Violence Against Women and Girls

Written evidence submitted by WaterAid

1. Summary

1.1. WaterAid works to transform lives by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the world’s poorest communities. We work with partners in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific region, and influence decision-makers to maximise our impact.

1.2. A core part of WaterAid's work is empowering women to have a voice within their communities. The link between a lack of access to water and sanitation facilities and sexual violence against women and girls has received insufficient attention to date.

2. There is a link between a lack of access to water and sanitation facilities and violence against women and girls.

2.1. Globally, 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation facilities, and over 780 million lack access to safe drinking water; the magnitude of this problem is felt most keenly by women and girls because they experience greater vulnerability as a result of inadequate and/or unsafe WASH facilities.

2.2. The enormous burden associated with collecting water is mainly shouldered by women (64%) and girls (8%). The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) estimates that in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than a quarter of the population takes longer than 30 minutes to make one trip to collect water [1] , and recent WaterAid research in rural Ethiopia shows that women spend up to nine hours per day collecting water in the dry season [2] . Women and girls forced to collect water from remote sources, often very early in the morning or late at night, are at much greater risk of sexual harassment and attack.

2.3. In many cultures, women who lack access to safe sanitation facilities may end up waiting until it is dark to go to the toilet, have to walk long distances to find an isolated spot in the open, or use public amenities. This exposes them to an increased risk of sexual harassment and attack, as well as causing shame.

2.4. Findings from a WaterAid and SHARE Research Consortium-supported study in Kampala, Uganda, indicate that women feel particularly vulnerable in and around public toilets or defecating out in the open. In particular, women reported feeling that inadequate sanitation facilities threatened their safety by exposing them to the risk of rape and attack when travelling to communal latrines after dark. One described how women do ‘not feel safe walking to the toilet. Men rape women there at night’ [3] .

2.5. In another WaterAid and SHARE Research Consortium-supported study in two slum districts in Delhi, India, women reported specific incidents of girls under ten being raped while on their way to use public toilets [4] . In separate work carried out by WaterAid in Bhopal, India, 94% of the women interviewed said that they had faced violence or harassment when going out to defecate, and more than a third had been physically assaulted [5] .

2.6. A poll commissioned by WaterAid revealed that 40% of women in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, have no toilets and are forced to defecate outside. A quarter of these had either first or second hand experience of harassment, a threat of violence or actual assault in the last 12 months [6] .

2.7. An Amnesty International report looked into this issue and reported that women and girls in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, were staying away from communal toilet facilities at night because of fear of physical violence and rape. It reported similar findings in the slums of the Solomon Islands. One woman described being severely beaten and raped by two men after relieving herself in the sea [7] .

2.8. A United Nations Development Programme report also highlighted these risks. It states that the need to travel further from home to secure the family’s water can expose women and girls to sexual harassment and rape and that this can also happen when women who lack safe, nearby sanitation facilities move about at night in search of privacy [8] .

3. Recommendations

3.1. More than 1 in 3 (1.25 billion) women in the world lack access to safe sanitation [9] . Of these, 526 million women have no choice but to go to the toilet out in the open [10] . Access to safe water and sanitation facilities should be an important consideration in DFID programmes on prevention of violence against women and girls and DFID should foster increased dialogue and co-ordination between the gender and WASH areas of technical expertise to facilitate this.

3.2. While we reference above some research and documentation regarding the link between WASH and violence against women and girls, the issue has largely been overlooked [11] . DFID should ensure that a proportion of the £25 million research fund on violence against women and girls is invested in further research in this area.

3.3. At current rates of progress, it will be over 165 years before Sub-Saharan Africa meets its sanitation Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target, and another 350 years before universal access is achieved [12] . For South Asia, it will be over 25 years before it meets its sanitation MDG target, and nearly 70 years to get universal access at current rates of progress.

3.3.1. Post 2015 goals or targets whose achievement can be influenced by access to water and sanitation, such as in relation to violence against women, women’s empowerment, gender equity in education, and women’s and maternal health, should include water and sanitation related success indicators.

3.3.2. To support this, DFID should strongly encourage UK attendance and full participation in the 57th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to highlight the relevance of WASH issues to violence against women and girls. This will be a key forum to debate the issue in the context of the post-2015 framework.

3.4. DFID’s Theory of Change on violence against women and girls doesn’t currently make reference to the role that inadequate and unsafe domestic or community facilities can have on the vulnerability of women and girls. Neither does it reference the importance of consulting with women and girls regarding the provision of community or domestic infrastructure such as water and sanitation facilities. This omission could result in this vital issue being overlooked in DFID programming and best practice. DFID should review their Theory of Change on violence against women and girls to consider the role that domestic and community infrastructure such as water and sanitation facilities have in tackling the issue.

January 2013

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[1] WHO/UNICEF (2011) Thematic report on drinking w ater. Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply .

[2] Dessalegn M et al (2012) Voices from the source: S truggles with local water security in Ethiopia. Overseas Development Institute and WaterAid.

[3] SHARE (2012) Insecurity and s hame, Kampala, Uganda . Briefing note. Available online at: http://www.shareresearch.org/LocalResources/VAW_Uganda.pdf

[4] SHARE (2012) Fear and a nger, Delhi, India. Briefing note. Available online at: http://www.shareresearch.org/LocalResources/VAW_India.pdf

[5] WaterAid (2012) Nowhere to g o. WaterAid in Sweden . Available online at: http://www.wateraid.se/pdf/wateraid_rapport_nowhere_to_go.pdf .

[6] Poll conducted by GlobeScan for WaterAid (2012). Available online at: http://bit.ly/SkynkV

[7] Amnesty International (2010) Risking rape to reach a t oilet. Available online at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR32/006/2010 .

[8] UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation (2005) He alth, dignity and development: W hat will it take . Available online at: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/WaterComplete-lowres.pdf .

[9] WHO/UNICEF (2012) Joint Monitoring Programme. Available online at: http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-report-2012-en.pdf

[10] WHO/UNICEF (2012) Joint Monitoring Programme. Available online at: http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-report-2012-en.pdf

[11] See literature referenced in SHARE (2012) Insecurity and s hame, Kampala, Uganda . Available online at: http://www.shareresearch.org/LocalResources/VAW_Uganda.pdf

[11] http://www.shareresearch.org/LocalResources/VAW_Uganda.pdf

[12] WHO/UNICEF (2012) Joint Monitoring Programme . Available online at: http://www.wssinfo.org/ .

[12]