Shifting Power in Haiti's Water and Sanitation Sector

In Haiti’s rural and semi-urban communities, water is not just a commodity — it is a daily struggle, a responsibility and a source of invisible labor overwhelmingly carried by women and girls. They walk the long paths to water points, manage scarce household resources, care for children and absorb the health risks of inadequate sanitation. Yet, paradoxically, they are often excluded from the spaces where decisions about water are made.

The REGLEAU project aimed to shift this imbalance. Its goal was bold: to transform drinking water and sanitation systems (WASH) so that they meet the needs of all people — including women, men, girls and vulnerable groups — by applying a systemic approach to gender and social equity.

A gender and social equity approach

REGLEAU (Renforcement de la Gouvernance Locale de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement / Strengthening Local Governance of Water and Sanitation) was Haiti’s first major effort to bring the overall management of drinking water and sanitation services closer to the people who use them. Although a 2009 reform says that municipalities should run these services, the national water authority, DINEPA, and its regional offices still handle most operations themselves.

The project offered everyone with a leadership role in the current system — including the Interior Ministry, DINEPA, and a few pilot municipalities — a chance to test what real decentralization looks like. From 2018 to 2025, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Helvetas, they’ve been able to try out local planning, contracting and management, and to gain a clearer picture of both the opportunities and the challenges of shifting responsibility to the local level.

Good governance, gender equity and social inclusion were at the heart of the program. REGLEAU’s gender and social equity component was designed to ensure that the specific needs, challenges, perspectives and experiences of women and marginalized groups are not just acknowledged but fully integrated into the program’s activities. Ensuring that all community members can participate in deciding how water and sanitation services are planned and managed helps reduce gender inequalities and contributes to stronger female leadership and improved public health.

To achieve this, REGLEAU’s partners used an inclusive systems approach that strengthened each actor in the WASH ecosystem, from municipalities and water user associations to national institutions and local women’s organizations. Rather than adding “gender activities” on the side, the program integrated gender and social equity into local planning, budgeting, management and oversight mechanisms.

The first step was a comprehensive review of the system, which included the application of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+), a robust analytical process dedicated to understanding gender and vulnerability.

Deepening understanding of inequalities and norms

The process began by mapping the WASH system: institutions, community structures, service operators and user associations. This analysis highlighted not only technical and governance roles but also gendered expectations — revealing where inequalities were reproduced or reinforced.

In this system, municipalities play a central role as service authorities, water user associations represent local interests, private operators manage supply systems, and DINEPA’s regional-based services oversee regulation. Women’s organizations, although active in communities, were frequently not involved or had a limited role in WASH governance.

To deepen understanding of the system, REGLEAU partnered with Fanm Deside, a respected Haitian women’s rights organization, who took the lead on conducting the gender-based analysis. The study explored how gender norms affect water access, safety, time use, affordability, participation and decision making. A series of community meetings and workshops ensured that the study’s findings were collectively owned, not externally imposed. The findings were also presented to key local actors across municipalities, where they were validated with the buy-in of technical authorities and civil society, laying a shared foundation of understanding and agreement on the joint priorities for the next phase.

Building a strategy grounded in reality

Using the findings, Helvetas drafted a gender and social equity strategy with three pillars that addressed the identified structural barriers and the opportunities for transforming the management of Haiti’s water and sanitation systems:

• Strengthen the leadership and voice of women and vulnerable groups. This includes identifying potential women leaders, supporting women’s organizations and reducing barriers to participation.
• Improve systems and infrastructure with a gender lens. This means ensuring privacy, safety and accessibility, adapting water distribution schedules, and incorporating women’s input into infrastructure planning.
• Embed gender and social equity into sector governance and dialogue. This involves integrating gender into monitoring, municipal planning and multi-actor coordination mechanisms.

Once the municipalities provided input and approved the strategy, it was time to operationalize these ideas and begin the process of shifting the power structures that surround this critical resource.

Women leading water governance

A standout achievement has been the promotion of women's leadership in local water user associations. Through advocacy, REGLEAU encouraged each association to elect at least one woman to positions such as president, secretary or treasurer. Training sessions addressed leadership, negotiation and breaking the “glass ceiling” — helping women build confidence and agency.

Financial empowerment was another key pillar. With support from the program, women formed Village Savings and Loan Associations. These groups allow women to save collectively and access small loans. The associations have become engines of change: Women use their funds to start micro-businesses, pay school fees or invest in household improvements. Over time, increased financial autonomy has translated into greater confidence in public spaces, including in WASH governance structures.

Making services work for everyone

Gender equity is not only about representation — it is also about ensuring that infrastructure meets real needs. As part of the program, communities, municipalities and private operators collaborated on simple improvements that directly affected the well‑being and safety of women and girls. These included: adapting water distribution schedules to align with women’s daily rhythms; ensuring sanitation facilities (public or household) allow privacy and dignity; positioning water points in safe locations; and including washing and bathing areas in system designs from the outset.

To shift social norms, the program developed community campaigns on shared domestic responsibilities, menstrual hygiene rights and management, and the value of women’s leadership. These campaigns were run by water user associations and community-based organizations, creating local legitimacy.

Barriers and breakthroughs

Despite numerous advances, the journey to more inclusive WASH systems has not always been smooth. Traditional gender norms continue to influence perceptions of women’s roles. Some men resist women's leadership, and in rural areas, intimidation may still prevent women from running for elected positions.

“When it comes to women in leadership positions, we have a water user association with a woman elected as secretary, and we also have a female private operator managing a water system,” says Jean Ronald Louis, Director General of the Bainet municipality. “This has been a significant struggle for us, because in our society, Haitian men often want to stay in control. They need to understand that women can and should get involved, and that to promote a more socially democratic approach, we must encourage everyone to take on leadership roles. Fanm Deside organized a competition for women to present their income generating activity plans, and three women from Bainet received grants.”

Change is happening — slowly, but noticeably. Women are stepping into leadership positions in water user associations, managing water schemes and running successful village savings and loan groups. And community views are beginning to shift.

What will it take to scale change?

Several key lessons for future programming were identified over the course of the REGLEAU program, including:

• Co-create gender and social equity strategies with municipalities from the outset to ensure ownership and sustainability.
• Introduce annual municipal gender and social equity plans and monitor progress systematically.
• Establish quotas for women in municipal WASH units to improve gender balance in local water governance.
• Scale Village Savings and Loan Associations as a proven tool for economic empowerment and leadership development.
• Use peer learning — such as sharing success stories between municipalities — to accelerate change.
• Invest strategically in income-generating activities that reinforce women’s empowerment pathways.

Together, these actions can lay the groundwork for lasting and inclusive change. REGLEAU’s gender and social equity approach shows that transforming water governance is not only about infrastructure — it is about shifting mindsets, redistributing power and enabling women to shape decisions and systems that shape their daily lives. Combining institutional strengthening, women’s and community empowerment, and public and private service improvements enables local leaders to deliver WASH services for all.

About the Authors

John Brogan is the Senior Advisor for WASH Systems Strengthening at Helvetas.

Jean Louis Detheonome is the REGLEAU Project Coordinator at Helvetas Haiti.