A/HRC/45/11 environment for answerability, in particular for empowering individuals to hold actors accountable. In Timor-Leste, WaterAid has promoted the use of community scorecards as a social audit instrument, to improve the understanding among users in communities of the services they are entitled to and, consequently, to help users hold service providers accountable.59 V. Human rights and a people-centric approach 48. A human rights-based approach coincides with a people-centric approach in that the rights holders and the protection of their rights are at the centre. For the third dimension, focused on people, the Special Rapporteur paid specific attention to particular groups that are affected by insufficient water and sanitation services, such as women and girls; persons in situations of homelessness; and forcibly displaced persons, including refugees and internally displaced persons. A. Gender Special Rapporteur’s report on gender equality60 1. 49. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals put an additional spotlight on gender gaps and inequalities faced by women and girls. Closely linked to Sustainable Development Goal 5 on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, Goal 6 includes targets to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, and explicitly recognizes the importance of paying special attention to the needs of women and girls in achieving access for all to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene. Such attention led to growing calls for gender-sensitive data in the water and sanitation sector, to document and address the burdens on women and girls. Already, the analysis used in The World’s Women reports, issued every five years since 1990, had stressed the importance of sex-disaggregated data in critical aspects of life, one of them being access to water and sanitation.61 In 2015, the World Water Assessment Programme developed a toolkit on sex-disaggregated data on water, which is designed to help decision makers adopt data-driven water policies and programmes that tackle gender inequalities in the sector.62 50. At the time of the Special Rapporteur’s appointment, achieving gender equality was an important issue on the agenda of the international community, yet the issue of gender equality had not been fully explored in the water and sanitation sector through a human rights framework. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur observed that there still existed unexamined gaps with respect to, among other issues, menstrual hygiene, and access to water and sanitation by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. 51. In his 2016 report on gender equality, the Special Rapporteur outlined several areas that required particular attention in order to prevent and respond to gender inequalities in access to water and sanitation. He emphasized that root causes of gender inequalities in the enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation were complex and context dependent. Progress towards substantive equality in access to water and sanitation therefore requires public action on different fronts. States must develop and implement gender-responsive policies, budgets and regulations that address the specific needs of women and girls. In order to attain substantive equality, it is necessary to address the specific gendered circumstances that act as barriers to the realization of those rights for women and girls in practice. This includes supporting and developing approaches that challenge social norms, stereotypes and intra-household patterns that act as such barriers. Likewise, structural gender inequalities have an inevitable impact on the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation. Any approach to overcoming gender inequalities in respect of the rights to water 59 60 61 62 Submission from WaterAid. A/HRC/33/49. See https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/worldswomen/. See www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/water-andgender/methodology-indicators-and-toolkit/. 15