LIFE lessons on inclusive WASH action in Pakistan

Using sign language to communicate with an IRC team member, these two young girls expressed their gratitude for the new toilets at their school for children with with hearing and speech impairments (IRC Pakistan)

These young girls are students of a school for children with hearing and speech impairments, situated in the district of Swat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Using sign language to communicate with an IRC team member, they expressed their gratitude for the safely managed latrines that they and their fellow students now have access to at school thanks to Australia’s Water for Women project with IRC, Leveraging Inclusive WASH for Empowerment (LIFE). 

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's patriarchal society, traditional Pakhtunwali cultural norms limit the participation of women, people with disabliities and other marginalised groups in community decision-making processes. This includes decisions affecting everyday aspects of life that are central to their health and well-being, including access to inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.

To improve community access to WASH services in schools and throughout villages in Swat, Buner and Peshawa, the LIFE project adapted a two-way approach. IRC conducted capacity strengthening events for government line departments, including the WatSan Cell, Tehsil Municipal Association and Public Health Engineering Department, and supported the establishment of management information systems to enable them to effectively monitor and map their resources and activities. IRC also arranged exchange visits for communities to line department to help reduce service gaps and increase peoples' awareness of Pakistan's Right to Public Services Act.

“I am working in this health facility as a medical practitioner for many years and can confidently say that since the installation of water schemes in the surrounding villages, the incidence of water borne diseases and skin diseases have drastically reduced.”

Doctor from Buner

To address social disparities, IRC formed gender segregated Inclusive WASH Jirgas (IWJs), allowing men and women to separately discuss and prioritise their WASH issues. Conventionally, Jirga is a male-oriented body and all decisions – even those regarding women – are made in the Jirga by men. With input through these IWJs, Village WASH Development Plans were established, providing a roadmap for the community to identify and pursue everybody's WASH needs - including people with disabilities, women and girls, and other marginalised groups.

The IRC team also worked with community stakeholders and opinion leaders to shape communities’ behaviors towards marginalised groups and to analyse power imbalance. For those from marginalised and minority groups, life and vocational skill sessions have improved their confidence to participate in decision-making processes and increased their ability to generate income.

Women-led IWJs represent a significant transformation. Not only do they ensure women’s participation, and that of other marginalised people and groups in decision-making around water and WASH in their communities and afford them social and economic opportunities, but they also surface important first-hand knowledge and experience to strengthen climate-resilience. As those who are primarily responsible for meeting household water and WASH needs, women and girls are at the forefront of water and WASH in their communities and at the frontline of climate change.

Collectively, the IWJs played a substantial part in ending open defecation in all 73 targeted villages across the distrcits by the end of 2022. As part of the LIFE project, IRC supported Community-Led Total Sanitation efforts, and School-Led Total Sanitation activities, including school WASH clubs and WASH in Schools educational programs, under Pakistan's Approach to Total Sanitation.

Building on these achievements, IRC’s LIFE II project is now furthering accessible and socially inclusive WASH in the districts of Swat, Buner and Peshawar, with a renewed focus on integrating climate resilience in systems and services for sustainable outcomes. By the end of 2024, LIFE II aims to directly benefit 123,980* people living in these districts with climate-resilient and inclusive WASH.

*Project targets are based on partner Civil Society Organisations (CSO) project baseline studies. Project targets are updated periodically in response to changes in context as appropriate.