A watershed is the area of land or topography that drains into a common outlet which may be a river, lake, and stream. It is separated from other watersheds by high points in the area such as hills or slopes. It includes not only the waterway itself but also the entire land area that drains to it [1]. Watershed degradation alters the distribution, intensity and frequency of surface runoff. Developing countries are vulnerable to extremes of watershed degradation, and deterioration is likely to increase the frequency and magnitude of some extreme flood events and disasters [2]. Community based participation refers to the more subjective, nebulous and humanistic dimension of integrated watershed management that taps into the collective willingness of different stakeholders to continuously collaborate in solving complex problems for the attainment of a more sustainable integrated watershed management [3].

Community based participation in watershed management need for decentralization in decision-making and active involvement of stakeholders in watershed management related issues [4]. The assumption being that decisions taken by and with stakeholders would be better informed and therefore can improve negotiation among stakeholder groups to achieve more rational and equitable solutions. It is the major possible success factor to drive the problems related to watershed management. This type of approach in watershed conservation and protection level could improve long-term stakeholder participation and collaboration in integrated watershed management, and contribute to more effective and targeted strategies [5]. Community participation is an active process by which beneficiaries or groups influence the direction and execution of a development project with a view to enhancing their well-being in terms of income, personal growth and self-reliance. Community members must own and control the process by making decisions as to its progress and design activities that will subsequently enable them achieve the desired goal. What gives real meaning to popular participation is the collective effort by the people concerned to pool their resources to attain their objectives [6].

Watershed development program is an important tool to overcome many problems such as; poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, land degradation, water deterioration and it can also potential ladder for agriculture production enhancement and development in staggering rain-fed areas [7]. Management of natural resources at watershed level provides multiple benefits in case of maximizing food production, enhancing livelihoods, and protecting environment, concentrating gender and equity issues along with biodiversity programs [1]. The agricultural sector in many developing countries has been under poor performing due to the reason that discriminate females who represent a milestone in agriculture and the rural economy through their comprehensive roles as farmers, laborers and entrepreneurs [8]. However in the last two decades, many Western-European countries have witnessed an increase in female employment as a consequence of cultural, political and economic change. Even though little bit is changed, evidence also shows that there are tremendous disparities in men’s and women’s access to and control over key assets.

Women usually have fewer assets and rights than men, are more vulnerable to loss of these assets and rights due to separation, divorce, or widowhood, and have less access to capital, extension, inputs, and resources for agricultural production. But women often have positive effects on important development outcomes including household food security, watershed management and human capital formation. Therefore, helping women gain more access to and control of key assets could help achieve many development gains and improvements in human well-being, and this may be particularly important in the context of climate change [9]. Many decades before, integrated and sustainable watershed management has been triggered and tried in several countries in the world, as an effective way to address holistic water and land resource challenges. However its successful implementation has not been successful due to various barriers [10]. In Ethiopia, this approach is new and requires appropriate platforms to overcome the barriers and practice effective inclusive and sustainable watershed management. In order to design suitable and effective strategies, it is necessary to understand watershed management approaches implemented by different watershed projects at various spatial levels, which encourage or prohibit integration, sustainability and coordination [10].

Women are involved in daily labor, village level meetings, decision making, planning, as leadership in watershed management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation about the watershed development process even if their degree of participation is not equivalent with men [11]. Effective watershed management therefore requires the participation of women in watershed management schemes. However, there is currently little information on how to engage these user groups in the context of watershed management in Ethiopia. There is a need for a detailed understanding of how to empower women and other user groups that have traditionally been excluded from taking an active part in planning for watershed management in Ethiopia [12]. The objective of this review is to examine opportunities and challenge of women participation in watershed management in Ethiopia, what problems and constraints are retard women from equally participation in watershed management, and in which aspect women are involve related to watershed management.

Concept of watershed management

Before a time, the concept of watershed management basically concerned on the management of natural resources in river valleys, strategy to slow down rapid runoff and reduce excessive soil erosion, as well to minimize the rate of sedimentation of reservoirs. But now a day, the general objectives of watershed development and management programs consider the watershed as the hydrological unit, and intend to adopt suitable measures for soil and water conservation, supply adequate water for agriculture and domestic use, and improve the livelihoods of the inhabitants [13].

