Abstract

This paper supports policymakers in assessing how effectively their water-related policies address gender roles, norms, and relations. By integrating the latest thinking on gender mainstreaming with principles from Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Feminist Policy Analysis, we present a Multi-Dimensional Index of Gender in Water Policy (MDI-GWP) — a tool designed to evaluate how gender is represented in water-related policies.

The index enables motivated policy actors to generate well-informed, practical recommendations for policy reform. When applied to 16 of Nepal’s federal water-related policies and acts, the MDI-GWP revealed key insights: it tracked gender policy evolution over the past 30 years, highlighted gaps where gender considerations remain limited, and exposed variations in gender sensitivity across sectors.

We examined policies in water resources management (WRM), agriculture, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The findings suggest that while agriculture and WASH policies in Nepal are moving toward greater gender equity, WRM policies have regressed toward gender blindness.

We believe the MDI-GWP is both simple enough to be applied in other national contexts and robust enough to reveal meaningful opportunities for enhancing gender equity in policy — ultimately contributing to better outcomes for all.