About the dashboard

La base de données comprend des données originales du Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers report and new data collected since as part of efforts to close data gaps on female representation in jobs in the water sector.

As part of the commitment to deliver more and better jobs for women, the HR survey has recently been upgraded and is now administered digitally. This enhanced survey includes new questions specifically addressing the gender pay gap and indirect employment, allowing institutions to gain deeper insights into equity and representation. The tool is starting to collect this information in 2026.

The dataset began with a focus on opportunities and approaches that water and sanitation service providers can adopt to eliminate the barriers to employment and advancement women face in the water sector. It has since been expanded to include water resource management institutions.

This dataset contains global and regional averages for gender diversity, inclusive policies, and female-friendly work environment. Data collection is ongoing and open for water institutions more broadly.

Data collection is ongoing among World Bank client water institutions—if you would like to contribute to this benchmarking exercise, please email equalaqua@worldbank.org.

Purpose

Enable policy makers, funders, and public and private entities in water sector to:

  • Visualize gender equity patterns across water institutions globally.
  • Compare performance across regions, income levels, and fragile contexts
  • Export customized maps and aggregated data metrics.

Data Sources

La base de données comprend des données originales du Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers report and new data collected among World Bank client water institutions using paper based HR- survey and digitized HR-survey adopted in 2026.


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Methodology
Database Overview

The public database contains data from 304 institutions, including WSS and WRM utilities (public and private institutions).

The dashboard publishes regional averages, excluding national averages according to the criteria matching scorecard standards: 1) all public utilities regardless of staff size; 2) private service providers with 10+ staff (based on ILO's informal organization definition)..

Small Private Water Operators (PWOs), which are usually family-owned or privately owned, are excluded from the database because they are considered informal firms by ILO standards if they have fewer than 10 employees. However, what counts as 'informal' can change depending on factors like whether the business is registered for taxes, how much they produce, who they serve, and their number of employees. This database uses only workforce with more than 10 employees.

Definitions

Water or Wastewater/Sanitation Service Providers - WSS

WSS include institutions that provide water or wastewater/sanitation services such as public utilities, privately owned water operators and local government/ municipal service providers. Institutions must have paid employees. A water institution can be defined as an “utility”, whether it provides only water services, only wastewater or sanitation services, or both. Other factors include the amount of water produced, the population served, the number of customers connected to the water supply, the length of the water network, the number of towns supplied with water, and the density of the water system (population served per unit length of the network).

Water Resource Management institution - WRM

WRMs include such as irrigation agencies, river basin organizations, dam safety organizations and other water regulatory authorities. Institutions must have paid employees and as such, community-level water user associations, farmers’ organizations, or other types of community-based organizations and committees are not included under the WRM institutions in the Equal Aqua database. In March 2024, several “irrigation and land reclamation” institutions were added as they are considered as state agencies providing irrigation services to farmers under the government delivering fee-based services'.

Calculation Methodologies

Workforce Composition: Workforce composition (women vs. men) is calculated as the number of women in each category ÷ total in the same category. Workforce categories include total employees, licensed engineers, managers at all hierarchical levels, board members, and Managing Directors/CEOs.

Employment Dynamics: Time-based metrics examine 12-month periods. Recent recruit percentages calculate female new hires divided by total new hires. Promotion and exit rate metrics follow identical methodology using the same temporal framework.

Training and Development: Institutional-level calculations measure the number of institutions with programs ÷ total responding institutions. Programs include technical training (formal skill development), leadership training (management development), and structured mentorship programs.

Infrastructure Support: Same institutional-level approach measuring methodology applies to gender-separated toilet facilities, childcare support (either on-site or subsidized), and private lactation rooms.

Policy Framework: Institutional assessments covering formal gender strategies/targets/quotas, flexible working arrangements (remote work, flexible hours), and written sexual harassment prevention policies.

Data Quality Considerations

When institutions do not respond to HR questions about specific indicators, that excludes non-responding institutions from specific metric denominators. Regional averages represent simple averages of institutional percentages within regions. Global averages weigh all institutions equally regardless of the size. Geographic filters recalculate percentages based on filtered subsets. Notation n = 0 indicates no regional institutions provided data for specific questions, affecting regional comparison reliability.

References

  • 1 World Bank. 2017. Global study on the Aggregation of WSS Utilities (using IBNET data)
  • World Bank. 2019. Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32319 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
  • Klien, Michael. 2017. Statistical Analysis: Global Study on the Aggregation of Water Supply and Sanitation Utilities. World Bank, Washington, DC.
  • International Labour Organization (2003): Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment, endorsed by the Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (November-December 2003); in: Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (Geneva, 24 November - 3 December 2003), Report of the Conference; Doc. ICLS/17/2003/R; International Labour Office, Geneva, 2003

Update Logs

Data last updated: March 2026