The term watershed describes an area of land in which waters drain towards the common outlet or lower point of destination. Watershed management is a comprehensive, integrated multi-resource management planning process that asserts the balance between watershed and human activities. It also leads healthy ecological, strengthen economic, and cultural/social conditions within a watershed. In general, it implies the systematic use of natural resources such as land, water and biomass in a watershed to get optimum production with minimum disturbance to the environment [14]. Watershed management serves to integrate planning for land and water; it takes into account both underground and surface water flow, recognizing and managing for the interaction of water, plants, animals and human land use found within the boundaries of a watershed. It can vary in size, and every stream, tributary, or river has an associated watershed. Its boundaries can easily be delineated using a topographical map that shows the ridges associated with the various drainages and the mouth of the stream or river where water flows out of the watershed [10].

The term participation refers to all stakeholders including women, children and young people who have influence or contribution when decisions are being made that affect them, and who are being actively involved in decision-making processes. It is a process rather than an event, with different level of involvement from being consulted on a predetermined issue to young people choosing their agenda, making their own decisions and taking them continued. There are a number of models which describe degrees of participation [15]. Women play a significant role in agricultural production and watershed management especially in rural area. But they have faced many challenges and constraints pertaining with traditional culture and social problems. They can make essential influence to the agricultural development and rural economies in all developing countries. Their roles may be vary substantially between and within regions and are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are transforming the agricultural sector [14]. Rural women can often manage complex household situation and pursue multiple livelihood approaches. Their activities normally include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. Many of these activities are not defined as economically active employment in national accounts but they are very crucial to the wellbeing of rural households [8]. In Ethiopia Watershed management was only concerned as a practice of soil and water conservation. Gender inequality persists globally in basic areas like income, education, economic security, and gender-related violence. In recent years, increased attention has directed at the contribution of institutions to the perpetuation of gender stratification. There is little research on whether those gender inequitable attitudes contribute to unequal outcomes for women [4].

Potentials of women’s participation in watershed management

Women play important roles to help their family in particular and their community in general in agricultural activities, in the world. But the most surprising thing is that the community has not significantly under stood the effort that they exert in the last several years. Women are involved in agricultural and rural development representing more than half of the labor required to produce food consumed in developing country [10]. Ethiopian women have played a traditional role of motherhood and home maker in both rural and urban areas. However, their work has never been restricted only in the household and family. They are actively involved in all aspects of their social life. Women are both producers and processors and they are active participant in the social and cultural activities of the community. However, the important roles they play have not been acknowledged [3]. Participation indicates the involvement of different things and different people. Throughout the diverse stages of watershed management, many assessments have experimented with various forms of participation, to make representative in decision making, to negotiated decisions and actions. Governments and NGOs have accepted that protection of watersheds cannot be succeeded without the eager participation of local women’s. For successful and sustainable watershed management, females’ involvement is essential not only for execution of soil and water conservation activities like terracing, bunding but also during preparation of sustainable management of land and water resources [10]. Among different forms and aspects of women participation in watershed management, usual and frequents are listed below.

Participation in problem identification

This enabled identification of a major issue and problems affecting the normal existence of natural watershed, includes the decline in fuel wood access due to changes in forest cover and access, reduction in crop productivity, deterioration of wildlife distribution and their habitat, quality and base flow of rivers or water bodies. The participation of people in the community is the soundest strategy to problem identification because of there is widespread experience from individuals with participatory techniques and lower transaction costs. However, in appreciation of the influence of more dominator individuals on effective participation approaches lead at greater social disputation. Farmers are closer enough to the real problems, and therefore they are aware of issues that experts and guests may forget or miss, and their intention is more practical for economic development. To identify the main watershed problems from the viewpoint of varied social groups, focus group discussions by gender, age and wealth were utilized in several benchmark sites. It implies that, women play a great role in providing information on their surrounding watershed problems and they also identify and assess problems as coordinators. Participation in problem definition can also be operational through the identification of strategic leverage points or ‘turn keys’ from a social perspective [16]. Community development starts with the identification of a need or the realization that there is a need. For any development to succeed there must be participation by stakeholders and beneficiaries. They must understand their needs, be able to priorities and rank them according to the severity of the needs; they must understand how the problem affects them including their causes and effects. They must also be involved in assessing the options available to them given their resource base. Participatory needs identification by community members is important because once they collectively conceive a problem and priorities it they then move it to the stage of appreciating its extent and the process of solving it. If they do not participate in needs identification, even if the need is identified with the assistance of the outside world they will not legitimize it. This leads to greater chances at the implementation stage.

