World Water Week Deep Dive: Changing invisible norms - the key to inclusive water and WASH

Building resilient communities, systems and economies means starting where change needs to happen–with people.

At World Water Week 2022, Water for Women and partners shared examples of how changing harmful norms is critical to ending inequalities, creating inclusive systems, and enabling equitable access to, and use of, sustainable water and WASH services through their session, Changing invisible norms -the key to inclusive water and WASH.

The session brought together insights and learning from Water for Women partners across the Asia Pacific region including Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, iDE, University of Technology Sydney - Institute for Sustainable Futures, Plan International, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and WaterAid.

Many fantastic resources were shared which are listed below and three new Water for Women publications were also launched.

If you missed the session, the recording is now available.

To catch the highlights pf this session, you can see the live twitter thread that accompanied the session

Session Overview

People’s beliefs, values and practices are influenced by gender and social norms, which in turn shape the value given to water and WASH services. As these norms are so entrenched in families, communities, workplaces and institutions, they remain largely ‘unseen’. By surfacing norms that are considered harmful, we have the opportunity to shift them to create greater gender and social equalities in people’s lives and livelihoods, of which equitable access to, and use of, water and WASH services is paramount.

Only by valuing all people equally can we truly value water - how we access it equally and how we use it. The Australian Government’s Water for Women recognises the central role that gender and social norms play in either reinforcing or shifting inequalities. This session shares innovative approaches from Asia and the Pacific to address norms that harm women and marginalised groups, including people with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities and people living in poverty.

In particular, two approaches are highlighted – meaningful engagement with rightsholder organisations for strengthening water and WASH systems and Do No Harm approaches to prevent and respond to gender-based violence which can be exacerbated by water security issues and limited WASH access. 

Session resources

Publications launched during this session include:

• Partnerships for Transformation: Guidance for WASH and Rights Holder Organisations
• Shifting Social Norms for Transformative WASH: Guidance for WASH Actors
• Shifting Social Norms for 
  Transformative WASH: Review of Concepts, Literature and Practice

Other resources shared:

• Counted. Visible. Included. (Equality Insights)
• Experiences using the ‘Floating Coconut’ Gender and Economy tool in WASH projects in Melanesia (IWDA)
• The floating coconut poster: a tool to value women’s work (IWDA) [MC1] 
• Cambodia Sanitation Marketing Scale-Up 3 (SMSU3), SMSU3 Mid-term Assessment, July 2018 to December 2020. (iDE)
• Tactic Report: Reaching the poorest with sanitation through targeted subsidies (iDE)
• Summary Brief: "We cannot work alone” A study of WASH and gender equality civil society partnerships (UTS-ISF)
• Summary Brief: Working Together: A study of WASH and gender equality civil society partnerships in Timor-Leste (UTS-ISF)
• Challenging discrimination against women with disabilities in Cambodia (IWDA)
• Equality Insights Infographic (Equality Insights)
• Towards transformation: Synchronising work with women and men for gender equality (IWDA)