Publications
Knowledge and Learning is an integral part of the Water for Women approach. It positions the Fund as an important contributor to global knowledge development and sharing in climate-resilient, inclusive WASH, and is a key priority for all partners. Fund-generated evidence on innovative and sustainable approaches supports partners to share learning and program for long-term impact. It also provides the basis to influence sector-wide WASH policy and practice globally.
August 2024
Menstrual Health: A Critical Cornerstone of Community and Climate Resilience
Climate change is threatening the ability of women, girls, and gender-diverse people to manage their menstrual health (MH) adequately. Improved access to WASH is central to achieving equitable MH for all, but cross sectoral investments are needed to create meaningful change – especially through climate policies, programs and finance.
This learning brief aims to support WASH sector actors to link MH more effectively to climate resilience concerns and make the case for climate financing of MH interventions to ensure that all people who menstruate can manage their MH effectively, despite environmental and political volatility.
May 2024
Our Resilience Builds Community Resilience: Transformative Approaches for SGM Inclusion
Across Asia and the Pacific, sexual and gender minority (SGM) communities face violence, discrimination and marginalisation in everyday life – meaning they are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and face unique challenges in regard to WASH.
Drawing upon examples of work undertaken across Water for Women, this learning brief highlights transformative and strengths-based approaches to the inclusion of SGMs within WASH and climate resilience-related work. It is intended to support WASH organisations in expanding SGM inclusion and equity in climate-resilient WASH interventions.
July 2023
Quality, Accessible and Safe Healthcare: Lessons on Strengthening WASH in Healthcare Facilities
This report highlights the achievements of Water for Women civil society organisation (CSO) partners in improving WASH in healthcare facilities (HCFs) in eight Asia-Pacific countries, including Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
It draws out lessons learnt from partners' practical experience and research across the Fund. The recommendations should inform CSOs’ future project designs and advocacy to important sector actors to improve support for universal coverage and access to WASH in healthcare facilities by 2030.
May 2023
WASH in Schools: Insights from Water for Women
This learning brief synthesises and shares lessons from Water for Women’s investment in water, sanitation and hygiene in schools as part of 20 projects led by civil society organisation partners, with a mix of support for improved WASH facilities and activities aimed at WASH behaviour change.
Combined, these activities reached more than 600 schools across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Vietnam.
February 2023
Climate Finance for the WASH sector in Asia-Pacific
Accessing climate adaptation financing for WASH projects has been a challenge for civil society organisations due to a number of procedural, design and systemic barriers. To address this challenge, a consortium Water for Women partners has developed a series of briefs on climate finance for the WASH sector in the Asia and Pacific. The Pacific regional brief is now available along with five country-specific briefs.
February 2023
Environmental Indicators of Climate Risks to Inclusive WASH
This learning resource summarises a range of indicators that WASH service authorities and their civil society organisations (CSOs) can use to monitor the key risks of six climate hazards to household WASH access. Specifically, the indicators pertain to changes in the natural or built environment that may be outside the sphere of control of a WASH program.
February 2023
Stronger systems for inclusive and sustainable WASH
This systems strengthening series shares lessons from Water for Women about how CSOs and research organisations can contribute to stronger systems for inclusive and sustainable WASH.
December 2022
Disability-inclusive WASH:
Practice within Water for Women
This learning brief explores key lessons learnt from implementing disability-inclusive WASH projects and research across Water for Women – in particular, strategies that contribute to meaningful participation and equality of outcomes.
October 2022
Knowledge and Practice Gaps in Climate Resilient Inclusive WASH
This report outlines the unique strengths and contributions that Water for Women can make to building climate change resilience and adaptation in inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), through contributions to the regional and global WASH sector and enhanced internal capacity.
October 2022
Handwashing Behaviour Change: Learning from Water for Women
This learning brief consolidates and analyses approaches and lessons learnt with regard to improving handwashing behaviours across the 20 Water for Women civil society organisation (CSO) projects in 15 countries.
October 2022
This report and summary is a synthesis of insights from 16 WASH projects being delivered by partner civil society organisations (CSOs) and the approaches they pursue to ensure no one is left behind.
August 2022
Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
This guidance offers insights into effective partnerships between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector organisations and rights holder organisations (RHOs). It provides practical recommendations for
effective collaboration in all types of partnerships and is designed to support organisations looking to begin, build or strengthen partnerships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
August 2022
This guidance and accompanying literature review is intended to support water, WASH actors to implement approaches to shift social norms that underpin WASH behaviours for marginalised and vulnerable groups. These resources will be useful for program managers and technical advisers working to ensure WASH projects leave no one behind.
July 2022
Issue 20 of Frontiers of Sanitation and these accompanying case studies explore the extent to which engaging men and boys in WASH processes is leading to transformative change in gender roles, attitudes, and sustainable change in reducing gender inequalities across households, communities, organisations, and policy.
March 2022
Developed under a Learning Agenda initiative led by the University of Technology Sydney Institute for Sustainable Futures, this compilation and synthesis of Water for Women case studies presents a range of contexts, approaches and experiences on monitoring safely managed water and sanitation services in urban and rural areas across the Asia-Pacific region, including Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea.