Participation in planning and implementation: Watershed action plans must be discussed between different users with different level of rank and degree of influence. When attempting to ensure effective participation in watershed planning, several issues should be taken into consideration: the level at which planning is carried out, whether to plan for multiple issues simultaneously or around specific issues, and how to address social trade-offs in decision making. In decision making at the watershed level, appointed representatives including women and establish a plan for more widespread feedback and authenticated decisions have been taken [16]. Participatory development approach has been linked with people and their desires to make decisions that influence back their daily activities. The central point to these stockholders participation in decision making process is the voluntary involvement in the identification, planning and management of their needs without external enforcement. Women participation in project planning and implementation is significant in improving development at the community level, a critical tool and sustainable development and a foundation for national sustainable and persuaded development.

Fostering effective participation during implementation can be seen in terms of greater numbers of participants, or in terms of negotiation of rights and responsibilities among diverse groups. Initially, collective tasks which require being process are a vehicle for greater access to program benefits due to higher numbers of participants. Collective action can be achieved through both voluntary and authoritarian means and either further or reduce existing inequities. It is therefore critical that collective action be seen as a conceptual framework for enabling equitable stakeholder involvement in implementation processes [16].

Participation in monitoring and evaluation: Monitoring is a continuous process of collecting and analyzing information to compare how well a project, programmed or policy is being implemented against expected results. Monitoring aims at providing managers and major stakeholders with regular feedback and early indications of progress or lack thereof in the achievement of intended results. It generally involves collecting and analyzing data on implementation processes, strategies and results, and recommending corrective measures. Evaluation is the systematic assessment of an ongoing or completed project, program or policy, its design, implementation and results. It determines and checks whether the objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability fulfilled. An evaluation should give information that is useful, enabling combination of essential issues into the decision making process. Participatory monitoring & evaluation (PM&E) is a process through which stakeholders including women at various levels engage in monitoring or evaluating a particular project, program or policy [17]. Stakeholders including women should involve in implementation, monitoring and evaluation which modify the plan quality and helps address local development needs. It also increases the sense of being possession or ownership of watershed activities and natural resource within the watershed. Participation in watershed management also contributes to selfreliance in other policy implementation, improve communication and collaboration between women and men who are working at different levels and finally promotes the likelihood that the plan and policy activities and their impact would be sustainable [18].

Woman’s as labor force: Women in sub-Saharan Africa have relatively high labor force participation rates and the highest average agricultural labor-force participation rates in the world. Women encompass an average of 43% of labor force in agricultural sector in developing countries. This shows that most domestic workers in households are female [16]. However, according to the study, females share agricultural labor force ranges from about 20% in Latin America to 50% in Eastern and Southeastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Watershed management encompasses both individual plots and common property resources like forests, springs, gullies, roads and footpaths, and vegetation along streams and rivers. Women's participation in agriculture varies by region, product, and task performed. In Africa, women tend to work smaller and less remunerative plots [19]. Their lower productivity, even within a household is typically related to different access to productive resources. Similarly, land access tends to be gender-biased and women seldom keep land rights, especially upon marriage dissolution. However, changing social and economic circumstances during the last decades have affected women's participation in agricultural production. In response to this, government efforts have been directed to improve women's access to agricultural services, mainly extension and credit [20].

