Guidelines On How To Collect Sex-Disaggregated Water Data

Abstract

The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (UN WWAP)1 has launched a groundbreaking project to develop and test the collection of key gender-disaggregated water data. UN WWAP is developing a priority set of gendersensitive indicators and a gender-disaggregated data methodology that will then be tested in the field by Member States in different regions. This project will produce a comprehensive methodology for gender-disaggregated data gathering and will yield the first-ever set of sexdisaggregated data on topics such as women’s water empowerment and participation in waterdecision-making. There is universal agreement in international and national policy circles that the collection of sexdisaggregated water indicators is of the utmost importance and priority. For years, United Nations (UN) agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), governments, activists, and water experts have been calling for a systematic approach to collecting sex-disaggregated water indicators. This project answers those calls. This ambitious project to disaggregate water data by gender is needed now more than ever: given global commitments to gender equality, in light of the importance of water as a resource, and given the many different threats to water resources the world’s policymakers and decision-makers need baseline gender-sensitive data. This project will prove the value of sexdisaggregated data and will provide strong support for the monitoring of current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and post-2015 development goals.