Closing the gender gap : Punjab water supply and sanitation project

This paper shows how in a project in the Punjab, Pakistan, female beneficiaries were changed into change agents. The paper summarises the planning, design, and implementation of gender-specific components that made the water supply project a success. The benefits that the women obtained, and passed on to their households and communities, were not just project bi-products, they were carefully planned and designed. The project took special consideration of the fact that water collection in these communities is considered women's work. Three ADB-developed tools were used to identify and address gender issues in the project cycle: 1) Gender analysis, a systematic assessment of the potential impact of the proposed project on both women and men and the social and economic relations between them; 2) Policy dialogue: discussions with government agencies and the project's executing agency, ongoing throughout the project cycle. 3) Project design: project components that are designed based on gender analysis and to specifically benefit women.