It is often assumed that both women and men will participate in and benefit equally from infrastructure such as roads, railways, ports, water, and sanitation. However, women and men often have different concerns, needs, and priorities with regard to infrastructure provision and improvement.
For example, security, including freedom from sexual harassment, is often a worry for women who use crowded transport facilities, or services at night. When it comes to water, women frequently place more importance than men on ensuring that there is a reliable and sufficient supply of clean water to the household for cooking and bathing. For women in low income households who manage the family’s daily needs, the costs for services may be a concern. On the other hand, for young male drivers who are higher risk takers, road design and road safety improvements are important to reduce their high number of fatalities and injuries. Since young men are also the breadwinners of a family, if they are killed or permanently disabled in a road crash, it can have adverse impacts on their families.
In decision making and capacity building initiatives related to infrastructure development, the fact that women and men face different constraints and opportunities needs to be kept in mind.
At community level, men often dominate decision making within the village and determine infrastructure expenditure, the type and location of infrastructure to be provided, and fees to be charged. In infrastructure provision and maintenance in the community, men are most likely to get the opportunities for training or paid work and, where local businesses are contracted, they are predominantly owned and operated by men.
Within government institutions senior decision makers are predominantly men. There may be more opportunities for men to be selected for training and other capacity building activities such as study tours overseas because it is assumed by decision makers that women would not want to leave their families. Women sometimes are given fewer opportunities to take lead positions such as being group leaders, making presentations, or become trainers in capacity building.
Issues such as these must be considered and accommodated for improved targeting and effectiveness of activities, as well as recognising that it is the human right of both women and men to be involved in, and benefit equally, from development.
Improving gender equality in all of its activities is an important aim of the IndII program. This is in line with the Australian government’s policy that gender equality is addressed in all development activities that it supports. It is also in line with Indonesia’s Presidential Instruction and Medium Term Development Plan with regard to gender mainstreaming in development.
IndII has a gender strategy which provides a framework of strategic objectives and actions to achieve these objectives. IndII activity designs are assessed for the types of gender equality issues that they have and how gender inequalities might be addressed in their implementation. Some IndII activities do not have gender equality implications. Others are restricted to gender issues within the counterpart organisation, such as gender equality in participation in capacity building. Some have a degree of community involvement with limited gender equality implications; for example institutional capacity building for interaction with the community. Others, such as those that involve service delivery directly to the community, have significant community involvement with wider gender equality issues.
IndII monitoring and evaluation of its activities includes the collection of sex disaggregated quantitative and qualitative data to identify how women and men are participating and benefiting from the activity, and to assess gender equality efforts and outcomes. Routine reports also comment on any initiatives that have been taken to increase participation by women. Six-monthly case study evaluations of activities take a deeper look at selected activities.
Gender equality achievements include:
Water and Sanitation Hibah: The socio-economic baseline survey collected data on gender differences in the community. The results of the survey were conveyed to the local governments, the local water supply companies (PDAMs), and selected women and men consumers at workshops, and the implications of gender differences for activity implementation was discussed. The letter from the Ministry of Public Works to the PDAM requested that PDAM select equal numbers of women and men consumers to attend the workshops. Although this was not achieved by all PDAMs, a higher proportion of women consumers attended than would otherwise have been expected. In implementing the water hibah activity’s supporting community outreach program, equal numbers of women and men were selected to be trained to conduct the community outreach education activities at many of the locations where the program was implemented. Women and men were also involved in providing testimonials about the water hibah over the radio talkshow program. Women in the community were very happy with the connections. They mentioned how the house water connection saved them time fetching water and how they did not feel so tired with the constant drudgery of water collection. Those who had previously purchased water from vendors said how much having access to PDAM water reduced their expenditure on water. They also felt that their families were healthier now that they had easy access to clean water. Some women were making more profits from their small enterprises, such as making snacks and drinks, because they didn’t have to buy expensive clean water from the water vendors any more.
Multi Village Water Supply Pilot Program for a Second Generation Community Based Water Supply Project for Expansion of Existing Village Water Supply Systems: Twenty percent of the Community Based Organisations have increased women’s membership and participation within their committees with encouragement from the implementing consultants. The activity has increased the understanding of gender equality, especially amongst community and organisational leaders.
The Road Safety Activity: IndII consultants have encouraged decision makers within the counterpart organisations to select more women participants for capacity building activities. Compared to an estimated 15 percent women personnel in the relevant sections of the organisations from which overseas fact finding mission participants were selected, this activity has succeeded in having approximately 30 percent women participants in consecutive years. Women have taken lead roles during the fact finding missions and in other capacity building activities. Road safety improvements will especially help to reduce the number of young men dying. In the North Java corridor men constitute about 90 percent of all road fatalities.
