Experience also shows that gender affects the perception of key problems and service deficiencies. It is well established that women are the managers of waste, for example, and of water for domestic use. If male household members have water provided for them on a daily basis and do not participate in its collection, they are unlikely to prioritise it. If the girls and women are the collectors, as is typically the case, they are more than familiar with the problems of waiting times, distances and heavy loads. They are also able to define the impact of inadequate water on other aspects of their lives: teenage girls, for example, who leave school early to queue for water; women and children who are unable to use communal toilet facilities at night due to the threat of rape or violence; or female market vendors who risk travelling long distances in the early hours of the morning to wash vegetables.
However, typically it is the male elite that has the loudest voice within a community and the service needs of poor women are neglected. The political, cultural and social marginalisation of women in many societies means that development processes must find appropriate ways to give space to women to allow them to express their perspectives and participate meaningfully in delivery processes. At a later date they should be asked to provide feedback on the impact of interventions.7 Conventional PPPs have not yet acknowledged or incorporated the large range of gender issues that affect service delivery. The gender aspects of poverty-focused PPPs are introduced in Chapter 7.