Water and Aid in Mozambique
Gendered Perspectives of Change

Centres community voices to analyse the contested and unintentional social impacts of water projects in rural Mozambique.

Emily Van Houweling (Author)

9781009193481, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 August 2022

228 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'A brilliant, well-grounded revelation of the realities of international development aid policy and implementation from the perspectives of the 'beneficiaries': women customary water managers of the matrilineal Makhuwa 'participating' in a large handpumps project. A highly accessible story of interwoven vivid descriptions of local encounters, critical theory, and personal reflection.' Barbara van Koppen, International Water Management Institute

Analysing how water development projects unfolded in five rural communities in Mozambique, Emily Van Houweling offers an alternative perspective on water and the politicised nature of water management in the region. Using a hydro-social cycle framework, she demonstrates how water is tied to everyday life in matrilineal Nampula and how social relations, gender roles, and local politics were reconfigured during the project. While centring the experience of community members, Van Houweling also includes the perspectives of project implementers, showing how project plans were translated and negotiated as they worked their way down to the community. Employing the concept of organisational culture, Van Houweling reveals the tensions that resulted from different actors' decision-making processes and motivations, and illuminates possible explanations for the gaps between policy and practice. Exploring women's empowerment, community ownership, and participation, this book facilitates innovative ways for thinking about evaluation, sustainability, and gender-water relations.

1. Introduction
2. Divergent development discourses
3. Life before the handpumps
4. Sustainability and sense of ownership
5. The politics of water access
6. Gender roles and water practices with the handpumps
7. Development encounters
8. Conclusions
Glossary
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], African history [HBJH]