“Just Women” Is Not Enough: Towards a Gender-Relational Approach to Water and Peacebuilding

Schilling, Janpeter; Froese, Rebecca; Naujoks, Jana

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64046-4_9

“Just Women” Is Not Enough: Towards a Gender-Relational Approach to Water and Peacebuilding

Janpeter Schilling^5,6,7,
Rebecca Froese⁶ &
Jana Naujoks⁷

Chapter
First Online: 07 October 2017

1341 Accesses
3 Citations

Part of the Water Security in a New World book series (WSEC)

Abstract

Gender is a topic that every large development and peacebuilding organisation mainstreams in its programming. However, often “gender” implies a focus on women. We argue that this is not enough to utilise the full potential of a meaningful and effective integration of gender in specific projects, particularly in the peacebuilding and the water sector. The aim of this chapter is therefore to develop a first gender-relational approach to water and peacebuilding that will help researchers, practitioners and policy makers to better understand and integrate the multiple dimensions of gender. To achieve this aim, we first explore the main trends in and connections between gender on the one side and peacebuilding and the water sector on the other side, before we identify key gaps and crosscutting themes. Against this background, we develop a gender-relational approach based on questions to guide the integration of gender into water and peacebuilding. Our main method is a comprehensive review of the relevant academic literature and reports by key donors, and international development and peacebuilding organisations. Further, we draw on examples from Kenya and Nepal to conclude that a gender-relational approach to water and peacebuilding needs to go beyond a focus on “just women”. There is a need to incorporate heterosexual women and men, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (LGBTI), explore the relations within and between these groups and include other identity markers in the analysis in order to generate a nuanced understanding of complex situations, and to develop effective programming in peacebuilding and the water sector.

Keywords

Gender
Water
Peacebuilding
Approach
Kenya
Nepal

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the helpful comments of the reviewers. The field research was made possible by International Alert, Universität Hamburg and the National Geographic Society. The overall work is supported by the University of Koblenz-Landau and through the Cluster of Excellence ‘Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction – CliSAP’, Universität Hamburg, funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

Institute for Environmental Sciences, Group Landuse Conflicts, University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany
Janpeter Schilling
Institute of Geography, Group Climate Change and Security (CLISEC), University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Janpeter Schilling & Rebecca Froese
International Alert, London, UK
Janpeter Schilling & Jana Naujoks

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Janpeter Schilling
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Rebecca Froese
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Jana Naujoks
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Correspondence to Janpeter Schilling .

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Editors and Affiliations

Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Dr. Christiane Fröhlich
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal
Dr. Giovanna Gioli
Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Hamburg, Germany
Dr. Roger Cremades
International Alert, London, United Kingdom
Dr. Henri Myrttinen

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Schilling, J., Froese, R., Naujoks, J. (2018). “Just Women” Is Not Enough: Towards a Gender-Relational Approach to Water and Peacebuilding. In: Fröhlich, C., Gioli, G., Cremades, R., Myrttinen, H. (eds) Water Security Across the Gender Divide. Water Security in a New World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64046-4_9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64046-4_9
Published: 07 October 2017
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64046-4
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