ABSTRACT
Mainstreaming a Gender and Poverty (GAP) approach in Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) is an ongoing process, which includes working at programme and organizational levels, sharing lessons learned and identifying the challenges ahead. Senior managers led the implementation of the GAP. Despite gender-awareness training it was disappointing (but not entirely unexpected) to observe in the early stages that some managers, both men and – more surprisingly – women, were insensitive to women’s issues; this was challenging for the organisation. GAP teams reported that the pilot projects presented them with major challenges, especially in facilitating discussions on sensitive gender and poverty issues. DFID is increasingly committed to ensuring that women as well as men benefit from development work, as outlined in Poverty Elimination and the Empowerment of Women: ‘the purpose of DFID’s strategy is to ensure that women’s empowerment and gender equality are actively pursued in the mainstream of all development activities’.
