Tropentag, September 17 - 19, 2013 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim "Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum"

Gendered Differences in Climate Change Adaptation: Implications for Rural Agricultural Systems

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), United States of America

Abstract

Research has shown that women in the developing world are likely to bear a disproportionate burden of the adverse impacts of climate change. Not only are women more likely to be more vulnerable, and thus more affected by natural disasters, but they are also more likely to work in and depend on natural resources that are heavily affected by climate change. However, little quantitative work has been done to analyse the ways in which women and men experience climate change differently and the implications this difference has for farm-level adaptation strategies. This paper reports on a Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) project, which developed a two round intra-household survey tool. The first round gathers plot-level production and labour information, divided by production system, while the second round collects gender disaggregated information on agricultural and livestock decision-making, use and perception of climate-smart technologies, access to credit, access to and use of climate and weather information, adaptation strategies, climate risk perceptions and management, and cognitive processes and human values. Together, the two sets of data show gendered differences in adaptation strategies, perceptions of climate risk, and constraints faced by men and women within the same rural household. The paper summarises lessons learned from field-testing the survey tool and presents the initial analysis of the data collected from the Nyando Basin in Kenya. The paper concludes by discussing the policy insights from collecting gender disaggregated data, such as an improved understanding of gender differentiated preferences for adaptation strategies and how biophysical, regional, and social contexts influence these preferences. It is expected that this new survey tool will be implemented in several CCAFS sites world-wide.

Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, gender, information, sustainability

Contact Address: Chiara Kovarik, International Food Policy Research Institute, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, 2033 K Street Nw, 20006 Washington, United States of America, e-mail: c.kovarikcgiar.org