November 2021
Making the Critical Connections between Climate Resilience and Inclusive WASH: Lessons from Water for Women
As part of a learning initiative under Water for Women’s Learning Agenda, This report features 12 vignettes from Water for Women partners working on projects in the Asia-Pacific that are helping to build climate resilience through inclusive and sustainable WASH programs and research. It also outlines recommendations from the partners for strengthening climate resilience for inclusive WASH at different levels.
August 2021
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Self-Assessment Tool
The (GESI SAT) represents the culmination of years of collaborative work across the Fund, and has been co-created by Water for Women and the Sanitation Learning Hub.
It is a facilitation guide for WASH project managers, researchers and self-assessment facilitators to support individual and collective reflective practice on the extent and quality of gender equality and social inclusion work in WASH projects and organisations.
This resource is also available in French and Portuguese.
May 2021
Pivotal not peripheral: Ending period poverty by prioritising menstrual health and hygiene in WASH
The time is over for peripheral programming on menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) in WASH. It is now pivotal, particularly given the context of COVID-19 restrictions, which have exacerbated period poverty and decreased availability and access to hygienic facilities, sanitary products and information to support stigma-free safe and dignified menstruation.
Launched on Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021, this Learning Brief shares learning drawn from 14 Water for Women projects on approaches and entry points for making MHH pivotal in WASH.
June 2020
Sexual and Gender Minorities and COVID-19: Guidance for WASH delivery
Developed by Water for Women and Edge Effect to provide some key principles, considerations and actions which Water for Women Fund partners, and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector more broadly, can apply to strengthen sexual and gender minority inclusion in their COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 programming responses and adaptations.
June 2020
Disability inclusion and COVID-19: Guidance for WASH delivery
Around 15% of the world’s population has a disability. People with disability are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and are more likely to be disproportionately affected by the health, economic and social impacts of the global health pandemic.
Developed by Water for Women and CBM Australia to provide some key principles, considerations and actions which Water for Women Fund partners, and the WASH sector more broadly, can apply to strengthen disability inclusion in their COVID-19 programming responses and adaptations.
January 2020
Learning Brief: 'Do No Harm’ for inclusive WASH: working towards a shared understanding
Water for Women sees an intentional focus on ‘Do No Harm’ (DNH) approaches as a critical way of supporting an ethical approach to inclusion. This includes addressing the risk of backlash that comes with supporting representation and decision-making of women and marginalised groups to ensure that no one is left behind in WASH programming. The Fund aims to sharpen collective understanding and practice of DNH as a focus for learning as part of strengthening ‘inclusive WASH’.
This Learning Brief aims to advance the Fund’s collective learning on these issues by reflecting on the discussions throughout the Systems Strengthening for Inclusive WASH learning event held in December 2019 in Nepal, through the lens of these DNH dimensions.
December 2019
Disability Inclusive Systems Strengthening in WASH: How can we do it better?
The growing commitment to disability inclusive WASH within the sector has seen much progress in terms of accessible WASH infrastructure at all levels and support for people with disability to manage their WASH needs within their households and communities.
The WASH sector is also increasingly focused on the broader enabling environment for WASH policy and practice, or on strengthening ‘WASH systems’. The linkage of these two streams of work, however, remains an area for further learning and innovation.
This Learning Brief aims to advance the Fund’s collective learning on these issues by reflecting on the discussions throughout the Systems Strengthening for Inclusive WASH learning event held in December 2019 in Nepal.
December 2019
Stepping Up: Ensuring sexual and gender minorities are not left behind
The Water for Women gender and social inclusion (GESI) framework includes sexual and gender minority (SGM) inclusion, alonGESIde inclusion of people with disabilities and more conventional approaches to gender inclusion.
This Learning Brief aims to advance the Fund’s collective learning on SGM issues and inclusion by reflecting on the discussions throughout the Systems Strengthening for Inclusive WASH learning event held in December 2019 in Nepal.
October 2019
Leave No One Behind Learning Day – sharing insights from World Water Week
On October 3 2019, the Australian WASH Reference Group and the Water for Women Fund hosted an industry-wide Learning Day in Melbourne to share insights from the Stockholm International Water Institute’s 2019 World Water Week (WWW) and explore implications from key presentations for Australian WASH sector organisations.
September 2019
Learning Brief: 'Do No Harm' - Women's Empowerment in WASH
The empowerment of women and marginalised people is central to Water for Women, and recognised as key to leaving no one behind in achieving clean water and sanitation for all (SDG 6). But it can come at a cost, if we do not pro-actively address backlash and potential harms involved in challenging entrenched gender and social norms. This is what is known as having a ‘Do No Harm’ lens.
With funding support from the Australian Government, Water for Women supported one of its partners, Habitat for Humanity Fiji, to undertake a pilot in Do No Harm on women’s empowerment in WASH. The pilot involved collaboration with the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and supported the use and adaptation of IWDA’s DNH toolkit: Integrating the Elimination of Violence Against Women into Women’s Economic Empowerment Program.
Reflections and lessons learned from this are shared in this learning brief.
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