Page 16 - GESI Framework

Gender Equality and social inclusion framework

10.3 Annex 3 – GESI focused “View from the Field” ‘case studies

Abibata Ouattara: Access to water for women-led farming is a win
for communities

Ouattara suggests that to overcome the lack of access
to land, the government should reserve a percentage of
land developed in irrigation projects for women. She
also emphasizes the importance of adapting certain
infrastructure to meet the needs of women, such as the
design of more user-friendly means of excavation.
Finally, she stresses the necessity for governments to
improve women’s access to grants and loans for
irrigation.

Ouattara is a quality, safety, and environmental engineer
who specializes in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
in humanitarian contexts. She also obtained an executive
master’s degree in development policy and practice, with
a focus on how development projects can be adapted to
unstable contexts such as Burkina Faso.

Her interest in humanitarian assistance led her to found a
local association to help vulnerable people, especially
women and children, in need.

"There is nothing more exhilarating
than serving others and, as a woman,
Abibata Ouattara, water security specialist, Burkina Faso. ©Abibata it is always with a joyful heart that one
Ouattara
supports other women," says Ouattara.
Abibata Ouattara of Burkina Faso firmly believes in the value "In fact, there is no greater joy than that
of water and women—and in their intersection. of dedicating oneself to others."

“With water, we have health. With water,
we have the financial resources. With
water, we have access to better food.”

Ouattara is a water security specialist for Winrock
International, a global nonprofit organization based in
the United States that has projects in such areas as
water security, climate change, agriculture, and
resilience. She recently worked on a CIWA project to
uncover the challenges of access to groundwater for
irrigation by farmers in the Sahel, focusing on the
constraints that women in Burkina Faso face when
deploying groundwater irrigation.

She says that women encounter several major obstacles
to groundwater irrigation. First, there is a lack of access
to land because of socio-cultural constraints that
discourage women’s land ownership. Moreover, women
are reluctant to invest in wells and boreholes if they do
not have secure access to land. Second, there is limited
access to irrigation technologies, starting with lack of
information about technology and related issues. Third,
there is lack of access to financial resources to buy
equipment and other agricultural infrastructure. Ouattara working in the field, Burkina Faso. ©Abibata Ouattara

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