Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

Scenarios

Implementation of gender mainstreaming is the key difference between these two scenarios

Scenario One: Business as usual, no gender-informed interventions

Scenario Two: Gender-informed interventions

Under a business-as-usual scenario, governments have limited or no gender-informed policies or mandates, and take no action to mitigate the gendered impact of externalities and current trends. In the business-as-usual scenario, traditional gender roles and stereotypes are reinforced and are reflected in the gendered divisions of risks and rewards in the waste sector. At the community and household levels, opportunities for entrepreneurship receive no governmental support and men and boys continue to be alienated from household waste-related chores and voluntary waste management activities. The unpaid labour of householders – mostly but not exclusively carried out by women – in diverting and managing waste goes unrecognized. Gender imbalances continue at all levels of administration. Training on gender is not available for stakeholders or employees. Health and environmental impacts are unevenly distributed. Women remain the dominant informal and unpaid workers andmencontinue todominatemanuallabour. Men also continue to dominate the administrative and managerial ranks of waste management, as well as engineering-based positions. Small-scale entrepreneurs and informal arrangements carry out most recycling activities. Women are at times able to use these opportunities as entry points into the sector, but only on a small scale. Women continue to be excluded from higher paid jobs, from truck driving to policymaking. In many cases, as jobs in the sector become formalized, women’s exclusion deepens. Men continue to be largely alienated from neighborhood and community organized activities, while women continue to provide unpaid care and volunteer in the community. As the sector is globalized and modernized, male engineers and consultants, most likely foreign-based, will mostly be involved in setting up and enacting waste policy.

Under a gender-informed scenario, governments have gender-informed policies and mandates and implement interventions and actions to mitigate the gendered impact of existing structures and externalities. At the community and household levels, governments support opportunities for entrepreneurship and men and boys become engaged in household waste related-chores and voluntary waste management activities. The household sector is fully engaged in waste management and the unpaid labour of householders in diverting and managing waste gains recognition, giving agency and recognition to women as key domestic managers. Fuller community and household engagement provides a sustainability multiplier in meeting goals related to GHG emission reduction and waste diversion. Gender imbalance at all levels of administration shifts towards equality with proactive gender mainstreaming. Stakeholders and employees have access to gender training. Adverse health and environmental impacts decline and become more evenly distributed. Educational opportunities are more equal, which enables both women and men to engage, if desired, in manual labour and engineering- based jobs. Small-scale entrepreneurs and informal arrangements complement an increasingly formal recycling sector where both men and women have equal opportunities to move into leadership and managerial positions. The informal sector receives recognition and is valued by the entire waste management system. Women and men are fully engaged in recycling opportunities, including formal training. Diversions from the waste stream reach an increasingly efficient scale and the environmental benefits of recycling accrue at an increasing rate. Income opportunities from recycling spread widely across social groups.

Gender and waste nexus

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