This study investigates how agency, attitudes and voice in relation to household water security varies across three distinct study locations in Khulna, Bangladesh, Turkana Central, Kenya, and Akaki, Ethiopia. Household survey analysis (1747 respondents; Empowerment in WASH Index tool) underlines the role of intrahousehold power relations as an overlooked contributor to water security. A key finding is that agency-based constraints perpetuate insecurity even where physical access to water sources exists. This research illustrates how quantitative approaches can inform context-responsive and gender transformative interventions to improving water access.
Kenya
Cross-comparative international, interdisciplinary mixed methods research for development: REACH-WISER Methodology
This working paper details the methodology used by the WISER collaboration within the REACH programme to explore how water insecurity is shaped by gender and social roles at household and community levels. The methods have been used to explore water security challenges such as flooding and salinity of drinking water in coastal Bangladesh; industrial growth in agricultural areas near Addis Ababa in Ethiopia; and water scarcity in Turkana County in northwest Kenya.
Participation, inclusion and reflexivity in multi-step (focus) group discussions
This paper draws on experiences of applying a cross-comparative approach (INITI8) combining community-based participant observation with focus group discussions in water security research across Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The authors reflect on the tensions and resulting re-work related to power dynamics in North-South and local collaborations, and on the socio-spatial inclusion implications of the research design, in particular definition of peri-urban areas and engagement with illiterate women in rural areas.
Deciding Not to Decide: When Is There Power in Not Deciding?
This working paper from the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab, Africa region, uses mixed methods data from households in Kilifi County Kenya to explore indirect ways in which people within a household pursue their goals when they are not directly involved in a decision. Traditional decision-making measures underestimate the agency of some individuals—particularly that of husbands and fathers, who can disproportionately rely on their preferences being met through their effective power by proxy. The paper makes recommendations for survey methods to combat assumptions around who is involved in household decision-making and how.
Rolling-out rural water regulation in Kenya: a review of progress and key processes
This document discusses the need for step-wise progression towards implementing the Guideline for the management of rural water and sanitation services published by Wasreb, Kenya’s water regulator in 2019. It combines insight from engagements with Wasreb, rural water service providers, and other stakeholders to identify where there is a need to develop, strengthen and/or clarify key processes.
Climate resilience and water security – Key messages from the REACH Kenya programme 2015-2024
This report from the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA) at the University of Nairobi, Kenya provides a summary of key messages from research conducted under the REACH Kenya programme (2015-2024).
Ten years of REACH Kenya
A brief overview of work by the REACH programme in Kenya on interlinked groundwater systems, institutions, water quality management and reducing inequalities, illustrating milestones in the Kitui and Turkana Water Security Observatories.
Unpacking the progression of climate uncertainty into precarity in the urban context of drylands: the case of floods in Lodwar, Turkana
Climate uncertainty has always existed both as a socio-ecological reality for pastoralists living with climate variability in drylands and as a component within climate modelling. Despite this, there is little consideration as to the experiences of poor people in the urban drylands living with intensified hazards. In response, this paper discusses an emerging conceptual nexus of uncertainty and precarity, using the example of flood disaster governance in Lodwar, Kenya.
Public participation and community engagement in domestic water supply management in Kenya: Progress and directions
This report, produced by the University of Oxford in collaboration with representatives from civil society, research institutions, government organisations, and NGOs, evaluates public participation and community engagement in domestic water supply management in Kenya, analysing policy progress, practices, and challenges within an evolving governance landscape.
REACH Story of Change: Water law reform to improve water security for vulnerable people in Africa: A hybrid water law
Permit systems used for water authorisation were introduced in many African countries during the colonial era to protect water entitlements of settlers, with disregard for customary water tenue and local needs. These permit systems require users of water above a defined threshold to apply for permits offering formal legal water rights, therefore granting those who use water below this threshold weaker legal status. This REACH Story of Change explores a science-practitioner partnership which assesses water permit systems in Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The findings have been presented at key international forums and gained significan media attention, influencing policy discussions on water governance reform to better support inclusive rural development and farmer-led irrigation.