Empowering rural women entrepreneurs in WASH services in Bhutan, Lao PDR, and Nepal

How can we better support women's leadership and empower rural women entrepreneurs in WASH services?

This practice brief details how in Bhutan, Lao PDR, and Nepal, Water for Women partner, SNV and their local partners, are embedding women’s economic empowerment theory in WASH private sector development strategies to address the multiple and specific barriers that women face in starting, operating, and benefiting from new and existing business opportunities.

SNV with partners are engaged in three projects under the SNV-led programme, ‘Beyond the Finish Line'. Each project looks beyond Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) coverage and uses different context-appropriate strategies to achieve safe and equitable WASH access and use for all. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in WASH supply chains is a common strategy shared across all projects.

BEYOND THE FINISH LINE
Beyond the Finish Line is a five year (2018-2022) multi-country project supported by the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund. In Bhutan and Lao PDR, the project builds on SNV’s Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All (SSH4A) rural sanitation product and increases the quality of sanitation and hygiene accessed by a total of 475,000 people. In Nepal, the project contributes to professionalising gender and socially inclusive sustainable rural water supply services in two districts, based on SNV’s Area-wide Rural Water Supply Services (ARWSS) product.

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