Integration of gender considerations into Tanzania's climate and water policies

Abstract

Integrating gender considerations into national policies such as climate and water policies is a critical step toward achieving gender equality, resilient systems, sustainable water access and management of climate change. In Tanzania, just like in many developing countries, women play a vital role in water management and could be more vulnerable to climate change impacts than their male counterparts. While there are few attempts in existing literature to examine the integration of gender considerations into water and climate policies, analyzing policies' formulation process has not been given attention. Thus, this study analyzed the extent and effectiveness of gender integration in climate change and water sector policies in Tanzania. The study shows that there is a substantial acknowledgment of gender issues in the reviewed policy documents but there exist considerable gaps in terms of integrating gender issues in the documents and during formulation processes. HIGHLIGHTS Gender integration in policies accelerates gender equality, sustainable water access and management, and a resilient climate.; Gender integration starts from policy design and implementation, to monitoring and evaluation.; Structural gaps affect gender integration across policies in Tanzania.; There are gaps in gender integration during the policy formulation process.;

Keywords

• climate change
• nexus
• policy
• water
• women