Bisung Elijah, Dickin Sarah
School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University Kingston, ON, Canada.
Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
SSM Popul Health. 2019 Nov 20;9:100490. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100490. eCollection 2019 Dec.
Research has shown that inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) affects women and girls in several ways, including lowering their participation in the labour market and community activities and contributing to psychosocial stress and poor educational outcomes. There is growing awareness that addressing the gender inequalities related to WASH that many women and girls face on a daily basis must go beyond focusing on delivery of infrastructure and facilities alone and include attention to issues of empowerment. Yet there is limited exploration of how the concept of empowerment is defined and applied in the WASH sector and thus limited information on how it could be measured. This study used concept mapping to uncover the meaning and key dimensions of empowerment in WASH among 34 and 24 stakeholders in Asutifi North District, Ghana, and Banfora Commune, Burkina Faso, respectively. The study was part of initial steps toward choosing indicators for developing an Empowerment in WASH Index. In Ghana and Burkina Faso, 42 and 29 items were generated, respectively. These items were thought to empower men and women in WASH at the household and community levels. In both case studies, 7 clusters were generated and named by participants, and themes related to sharing of information, sociocultural norms, participation, and accessibility of WASH services were associated with empowerment. Some themes were unique to each case study site. Participants also showed a multidimensional and multilevel understanding of empowerment. Concept mapping created an effective balance between individual and group contributions and facilitated accessible, rapid, and contextually relevant data collection. The findings can be used to generate domains of empowerment in future quantitative research as well as inform the design of the Empowerment in WASH Index.
研究表明，无法充分获得水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务（WASH）会在多个方面影响妇女和女童，包括降低她们在劳动力市场和社区活动中的参与度，导致心理社会压力以及不良的教育成果。人们越来越意识到，解决许多妇女和女童每天面临的与水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务相关的性别不平等问题，不能仅仅局限于关注基础设施和设施的提供，还应包括对赋权问题的关注。然而，对于赋权概念在水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务部门是如何定义和应用的，目前的探索有限，因此关于如何衡量赋权的信息也很有限。本研究分别在加纳阿苏蒂菲北区和布基纳法索班福拉公社，对34名和24名利益相关者运用概念图法来揭示水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务领域赋权的含义和关键维度。该研究是为制定水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务赋权指数选择指标的初步步骤之一。在加纳和布基纳法索，分别生成了42项和29项内容。这些内容被认为能在家庭和社区层面增强男女在水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务方面的权能。在这两个案例研究中，参与者生成并命名了7个类别，与信息共享、社会文化规范、参与以及水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务的可及性相关的主题与赋权相关联。每个案例研究地点都有一些独特的主题。参与者还表现出对赋权的多维度和多层次理解。概念图法在个人贡献和集体贡献之间实现了有效平衡，并促进了便捷、快速且与背景相关的数据收集。研究结果可用于在未来的定量研究中生成赋权领域，也可为水、环境卫生和个人卫生服务赋权指数的设计提供参考。
