Rethinking Women Experiences in Water and Sanitation Projects in Tongogara Refugee Camp, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Inspite of the significant progress registered in positioning gender equality issues more centrally within programming, debates about gender mainstreaming perseveres. This paper focuses on refugee women's experiences in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects in Tongogara Refugee Camp (TRC) in Zimbabwe.  The study posits that the age, gender and diversity mainstreaming (AGDM) policy in WASH projects at TRC meant to empower women, is regarded by the male counterparts as a threat to their authority and power. Guided by a feminist political ecology (FPE) theoretical framework, this qualitative research utilised a case study method with sixty-eight interviews, five indepth interviews and eight focus group discussions (FGD) to gather data. The findings show that the imposition of a top-down approach to the implementation of the AGDM policy guidelines on the refugee community has resulted in the increase of domestic violence, sexual and gender based based violence (SGBV), divisions in families as well as resentment of the AGDM policy by some men for promoting gender equality. The research concluded that the implementation of the AGDM in WASH activities is an imposition from above without input from the refugee population, particularly the refugee population.