Women in infrastructure works: Boosting gender equality and rural development!

Gender is an important but largely neglected aspect of infrastructure planning and provision. Rural women pay a particularly high price for the lack of infrastructure, in time spent accessing water for domestic or agricultural uses, processing and marketing food and other agricultural or non-farm products, collecting firewood and reaching health services for themselves and their families. This ‘time poverty’ limits their ability to develop or access complementary sources of income. Rural infrastructure programmes can enhance women’s participation and benefits – as workers during construction and as beneficiaries of the asset(s) created.