IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v20y2008i1p69-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local organisation and gender in water management: a case study from the Kenya Highlands

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Were

    (WaterPartners International, Kisumu, Kenya)

  • Jessica Roy
  • Brent Swallow

    (World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya)

Abstract

Provision of safe water supplies is a priority for the global community and for villages in Kenya. An extended case study from the highlands of Western Kenya shows that local communities can be successful in self-organisation for improved water supply, but only by mobilising considerable amounts of investment resources and local collective action. Gender relations are crucial to success, with women having primary responsibility for water management, but more or less hidden roles in community groups. There are legitimate concerns that Kenya's new water laws and institutions may make it more difficult for local community groups to self-organise, with additional biases against women. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Were & Jessica Roy & Brent Swallow, 2008. "Local organisation and gender in water management: a case study from the Kenya Highlands," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 69-81.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:20:y:2008:i:1:p:69-81
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.1428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jid.1428
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.1428?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pandolfelli, Lauren & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Dohrn, Stephan, 2007. "Gender and collective action: A conceptual framework for analysis," CAPRi working papers 64, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Swallow, Brent, 2005. "Potential for Poverty Reduction Strategies to Address Community Priorities: Case Study of Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 301-321, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Crow, Ben & Swallow, Brent & Asamba, Isabella, 2012. "Community Organized Household Water Increases Not Only Rural incomes, but Also Men’s Work," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 528-541.
    2. Hesborn Andole Ondiba & Kenichi Matsui, 2021. "Drivers of environmental conservation activities among rural women around the Kakamega forest, Kenya," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10666-10678, July.
    3. Takayama, Taisuke & Horibe, Atsushi & Nakatani, Tomoaki, 2018. "Women and farmland preservation: The impact of women’s participation in farmland management governance in Japan," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 116-125.
    4. Hannah, Corrie & Giroux, Stacey & Krell, Natasha & Lopus, Sara & McCann, Laura E. & Zimmer, Andrew & Caylor, Kelly K. & Evans, Tom P., 2021. "Has the vision of a gender quota rule been realized for community-based water management committees in Kenya?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Nancy McCarthy & Talip Kilic, 2015. "The nexus between gender, collective action for public goods and agriculture: evidence from Malawi," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 375-402, May.
    6. Small, Sarah F. & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2023. "The gendered effects of investing in physical and social infrastructure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    7. Mark William Love & Cara Beal & Diana Gonzalez & Joe Hagabore & Collin Benjamin & Hugo Bugoro & Nixon Panda & Jael O'oi & Carol Offer & Regina Souter, 2022. "Challenges and opportunities with social inclusion and community‐based water management in Solomon Islands," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(4), July.
    8. Patrick Behr & Jorge Jacob, 2024. "Neighbourhood social capital, account usage and savings behaviour in low‐income countries: Field experimental evidence from Senegal," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 84-108, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan & Winters, Paul, 2021. "What role can small-scale irrigation play in promoting inclusive rural transformation? Evidence from smallholder rice farmers in the Philippines," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    2. Ogada, Maurice Juma, 2012. "Forest Management Decentralization in Kenya: Effects on Household Farm Forestry Decisions in Kakamega," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126319, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Crow, Ben & Swallow, Brent & Asamba, Isabella, 2012. "Community Organized Household Water Increases Not Only Rural incomes, but Also Men’s Work," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 528-541.
    4. Kaaria, Susan & Osorio, Martha & Wagner, Sophie & Gallina, Ambra, 2016. "Rural women’s participation in producer organizations: An analysis of the barriers that women face and strategies to foster equitable and effective participation," Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (Agri-Gender), Africa Centre for Gender, Social Research and Impact Assessment, vol. 1(2).
    5. Sarah Lyon & Tad Mutersbaugh & Holly Worthen, 2017. "The triple burden: the impact of time poverty on women’s participation in coffee producer organizational governance in Mexico," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 317-331, June.
    6. Were, E. & Swallow, B. & Roy, J., 2005. "Water, women and local social organization in the Western Kenya highlands," Conference Papers h042984, International Water Management Institute.
    7. Patti Kristjanson & Nelson Mango & Anirudh Krishna & Maren Radeny & Nancy Johnson, 2010. "Understanding poverty dynamics in Kenya," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(7), pages 978-996.
    8. World Bank, 2009. "Kenya - Poverty and Inequality Assessment : Executive Summary and Synthesis Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 3081, The World Bank Group.
    9. Palash Kamruzzaman, 2020. "Exploring the Nexus Between Participation and Empowerment," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(1), pages 32-53, January.
    10. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Thomas F. Randolph & Jamie A. Morrison & Colin Poulton, 2005. "Evaluating Equity Impacts of Animal Disease Control: The Case of Foot and Mouth Disease in Zimbabwe ," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(3), pages 465-472.
    12. Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "Smallholder Farmers and Collective Action: What Determines the Intensity of Participation?," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 108551, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    13. Das, Priyam, 2014. "Women’s Participation in Community-Level Water Governance in Urban India: The Gap Between Motivation and Ability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 206-218.
    14. Krister Andersson & Clark C. Gibson, 2007. "Decentralized governance and environmental change: Local institutional moderation of deforestation in Bolivia," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 99-123.
    15. Esther Mwangi & Ruth Meinzen-Dick & Yan Sun, 2009. "Does Gender Influence Forest Management? Exploring Cases from East Africa and Latin America," CID Working Papers 40, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    16. Elisa Portale, 2012. "Socio-Economic Sustainability of Biofuel Production in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from a Jatropha Outgrower Model in Rural Tanzania," CID Working Papers 56, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    17. Ratner, B. D., 2013. "Addressing conflict through collective action in natural resource management: a synthesis of experience," IWMI Working Papers H046235, International Water Management Institute.
    18. Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "Smallholder Farmers and Collective Action: What Determines the Intensity of Participation?," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 28, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    19. Liu, Y., 2018. "Determinants and impacts of marketing channel choice among cooperatives members: Evidence from agricultural cooperative in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275898, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Yubing Fan & Zeng Tang & Seong C. Park, 2019. "Effects of Community Perceptions and Institutional Capacity on Smallholder Farmers’ Responses to Water Scarcity: Evidence from Arid Northwestern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:20:y:2008:i:1:p:69-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.