2.  Strategic Objective K.2: Integrate gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development

3.  The marginalization of rural areas is mostly reflected in unequal access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and mostly affects the livelihood and health of women and children. The heavy burden on girls and women as a result of lack of or poor infrastructure increases their vulnerability

4. - Percentage of population with access to improved sanitation, by sex, rural/urban - Percentage of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, by sex, rural/urban - Proportion of population using solid fuels, by sex, rural/urban

5.  The proportion of the population using an improved sanitation facility, total, urban, rural, is the percentage of the population with access to facilities that hygienically separate human excreta from human contact. Improved facilities include flush/pour flush toilets or latrines connected to a sewer, -septic tank, or -pit, ventilated improved pit latrines, pit latrines with a slab or platform of any material which covers the pit entirely, except for the drop hole and composting toilets/latrines. Percentage of population with Number of people using access to improved sanitation = improved sanitation facilities X 100 Total population

6.  The proportion of the population using an improved drinking water source, total, urban, and rural, is the percentage of the population who use any of the following types of water supply for drinking: piped water into dwelling, plot or yard; public tap/standpipe; borehole/tube well; protected dug well; protected spring; rainwater collection and bottled water (if a secondary available source is also improved). It does not include unprotected well, unprotected spring, water provided by carts with small tanks/drums, tanker truck-provided water and bottled water (if secondary source is not an improved source) or surface water taken directly from rivers, ponds, streams, lakes, dams, or irrigation channels. Percentage of population with Number of people using who use sustainable access to an improved = an improved drinking water source X 100 water source Total population

7.  The percentage of population using solid fuels is the percentage of the population that relies on solid fuels as the primary source of domestic energy for cooking and heating. Solid fuels include biomass fuels, such as wood, charcoal, crops or other agricultural waste, dung, shrubs and straw, and coal. Number of people using solid fuels (in nationally Proportion of population = representative sample) as the main cooking fuel X 100 using solid fuels Total population

8. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) World Health Organization (WHO) Living Standards and Measurement Surveys (LSMS) Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaires (CWIQ) Pan Arab Project for Family Health Surveys (PAPFAM) Population censuses Household Budget Surveys Reproductive Health Surveys Labour Force Surveys Welfare Monitoring Surveys World Health Surveys (WHS); United States Agency for International Development (USAID)