Woman’s as productive power: The growth of production usually involves integration and coordination of women and females and there are signs that under the present agricultural development system to involve in part of stakeholder participation are approaching a level where they balance the benefits. Women are very closely associated with many actions relating to appropriation of natural/agricultural resources and their products. Many tasks rely directly with females is collection of fuel-wood, fodder, forest produce, and fetching water for household use and sharing larger agricultural operations. But this participation by women is treated as insignificant. Not only women are invaluable on most works, but also they are discouraged from participating in the meetings and training programs [7]. However, many experiences show that when women are considering and opportunities are given, they can participate actively in the meetings and training aspect and are able to identify their problems and suggest solutions equivalently with men [21]. Women and men, in the country are engaged in a range of productive activities essential to household welfare, agricultural productivity, and economic growth. Yet women's substantial contribution continues to be systematically marginalized and undervalued in conventional agricultural and economic analyses and policies. Still, Women are characterized as economically inactive and passive in case of bringing better output. Agricultural extension, specifically watershed management, services still does not attach much importance to reaching women farmers or women on the farm [11].

Challenges of women participation in watershed management

Currently, developing policies that focus on the needs of women is not just a political priority rather for an economic imperative. Fundamentally, women play a key role in linking agriculture and nutrition outcomes due to mother’s breastfeeding, household decision on feeding related issues, and the preparation of other family meals. Globally, there is a significant gender gap in agricultural participation. If women had the same opportunities as men in case of production, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30% [22].

In developing countries like Ethiopia there are traditional perceptions and ill-attitudes among the society toward the women’s equally participation in any aspect of agriculture and watershed management activities. These perceptions were deep rooted in the society and greatly affect the women’s role in the economy. A deeprooted negative perception of the society towards the empowerment of women, directly or indirectly, has been reflected in the government sector in employment and remuneration schemes. Culture is a major constraint to rural women groups that prohibit their equal participation as men. Women have the least access to land resources and control over thus resources such as agricultural services like credit and training that are necessary for increasing yields and moving from subsistence to market oriented production [9]. Women participation in our country has experienced some type of violence in their lifetime. This violence can have serious and long-lasting effects on women’s mental and productive capacity.

Demographic factors: Variables of women’s such as education, age and marital status were significantly related to level of their participation in agricultural activities and programs. This implies that, the higher the educational level of the farmer, higher the chances of getting better involvement or the higher the tendency to be involved in politics and on ground operations. Low level of education leads to disadvantages among rural women when compared to male villagers. Many researchers has approved that education is a critical factor affecting an individual’s ability related to economic, social, and political opportunities. Education partially determines an individual’s cognitive skills, social and political capitals, and civic competence [23]. And women’s who are categorized under aged (elder) group have less chance or opportunities to participate. Women’s marital status also another factor which influences their level of participation in watershed management programmes. Most of the successful watershed management program me participants opined that they have a good understanding, support and encouragement from their husbands in terms of advice and funding. One possible explanation with regards to household size for this relationship with level of participation might be that most of the participants now discourage the over reliance on family labor on the farm to enable their children have access to formal education [24].

Institutional factors: While the current institutions of village election and self-governance have provided the necessary foundation for women’s involvement in local governance, many problems still need to be fixed to ensure a stronger representation and more active involvement by women. Many have pointed out insufficiencies in the law itself. The weakness of the Women’s Federation also exerts substantial damage on females’ enthusiasm for political participation (decision making process). Compared to male candidates, female candidates lack access to local mobilization resources such as lineages or upper level government offices. With the increasing competitiveness of village elections, women candidates should be able to draw support from the Women’s Federation in order to win. While recent decades have seen unprecedented numbers of girls succeeding in education, women entering the paid workforce and running successful businesses, patterns of gender inequality continue to persist. Social institutions can help explain what is stopping women and girls from achieving equal outcomes in areas such as education, employment, business, health and political participation. Women inequality is actively maintained or mediated by political and institutional category, policies and practices. Yet while greater attention is being focused on agricultural issues from a gender-differentiated perspective. Gender efforts have limited impact and lenient practices around resource management, access, and governance of natural resources often destabilize public water systems and erode public trust. Strategies for watershed management without embedded gender equality and adequate community engagement and confidence building are ineffectual [11]. There are two major constraints affect the activity of watershed management. Formal constraints is one of the most important is property rights by formal laws, it is a small portion of the rules that govern society; informal constraints are probably more important and numerous in practice, come from socially transmitted information, and are considered part of culture [25].