The Bus Improvement Project: The consultants identified and incorporated the specific needs of women, children, the elderly, and people with disability in designing the bus stop infrastructure.
Introduction of Risk Based Assessment in the Internal Audit Function of the Inspectorate General (IG) unit in the Ministry of Public Works (MPW): A greater proportion of women than is represented within the Inspectorate General have participated in overseas study tours. Special encouragement for professional development is given to young women professionals. Women are given lead positions in capacity building.
City Wastewater Master Plans Preparation: A gender action plan for the master plan preparation activity is in place including targets for women’s participation. Baseline surveys have collected data and different roles and responsibilities of women and men will be analysed. Focus group discussions have included women as well as men to identify their different opinions and perspectives. The master plans will incorporate initiatives to ensure that women and men will participate and benefit equitably.
Planned activities
Ministry of Transportation Gender Mainstreaming Activity: A scoping study is being prepared to develop a design for a gender mainstreaming activity within the Ministry of Transportation.
Addressing the Needs of People with Disability in IndII Activities
AusAID is committed to disability-inclusive development. One of the ten objectives of the Australian government’s aid policy is “enhancing the lives of people with disabilities”. The strategy for disability-inclusive development is explained in the document Development for All: Towards a disability-inclusive Australian aid program 2009-2014. The strategy targets the core outcome of providing support to people with disability “to improve the quality of their lives by promoting and improving access to the same opportunities for participation, contribution, decision making and social and economic well-being as others.” Reducing preventable impairments is identified as another core outcome to be achieved by the strategy.
The Government of Indonesia has a number of policies, laws (such as Law no. 23/2007 on Railways and Law no. 22/2009 on Traffic and Road Transport), and regulations to ensure that people with disability have the same opportunities and access to facilities that other people have.
In line with AusAID and GoI concerns, IndII recognises that unless particular attention is paid to the needs of children and adults with disability, they will not benefit equally with other people from its development efforts. Most of IndII’s activities are in the transport and water and sanitation sectors. Disability-inclusive action is integrated into selected activities which are seen as having the most potential to bring benefits to people with disability.
Access to and use of transport facilities is a right for people with disabilities and increases their opportunities to be economically active, to maintain social and emotional relationships outside the home, and to increase their overall independence. The following examples illustrate IndII’s approach to disability-inclusive development:
- The Bus Improvement Project (BIP) has produced a bus shelter design with features to provide better access for people with disability, such as low incline ramps, railings, non-slip surfaces, tactile markings, hand rails, and sides to seats to help people stand. This design was implemented in Surakarta and Palembang and is seen at national and city levels as a valuable prototype. Evaluation findings show that Local Governments’ awareness and capacity to address the needs of people with disability increased through this activity.
- An Integrated Urban Road Safety Program, under preparation, is extending the benefits of disability-inclusive shelter design to include a broader response to road safety, mobility and the needs of the disabled. It will integrate pedestrian facilities (including walkways, protected crossings and access improvements), protection for school children and other vulnerable groups, safety treatments, traffic management/calming, and other measures to address the needs of vulnerable users along transport corridors. Similar IndII activities that benefit the disabled include a program of improving road infrastructure at areas where many crashes have occurred, to reduce the likelihood of disability caused by road trauma.
- IndII’s Provincial Road Improvement and Maintenance (PRIM) Program is using grant contributions from AIIG (Australia-Indonesia Infrastructure Grants) as an incentive to raise standards of provincial road maintenance, benefiting all road users and pedestrians, including the disabled, with improved access, more reliable mobility and greater safety.
- IndII is supporting a major program to strengthen the service quality and performance of Jakarta’s extensive busway system, known as TransJakarta. This will enhance its ability to serve the needs of the disabled, in terms both of access to the system (bus stops will provide for the needs of the disabled) and improved mobility and access to economic and other opportunities in the metropolitan area.
IndII’s activities such as the CBO Piped Water activity and Water Hibah have provided piped water to households, enabling people with disability easier access to water and improving their quality of life. The Financial Reform of 20 PDAMs activity has improved PDAM capacity to manage and to provide services to their customers including households where people with disability live. This has important health implications for people with disability and increases their independence.
In IndII Phase 1, over 1,400 people with disability benefited from having house connections through the water hibah activity.
Similarly, IndII’s sanitation activities such as sAIIG, City Sewerage Grants and Sanitation Grants provide a healthier environment for people with disability and reduce their exposure to health risks to which they are particularly vulnerable.
IndII recognises the importance of asking people with disability for their opinions. When designing and evaluating, IndII has discussed issues with the umbrella organisation representing people with disability in Indonesia, Persatuan Penyandang Cacat Indonesia (Organisation for People with Disability in Indonesia) and its provincial branches, and has consulted with individuals with disability.
IndII's Gender Strategy and Plan (1 files) Other Resources (23 files) Gender Case Studies (6 files)
