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

Table 2. Questions to the municipality

Leading questions

Reasoning for the questions

Municipal service

What types of waste does your department manage? How much waste does it manage? How much waste is generated?

General waste generation and waste management.

What is the single biggest component of waste collected and recycled?

Gender data at the municipal level. Gender division of roles, responsibilities and decision-making authority within the municipality. Gender considerations in relation to consultations/ addressing the needs of waste stakeholders and the design of policies and operations. Understanding perceptions of different needs at the household level for general waste management services. For example, because of time constraints due their various responsibilities (e.g. cooking, cleaning, laundry and family health), women may prefer door-to-door waste collection, rather than a drop-off central collection point.

When you think of waste produced at the household level, who do you imagine is most responsible for its disposal? Men? Women? Children?

How is the waste managed? What happens to it? Were women consulted when designing the municipal waste management?

Does the municipality have any partnership for waste management with private companies and/or civil society groups and/or individual community leaders?

How much of the waste is recycled? Who is managing the waste (at the different levels)?

Does your department have sufficient resources to handle your community’s waste demand?

What is the biggest waste need not yet met?

How many people are working/managing waste services at the municipal level? How many are male, how many are female and what is the age range? From your experience, do women and men have different needs, skills, knowledge and expertise when it comes to waste management and waste issues? Can you give us examples? (It is important to ask for examples as these will make the report stronger, as well as the data collected through the interview questions).

Can you explain further, why women and men have different needs, skills, knowledge and expertise?

Who is responsible for what tasks (male and female distribution of roles) within your department?

Are there opportunities to progress in specific roles or to change position?

Are you aware of gender inclusive policies for the waste sector?

94 Gender and waste nexus