What should a government do to meet its duty under Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol? RFLD’s policy brief, Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, gives a practical answer in seven recommendations to States Parties. This article sets them out, with the evidence behind each one.
The seven recommendations
- Report on Article 15 in every periodic report to the African Commission.
- Include a gender chapter in national water laws and codes.
- Set binding quotas of at least 40% women in water bodies.
- Introduce a WASH gender budget marker.
- Make every school and health facility safe for women and girls.
- Measure safety at water points in national surveys.
- Ratify the Maputo Protocol where this has not yet been done.
1. Report on Article 15
Article 26(1) of the Protocol requires States to report on the measures they have taken. The brief asks States to cover Article 15 in every periodic report, using the checklist in its annex. Reports should include sex-disaggregated data on access and on time spent collecting water. They should also cover safety. Without this, the African Commission cannot assess progress.
2. Write gender into water law
The water laws reviewed in the brief, in Benin and Cameroon, contain no provision on women or gender. The brief asks States to add a gender chapter, starting with the revisions under way in Senegal and Cameroon. It should include a duty to reduce women’s time burden and to guarantee safe access at any time of day. These duties come straight from Guidelines 22.1 and 22.2 of the African Commission’s Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa.
3. Put women in the room
Women hold 14.86% of seats in Burkina Faso’s water management bodies, against a 30% national target. In Nigeria, they hold about 5% of state water commissioner posts. The brief asks for binding quotas of at least 40% women in water user associations, municipal water committees, basin authorities and national regulators. This reflects Article 18(2)(a) of the Protocol, which calls for “greater participation of women” in managing natural resources.
4. Follow the money
Article 26(2) obliges States to provide “budgetary and other resources” for the rights in the Protocol. The brief found no water-specific gender budget tracker covering West African countries. In Nigeria, UNICEF found only one federal gender budget line in the water sector, with no evidence that it was funded. The brief asks States to introduce a WASH gender budget marker and to report on it under Article 26(2), and to publish water budgets that show who benefits.
5. Safe schools and health facilities
Only 45% of schools in sub-Saharan Africa had basic drinking water in 2023. Only 1 in 10 had bins for menstrual waste. The brief asks States to make every school and health facility a safe place for women and girls. That means water, separate and lockable toilets, menstrual facilities and lighting.
6. Count the risk
No nationally representative survey in West Africa measures violence experienced during water collection. Yet a South African study found that 25.9% of young women had experienced violence while collecting water or using toilets. The brief asks States to add a module on safety at water points to the Demographic and Health Surveys and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys.
7. Ratify
Nine African Union Member States have not ratified the Maputo Protocol, according to the African Commission’s 2026 Advocacy Framework for Withdrawing Reservations. In West and Central Africa, the brief names Niger and Chad. In Chad, more than half of households rely on women to fetch water, according to the WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. Ratification would give these women a legal claim under Article 15. It would also bring the duty to report under Article 26.
A realistic agenda
None of these steps requires a new treaty. Most require political will and modest technical changes: a chapter in a law, a question in a survey, a tag in a budget, a quota in a committee’s rules. Several countries are already moving. Senegal is revising its Water Code. Cameroon has committed to revising its water law. Ghana has funded free sanitary pads for schoolgirls. Niger tracks menstrual health in its water sector programme.
Parliamentarians, national human rights institutions, journalists and women’s organisations can use this list to question ministries and follow progress. For country-level legal information, see RFLD’s country law profiles.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
