Women’s Participation in Water Resource Management, in Case of Enderta District, Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Women’s participation in each and every activity of a country is crucial. Especially to achieve the sustainable development goals involvement of girls and women in each sector of a nation contributes more and more. Considering women as family leaders; in many cultures in the household responsibility, taking care of their husband and children they are nation builders. However, participation, interaction and contribution of women outside of their house are not significant. Above all, in science and technology related matters their involvement is very weak. Therefore, this study deals with examining women’s participation in water resource management in Endertaworeda, specifically in Didba and Shibta sub-districts. The study result indicated that, the role of women in water management is high, especially in domestic level and the willingness to participate in external water issues was increased, but the decision making power never reached equality between men and women. The analysis shows that even though there are few women in the water committee of the local community and the water resource management sector, still their participation in decision making is insignificant. Even today, the society confirms the supremacy of men over women. As a result the policy at national levels as well as the regional level which emphasized on women’s participation in water resource management has become elusive its implementations. On the evidence of the study results, there are different barriers for women’s participation in management. The most frequently mentioned barriers are socio-cultural barriers, women’s low educational success and access in the country and low number of women in the office as managerial staff. Therefore, measures should be taken to enhance women’s participation in management position.