Socio-cultural factors: There are discriminatory social norms which reinforce the role of men as the primary breadwinner and female employment as secondary. Most countries agree that men are more entitled to a job than women when jobs are scarce. A few developed countries appear to have the least discriminatory attitudes while about one-third of Poles and Koreans appear to think that men have more rights to a job than women when labor demand is weak. Cultural norms in the region have long encouraged women to be economically self-reliant and traditionally give women substantial responsibility for agricultural production in their own right. Regional data for sub- Saharan Africa conceal wide differences among countries. Beyond housework in Ethiopia in general has the work of men whether it is culturally prohibited. However, a few women farmers claimed that they would help and take part in watershed conservation and plowing if they have an opportunity to take part. Among the benchmark household, a woman-headed household bought an ox with credit and made an arrangement that their neighbor could use the available resource and in return manage their land. Some cultural beliefs and values promote gender-based violence. It implies that once a woman has had children for a man, she is duty bound to stay with the man, no matter the level of gender-based violence experienced. This statement is in line that women remain in abusive relationship because of the care and concern for their children. The women may fear that if they leave, their children could become victims of both neglect and abuse. Most rural residence agreed that sex role socialization promotes gender-based violence, which means that women are not complete without a man or there is no equality between men and women [26]. Special training is strongly needed to enable women to participate actively and effectively by articulating their views, insights and perspectives on local climate change and water-related challenges. Issues such as how to elicit and motivate effective public involvement among economically stressed groups in civil society, how to easily convey and discuss complex ecological issues in public workshops, and how to build bridges between disadvantaged local communities and public officials at the watershed level.

Religious impact: Different religions have various positive and negative roles on women are which may encourage or hinder their activity. In hierarchical structures, however, a dominant factor in shaping gender attitudes is the views held by those at the top of the religious structure at any given point in time. An individual’s religious denomination may influence gender norms and outcomes, implying that some religions could be more patriarchal than others [4]. Insofar as religions inculcate attitudes that promote a gender hierarchy and rigid gender roles with women as caretakers, there can be direct effects in everyday behavior that disadvantage women. Women may feel pressure to quit work when they have children. Employers may hire or promote men over women. Religiosity is indeed strongly linked to gender inequitable beliefs. Not only religion matters, of course. The gender gap in attitudes is wide, with men showing evidence of holding more inequitable gender attitudes than women [27].

Women empowerment in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has prioritized the advancement of gender equality and opportunities through the development and implementation of several national plans and frameworks which include the first National Policy on Women in 1993 followed by the promulgation of Constitution in 1995 that calls for equal rights of women, including Affirmative Action to bridge existing gaps. In line with this, Ethiopia has revised discriminatory legal provisions in the Family Law and Penal Code, showing a firm political commitment to gender equality and the advancement of women. Among the strategies applied to translate policies and legal provisions into actions is the setting up of institutional mechanism for the advancement of women ranging from the national to regional, extending to the lowest administrative units [28]. Women in Ethiopia account for 50 percent of the population but do not equally participate in and benefit from development and progress. Despite the positive policy environment created, and progress for women in Ethiopia, their participation in key anti-poverty and development programmers and sectors and their role in decisionmaking are still minimal.

Compared to men, women in Ethiopia are clearly in a disadvantageous position in all respects; they benefit less from social services and hold inferior positions in all economic, political, social, and cultural affairs. Women suffer mainly in terms of food intake in times of extreme environmental and watershed change events, but men also face negative consequences due to food shortages. This is because women are the main providers of food and meals for their families; women may bear a greater burden to fulfill this task when climate events occur. As the change of watershed occurs, women lost the fruits, vegetables, chickens, and ducks from their home yards. These losses seriously affected women’s ability to feed their families since they previously obtained a significant portion of their daily food from their own yards [29].

