Applied Research Track: Social and Behavior Studies | Auditorium
Innovators in the water and sanitation sector are focused on closing the sanitation gap in developing countries. The sanitation sector is challenged to deliver improvements that meet the practices and preferences of all genders. This presentation shares survey research with a set of global research and development (R&D) teams that are in the midst of an innovation drive for leap-frog sanitation treatment and resource recovery technologies. Findings suggest a majority of teams incorporated gender into their work, though the incorporation was generally limited in scope and not deep in understanding gender dynamics. Teams designing elements of a user-interface were more likely to incorporate gender disaggregated elements. Waste-processing technology was often assumed to be gender-neutral, not requiring differentiated thinking on how various genders interact with the novel technologies. This work fills a gap in R&D and technology adoption in how to evaluate and foster a gender lens into R&D activities in the international development water and sanitation sector.
