Dery, Florence, Bisung, Elijah, Dickin, Sarah, and Dyer, Michelle (2020) Understanding empowerment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH): a scoping review. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 10 (1). pp. 5-15.

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Abstract

In low- and middle-income countries, a common component of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions is the goal of empowerment of beneficiaries, particularly poor households. Empowerment is viewed as an important development goal in itself, as well as a way to obtain improved WASHoutcomes. However, empowermentis acomplex and multi-dimensional concept, and it is often not clear how it is defined in WASH sector programming. This scoping review explores how concepts of empowerment have been used in the WASH sector and delineates relevant empowerment dimensions. Medline, Embase, and Global Health databases were searched for in the peer-reviewed literature published in English. A total of 13 studies were identified. Five major interrelated empowerment dimensions were identified: access to information, participation, capacity building, leadership and accountability, and decision-making. This review provides researchers and practitioners with a greater understanding of dimensions of empowerment that are relevant for strengthening WASH interventions, as well as tracking progress toward gender and social equality outcomes over time. This understanding can help ensure inclusive WASH service delivery to achieve gender-sensitive Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for universal water and sanitation access.

Item ID:	90939
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2408-9362
Copyright Information:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2026 01:56
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4405 Gender studies > 440504 Gender relations @ 50% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4404 Development studies > 440404 Political economy and social change @ 50%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200204 Health inequalities @ 50% 20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200207 Social structure and health @ 50%
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