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Water for Women: Lending a hand in Bhutan
At a glance
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade commissioned GHD to manage the Water for Women (WfW) Fund – the Australian Government’s flagship water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) international development program.
As part of WfW, one of the projects we worked on with our partners was Beyond the Finish Line – Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All in Bhutan.
From 2018 to 2022, we partnered with SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) to help promote equitable access to safely managed sanitation and hygiene for approximately 215,000 people.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade commissioned GHD to manage the Water for Women (WfW) Fund. As part of WfW, one of the projects we worked on with our partners was Beyond the Finish Line – Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All in Bhutan.
The challenge
Only 64 per cent of Bhutan’s population had access to basic sanitation, and sanitation management practices were lacklustre. In particular, we identified three priority issues:
- Poor handwashing rates
- Unsafe disposal of child faeces
- Lack of access to safe menstrual health and hygiene management.
In addition to addressing inequity in households and intra-household issues, for example, those with disabilities, we needed to look beyond households to consider schools, healthcare facilities and monastic institutions. We also had to build capacity and capability at the sub-national level to help realise national targets.
Our response
GHD and SNV worked closely together to help improve the development of Bhutan’s WASH program by equipping government officials with the tools for planning, investing in and delivering sanitation services at both the national and sub-national level, together with sector partners and rights holder organisations.
As part of this, with considerations for gender equality, disability and social inclusion in focus, we helped promote the voice and expertise of women, including women with disabilities, through a focus on transformative leadership and leaving no one behind. We also championed social accountability, knowledge and learning, and investment in climate resilience to sustain outcomes and progress towards safely managed aspirations.
Through our partnership with SNV, we were able to support local government authorities in developing plans and strategies and managing resource flows, enabling them to allocate funds for sanitation through sub-district annual budgets as part of the wider decentralisation process in Bhutan.
The impact
With contributions from the collaboration between SNV, UNICEF and local partners to deliver the Beyond the Finish Line project, the Government of Bhutan officially declared the country 100 per cent open-defecation-free in November 2022.
The WfW project in Bhutan also led to the following positive outcomes in sanitation and hygiene:
- 500 government-led sanitation demand-creation workshops reached 19,600 households in rural and remote areas.
- Access to safely managed sanitation in households increased from 50 per cent in 2018 to 92 per cent in 2020.
- Access to handwashing with soap and its practice in households increased from 55 per cent in 2018 to 83 per cent in 2020. In households with a person with a disability, access and practice increased from 46 per cent in 2018 to 85 per cent in 2020.
- 99 transformative leaders were supported, 80 per cent of whom were women.
- 12 small and medium sanitation enterprises were strengthened, three of which were women-owned.