1.1 Gender in Integrated Water Resources Management This Handbook is contextualised within IWRM as a strategic management approach that recognises the diversity and interdependence of water users in a social, environmental, economic and cultural context. At the same time, it identifies the potential for conflicting demands for increasingly scarce water resources. Women and men play different roles in relation to IWRM. They have different, and generally unequal, access to water and water-related resources, and they have different, and generally unequal, access to water-related decision-making at all levels. Both women and men are involved in environmental management – but water use, demand, access and control varies between them. Women are often hardest hit by environmental degradation in general and by water scarcity in particular. Women have the main responsibility for sourcing water for households. Scarcity of water can often cause poor women to walk longer distances and/or wait longer periods of time for water. In many societies women often have fewer environmental rights than men, yet they have considerable responsibilities with regards to natural resources management. If, for example, women more often had independent rights to own land, it would enable them to play a more effective role in managing the environment since they would then be able to make independent decisions about their land. This could be to the benefit of natural resource management. Food and agricultural production are often characterised by very pertinent gender divisions of labour. Men’s work tends to be more visible and valued than women’s work, since the focus is often on producing for the market and excludes subsistence production which is mostly carried out by women. Almost without exception, women and men have different degrees of access to and control of resources of production, i.e. they have unequal access to land, livestock, credit, time and other inputs and resources. Women and men also often have different and unequal access to water for raising small livestock and growing vegetables, the result of gendered household roles and responsibilities. Mostly, women are responsible for the collection and storage of water for domestic use, which can be an enormously time consuming task. However, women often do not have equal access to consultation processes about improvements to domestic water supply, to management and decision-making roles, or to paid work in water supply management and maintenance. Good water management practices should address gender issues at all levels in all water institutions, including the international transboundary level. Such an approach acknowledges the essential role of women as providers and users of water and as guardians of the environment. These roles should be reflected in organisational arrangements for the development and management of water resources. Some progress has been made in promoting the involvement of women in water management. IWRM’s attention is slowly shifting from primarily focusing on women in their domestic functions to acknowledging women’s share of power (but not necessarily work) in water planning, management and institutions. Increasingly, the myth of uniformity among women and men is being recognised, i.e. that women and men of different socio-economic and cultural categories have different needs, interests and means in the use, development and management of water resources. Therefore, integrated water resources development and management need to be specific to address the interests of the different groups, their roles, and the impact arising from changes in water management and use may have on them.