Systematic re-review of WASH trials to assess women's engagement in intervention delivery and research activities

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions significantly reduce health risks in low- and middle-income countries. Many rely on women, but the extent of women's engagement remains undocumented. Here we conducted a re-review of papers from two systematic reviews that assessed the effectiv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature water 2024-01, Vol.2 (9), p.827-836
Main Authors: Caruso, Bethany A, Ballard, April M, Sobolik, Julia, Patrick, Madeleine, Dsouza, Janice, Sinharoy, Sheela S, Cumming, Oliver, Wolf, Jennyfer, Ray, Isha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children & youth
Diarrhea
Drinking water
Gender
Gender inequality
Health risks
Households
Hygiene
Intervention
Respiratory diseases
Respiratory tract infection
Responsiveness
Reviews
Sanitation
Systematic review
Time use
Water
Water treatment
Women
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Summary:Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions significantly reduce health risks in low- and middle-income countries. Many rely on women, but the extent of women's engagement remains undocumented. Here we conducted a re-review of papers from two systematic reviews that assessed the effectiveness of water, sanitation and/or handwashing with soap interventions on diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections to assess women's roles in WASH research and intervention activities. A total of 133 studies were included. Among studies that specified gender, women were the most sought-after group for engagement in research (  = 91/132; 68.9%) and intervention (  = 49/120; 40.8%) activities. Reporting time burden for research (  = 1; 1%) and intervention activities (  = 3; 2.5%) was rare. All interventions were classified as gender unequal (36.7%) or gender unaware (63.3%) according to the World Health Organization Gender Responsiveness Assessment Scale, indicating exploitative engagement. Women play a critical but instrumentalized role in WASH, and both research and interventions need to change to enable, and not hinder, gender equality.
ISSN:2731-6084
2731-6084
DOI:10.1038/s44221-024-00299-2