Publications

Globally, women and girls often bear the responsibilities for WASH, including water collection, cleaning, cooking, and childcare. And consequently, poor WASH disproportionately affects women and girls.

Over the last ten years, researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Futures-University of Technology Sydney (ISF-UTS) have been exploring the connections between gender and WASH. Qualitative evidence has shown that transformed gender dynamics are fundamental to inclusive and sustained WASH improvements. Likewise, that improvements in WASH can be a pathway to strengthened gender equality

Building on this qualitative evidence, a team at ISF-UTS recently developed a tool to explore the connections between gender equality and WASH. This tool is called the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Gender Equality Measure – the WASH-GEM. The WASH-GEM can describe these connections and evaluate changes over time.

The WASH-GEM was developed and piloted in 2019-2021 with iDE in Cambodia and SNV in Nepal, within the DFAT Water for Women Fund. The conceptual model for the WASH-GEM was developed through a collaborative process. It was informed by a review of relevant literature and through engagement with practitioners and specialists in the fields of gender, WASH, and international development. The tool has been tested and refined through five rounds of collaborative piloting in multiple countries.

Quantifying participant distress: Validity and applicability of a distress measure to evaluate harm in quantitative assessments

This journal article introduces the Distress-4 measure - a validated tool to track distress for participants of surveys on sensitive topics. We present the measure's conceptual and empirical development and examine the validity of the measure through data from Cambodia and Nepal (n = 4,674) using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for formative measurement model assessment. 

The water, sanitation and hygiene gender equality measure (WASH-GEM): Conceptual foundations and domains of change

This journal article explores five design considerations critical for the robust design of quantitative measures of social change: conceptual framing; measurement focus; measurement context; sectoral scope; and evaluative scope. The paper then defines the WASH-GEM’s five domains of measurement: Resources; Agency; Critical consciousness; Wellbeing; and Structures, and discusses how we balanced theoretical integrity with practical application and relevance to WASH. 

A partnership approach to the design and use of a quantitative measure: Co-producing and piloting the WASH gender equality measure in Cambodia and Nepal

This article explores three dimensions of the WASH-GEM co-production and implementation: (i) the role of partnerships in co-production processes for bringing contextual and practitioner knowledge into measure development; (ii) selected results from the validation pilot in Cambodia and Nepal (n = 3,056) that demonstrate ways in which the measure can inform WASH programming through analysis at different levels and with different co-variants; and (iii) the collaborative process of translating research into programming.

Investigating impacts of gender-transformative interventions in water, sanitation, and hygiene: Structural validity, internal reliability and measurement invariance of the water, sanitation, and hygiene–Gender equality measure (WASH-GEM)

Starting from a strong conceptual foundation–this article demonstrates the WASH-GEM’s empirical rigor in balance with practical considerations. We present the measure’s staged development; examine its structural validity, internal consistency, and measurement invariance from an empirical basis; providing analysis from concurrent validation studies in Cambodia and Nepal (n = 3056). 

Gender equality approaches in water, sanitation, and hygiene programs: Towards gender-transformative practice

Adopting a feminist sensemaking approach drawing on literature and practice, this inquiry sought to document and critically reflect on the conceptualization and innovation of gender-transformative thinking in the Australian Government's Water for Women Fund. The illustrative examples provide practical guidance for WASH practitioners integrating gendered thinking into programs, projects, and policies. We offer a working definition for gender-transformative WASH and reflect on how the acknowledgment, consideration, and transformation of gender inequalities can lead to simultaneously strengthened WASH outcomes and improved gender equality. 

Gender and water, sanitation, and hygiene: Three opportunities to build from recent reporting on global progress, 2000–2022

In July 2023, the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) released a progress report on household drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) (2000–2022) with a special focus on gender. The report presents international comparable estimates of WASH access in households at national, regional, and global levels and extends this analysis to address gendered aspects where data allows. In this Perspective, we commend this effort and highlight 3 opportunities we believe could stimulate further progress.