participation process during the entire project cycle; (ii) introducing sound financial and economic principles to value water and sanitation services; and (iii) forming and training community-based water and sanitation committees (JASSs); • Strengthening municipal -district and provincial - level capacity to plan and oversee water and sanitation services to rural communities in a sustainable and cost effective way, including the use of private sector participation; • Strengthening central government capacity, specifically the Rural Water Department (Dirección General de Saneamiento Rural -DGSR) in the Vice Ministry of Water and Sanitation (VMS) to develop sector policies, legislation, and information databases for planning and oversight, especially those related to the provision of water and sanitation services to the poor in rural areas and small towns. How? In order to gather evidence on the contribution of a gender focus in Water and Sanitation Programs, the World Bank and PRONASAR decided to carry out two immediate tasks: (i) deliver a workshop to PRONASAR and contractors and supervision staff, where WB staff would transfer the Gender Toolkit in Lima; and (ii) to deliver a decentralized workshop on good practices in the water and sanitation community management in rural communities, addressed to JASS5 management, where the best experiences in gender would be awarded in Piura. Peru: National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PRONASAR) PERU Project Team: Miguel Vargas Ramirez, Elizabeth Dasso At the Lima workshop, World Bank staff trained specialists and NGOs in utilizing the toolkit on Gender from the Bank. The Piura workshop gathered 67 managers (62 percent males, 38 percent females) that represented 40 JASS, 52 percent of all the JASS in Piura and Ayacucho. Outcomes The main outcomes of the projects are: • Gender equity in the organization of the JASS, men and women participating in decision making, training activities, assuming leadership and positions in JASS. • Strengthening of a network of formal and informal institutions that would plan, install and provide maintenance of rural infrastructure in water and rural sanitation system working sustainable. • The population is organized around community-based water and sanitation administration committees (JASS). • Interventions responding to communities’ demands through their municipalities in four areas: (i) gender equity; (ii) environmental responsibility; (iii) demand-responsive approaches; and (iv) intercultural sensitivity. Lessons Learned • Identifying women’s roles and needs contributes to more equitable projects. The workshops helped participants understand the importance of women’s participation and education. They understand that involving women in decision making helps improve the quality of life. • Support trainings in gender equity following adequate schedules related to time and education levels of the population • Organizers need to provide more opportunities for women’s involvement in the JASS and to schedule convenient meeting times for participants: In spite of being direct beneficiaries, women don’t participate in the decision-making on water and sanitation projects. In addition, attendance doesn’t mean participation. Sometimes, women attend the meetings or serve on the board of directors but either they think they have little or nothing to say, or men think women don’t have anything interesting to say. • Women can become the watchdogs for monitoring and controlling projects: women can play an important role in enforcement and supervision of the works because they mobilize more, they have experience from their households in scarce resources management, and they are good at demanding quality from the systems as they are especially interested in quality. • More trainings involving men: for some male participants, these workshops constituted the first real opportunity to listen to women’s voices, needs and concerns, and they appreciated it. • Institutional capacity to align gender in policies needs to be strengthened: Strengthening local capacity, allocating financial resources, and using methodologies to address a gender vision help not only in the successful design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of the projects but also in the sustainability of the efforts in gender mainstreaming through the implementing agencies. • Monitoring and Evaluation need to be integrated in the projects in order to measure the advances in gender equality.