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Water Engineering and Development Centre

Equity and social inclusion

It is becoming apparent that recent global improvements in water and sanitation provision have focused on coverage, and have neglected some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the world. Poor people may be marginalised or excluded by a range of factors, including social (gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, caste, displacement, education), well-being (ill-health, incontinence, menstruation, pregnancy and disability), and economic (low-income communities and households).

An increasing focus of the SDGs is on improving equitable access to the poorest and most disadvantaged. To do this, more knowledge and information is needed by practitioners not only about who is excluded, but why and what can be done to improve access and participation and ensure that services meet the needs of everyone.

If you would like to find out more about WEDC's work in this area, please contact .

Projects in this area

Specific themes

Latest resources

  • Accessibility and safety audit of market-centre latrines –  |  |  | 
  •  – updated and improved!
  • . Conducting a discussion at community level
  •  Rubis Mena, MSc research dissertation

Essential reading

This list is regularly updated but please let us know if there is a document that should be added.

General

  •  – low-cost options, for use at community level in rural sub-Saharan Africa. To access a full library of images see .

  • For French and Portuguese versions go to the 
  •  A mapping study carried out for WaterAid UK

  •  Checklist for WASH practitioners |  | 
  •  – article in  – Themed issue on Diversity & Inclusion.

  •  A practical guide for engineers, technicians and project managers. Reed, B., Coates, S., & Parry-Jones, S. (2007) WEDC.

  • . Reed, B. & Coates, S. (2007) WEDC.

  • . Jones, H. & Reed, R.A. (2005) WEDC.

  •  Jones, H. (2011) WEDC Briefing Note #1.

  •  (categorises and describes over 50 documents related to access to WASH for women and girls, disabled adults and children, and schoolchildren).

  •  (adapted from the above but focuses on access for disabled people).

Women and girls in WASH

  • FISHER, J. (2008) , Municipal Engineer, 161 (ME4), 223-229.

  • FISHER, J. (2006) , Water Supply and Collaborative Council/UNICEF.

  • FISHER, J. (2006) . WELL Briefing Note, 25, WEDC, Â鶹ֱ²¥

  • FISHER, J. (2004) . WELL Briefing Note, 4, WEDC, Â鶹ֱ²¥

 Menstrual hygiene and perimenopause management

  • Bhakta, A., Fisher, J. and Reed, B.J. (2014)  37th WEDC International Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam

  • De Lange, R., Lenglet, A., Fesselet, J.F., Gartley, M., Altyev, M., Fisher, J. and Shanks, A. (2014)  , Waterlines 33, 1, 45-54

  • Crofts, T. and Fisher, J. (2012)  , The Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2, 1, 50-58

  • CROFTS, T. (2010)  Unpublished MSc, WEDC, Â鶹ֱ²¥

Solid waste management and women

  • Obadina, A., Fisher, J. and Sohail, M. (2015) . 38th WEDC International Conference, Â鶹ֱ²¥, UK

  • Obadina, O A, and Fisher, J. (2014) . 37th WEDC International Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam

 More...

Learning resources ( in English and French)

English

The following materials have been developed by WEDC in collaboration with WaterAid.

Activity sheets

Can be used as stand-alone activities, or as part of structured training/capacity building:

Presentations

Tools

  • *New* Accessibility and safety audits:  |  | 
  • Accessibility audits:  |  | 

 

French

Les matériaux en français traduits par WaterAid.

Feuilles d'activité:

Présentations:

Outils:

Guides pratiques:

  •  Jones, H. & Reed, R.A. (2006) WEDC

WEDC International Conference papers

Click on the links below to view selections of papers from WEDC International Conferences, with a particular focus. recent papers are listed first.

Videos

  • This video draws on the perspectives of those whose voices are often not heard, such as the disabled, children, the elderly, the very poor and other excluded groups to highlight some of the complex factors concerning equitable access to sanitation and hygiene in the region. With the aid of specific examples from Nepal, India and Pakistan the video analyses barriers to access through the lens of socio-cultural, economic, political, geographic, environmental and administrative factors. In doing this, it points to the Colombo Declaration through which governments from the region have committed themselves to improving access to sanitation and hygiene.

  • In Nepal more than 500,000 people live with disability. Among them 350,000 don't have access to toilets. In Kathmandu, there are no public toilets that are disabled friendly. Disabled persons also have the equal rights as of other human beings. But they are only limited in slogans and not much practiced. This video is about the common sanitation related difficulties faced by the people living with disability. It is to raise awareness on disability rights on sanitation and hygiene.
  • Developing Inclusive Design of public WASH facilities. (WaterAid Madagascar)
  •  (French)

WASH and gender based violence

  • (2 minutes) very powerful

  • (7.30 mins) - Plan International.  Includes sanitation related case studies, plus participatory walk and mapping involving adolescent girls.

  • – less than 1 minute on problems faced by women in slums going to the toilet  

  •   Short story about how women came together to put pressure on executive engineers to take action. 

  • - with lyrics only

  • covers the wide range of ways in which WASH affects women – not just violence (3 minutes)

Research in Water Sanitation and Hygiene | Research at WEDC