CONTEXT AND INITIATIVE
In Jordan, the educational system ensures equal access to girls and boys, women and men. This has provided a highly educated female population with the potential to advance Jordan’s economic, social, and political development. Despite this, women in Jordan often remain sidelined and deprived of the ability to unleash their potentials due to enduring social norms and traditions.
Against this background and the fact that plumbing in Jordan has been a men’s (only) occupation, while water management inside the house is the housewife’s responsibility the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and GIZ support the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in promoting employability and economic empowerment of women in the water sector.
GENDER – A QUALITY FEATURE OF OUR WORK
The Women Wise Plumbers Initiative applies a gender-transformative approach: training both men and women in plumbing as a certified occupation from the Jordan Vocational Training Cooperation. While certified male plumbers easily find employment in the labour market this is not the case for women. Gender disaggregated data and a results based monitoring system were instrumental in identifying opportunities to empower women, improve their confidence and self-esteem and build their leadership capacity and organisational skills. Female plumbers were also supported to acquire additional licenses from the Jordanian Centre of Accreditation and Quality Assurance “CAQA” to work as plumbers and establish Wise Women Plumber Cooperatives (WWPC).
IMPACTS & RESULTS
The WWPC provide the female plumbers with a legal and socially accepted framework to work independently and provide diversified water-saving and water loss-reduction services not only to private homes but also to institutions (e.g. schools for girls, universities, clinics). To further enhance the women’s ability to compete in a male dominated sector WWPC also offers a fully equipped plumbing toolbox and training on businesses skills and plans resulting in increased income. WWPC has a great impact on women as most of them had never worked outside the house before or generated any money. The social acceptance of women plumbers is now different from 4 years ago.
The support of governmental institutions and public NGOs is reflected in the National Women Plumbing Campaign under the umbrella of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation or via the different NGOs and local cooperations willing to adapt the same concept to their societies. Cooperation with other GIZ projects in Jordan like “Promotion of training to improve efficiency in the water and energy sector – TWEED” and “Water Programme” are helping to ensure sustainable outcomes.
Download the full information here: 2018 EN GenderAward RollUp Jordan
The competition entry can be downloaded here: 2018 EN Project Documentation Empowerment Of Gender Through Water Wise Plumbers
Have a look at the results of the second screen survey during the Gender Award Ceremony:
————————————————————–
Contact:
Dirk Winkler / Hend Al Shdaifat
Vocational Training and Skill Enhancement for Jordanians and Syrian Refugees
E: dirk.winkler@giz.de
E: hind.alshdaifat@giz.de