The importance of gender equality is highlighted in its prominence in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. Of the eight goals, four are directly related to gender (including women empowerment). Ethiopian female in most families is of lower status and commands little respect relative to her brothers and male counterparts. As soon as she is able, she starts caring for younger siblings, helps in food preparation, and spends long hours hauling water and fetching firewood [30].

International and national legal frameworks for promoting women: The National Women Policy of 1993 underscored the need to move towards an institutionalized strategy for women’s empowerment through policy frameworks and gender equality structures within government. The policy called for the establishment of women’s machineries at all levels: federal, regional and sub-regional. This resulted in the establishment of the Women’s Affairs Office (WAO) within the Prime Minister’s Office and its subsidiary structures i.e., the Women’s Affairs Departments (WADs) in all government ministries and public organizations and Women’s Affairs Bureaus (WABs) in all regional government offices. The structure was replicated to the subregional levels where Women’s Affairs Departments and Women’s Affairs

Divisions were formed at the Zonal and Woreda level respectively as well as Women’s Affairs Units at the Kebele level [31]. In response to these imbalances and the many problems women encounter, the Government of Ethiopia has made a number of efforts to address gender equality issues. These include adopting or ratifying relevant international instruments pertaining to gender; designing national instruments, including the Ethiopian Constitution and various other policies; and establishing the national machinery for addressing gender issues including Major international commitments The Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), The Beijing Platform for Action (PFA), and Ethiopia has signed is the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, major legal instruments, including the Constitution, established by the Government. The government of Ethiopia merged farmers’ priorities with technical specifications for watershed and soil management [14].

Coordination Mechanisms and promote women-friendly: The coordination mechanisms of women’s machinery are twofold: horizontal and vertical. Vertical coordination entails working and reporting relationship with the regional women’s institutions. Horizontal coordination involves the Gender Directorates of sect oral ministries and other public organizations at the federal level. Another very important coordination mechanism is the Annual Women’s Conference that brings all the Federal, Regional, UN agencies, NGOs and development partners to one forum where achievements, challenges and best practices in Ethiopia are discussed and strategies developed on how to address constraints. The Annual Women’s Conference also provides an opportunity to profile specific Regions in terms of gender equality, and for a week, brings critical policy makers together to discuss gender equality and the empowerment of women [32]. The community leader should form a strong coordination and collaboration among men and women so as to build sustainable watershed management approach. Formation of coordination team or identification of the change agent is the most energetic, committed, and astute change agent and implementing team will benefit from ongoing support, encouragement and guidance. The coordination team should have clear leadership capacity, as it will be responsible for identifying evidence-based practices and obtaining political support and resources [33]. Lenders and other institutions should promote a gender-sensitive culture throughout their organization. Women should be consulted and included in discussions, decision-making, planning and provision of services. A large body of evidence shows that lending to women helps households diversify and raise incomes and is associated with other benefits such as increased livelihood diversification, greater labor market participation, more education and better health [32].

Design products that meet the needs of women: The past few years insurances are designed without due attention to gender differences, and the degree to which women access them is unclear. A number of multilateral financial institutions and NGOs offer health insurance to women. Life events such as birth, death, marriage and other cultural ceremonies also constitute shocks to rural households. Most microinsurance plans described here cover pregnancy and birth-related expenses. Some offer life and funeral insurance [32]. Financial support for women, that used to accelerate women’s agricultural participation by providing more affordable, usable and responsive finance than is currently available. It assists support services to enhance the success of women. It pursues deals involving start-up funding, business expansion, business rehabilitation, franchising and bridging finance. There are many women funding organization like; Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII) and Isivande Women’s Fund (IWF) [33].

From this review on different published sources on women participation in watershed management, I summarize that effective and sustainable watershed management can take place through women participation of watershed community as they can involve in problem identification, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, labor force, and productive power. Although considerable progress has been made in recent decades toward closing the gender gap in agriculture within most countries such as; forming coordination mechanism and promote women’s friendly, providing financial and material support, gender gaps in management and conservation of watershed participation have remained across the developed and developing world. Mostly our country Ethiopian women have low opportunities and directions in home outside work, specially watershed management due to there is deep root backward culture problem, social and personal constraints those retard free involvements of women in any aspects of agricultural activities.