1.6
Gender Equality Priorities and Actions
By Yuzki Wang
In the design proposal, the approach to gender equality is devised through four essential needs: Education, Water, Identity, and Protection.
Water: In Senegal, women and young girls are the main role-players in accessing water resources and carrying water back home. Such domestic duty is time-consuming and arduous, which often restricted them from gaining income from working or attending school. Women and girls are also extremely vulnerable and often exposed to attack and assault while traveling to and using toilet facilities (UN Water, n.d.). Securing water resources in rural areas for women and girls are also very important yet difficult to practice. Not to mention that women and girls have special sanitation needs during menstruation, pregnancy and child carrying, water is the most critical need for the female community at Baghere. And without access to safe potable water, competent sanitation practice and adequate hygiene facilities, it is unjustifiably challenging to provide a safe, healthy, constructive future for women and girls. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (2017), gender equality and women’s empowerment should be achieved from three dimensions: economic empowerment by enabling women to benefit from water, improved well-being by enhancing sanitation and female hygiene practice, and participation in decision-making by engaging women in decision-making in water management. Therefore, by allowing better water resources accessibility, and improving water treatment practices through the Women’s House, the female community at Baghere will have the opportunities and a better chance to reassure their self-acknowledgement and empowerment. Identity: In traditional Senegal society, women are often identified as dependents on men. Their roles and duties are well-defined by society, and often their contribution to the household economic development is not recognized. Women’s rural activities in Senegal is mainly from agricultural
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