Socio-ecological barriers to women's empowerment in sanitation in Eastern Indonesia

Low-income and marginalised groups in any setting are affected by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sanitation access, particularly women and girls who are disproportionately affected mainly because of gender inequality. This paper discusses barriers to women's access to and participation in sanitation programs based on the case study in Central Lombok and West Manggarai, Eastern Indonesia. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted on 28 informants and 6 groups, respectively, and analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that women and girls in Eastern Indonesia experience inadequate access to sanitation due to being less involved in WASH decision-making processes at household and community levels while having the double burden of maintaining the facilities and taking care of their families simultaneously. Barriers to women's empowerment in sanitation programs exist at different socio-ecological scales from individual to structural scales indicating the relationship of health with the context and characteristics of the place. At the individual scale, those barriers are women's lack of awareness, low education and economic status; gender-expected roles in society due to patriarchal cultures, and restrictions on women's mobility due to social norms are barriers at community scale. Meanwhile, at the institutional scale, the barriers come from the government's lack of commitment and clear guidelines to support women involvement and the government's lack of capacity and skills in implementing gender-transformative WASH programs in their jurisdiction areas. All different scales of barriers are interconnected, requiring comprehensive and systematic strategies to simultaneously address barriers to mainstreaming gender issues in national sanitation programs.