Gender and Climate Change Adaptation: An Assessment of the Difference in Experience and Adaptive Capacities of Women and Men Pastoralists in the Five Lowland Districts of Bale Zone, Oromia Region.
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Date
2022-06-20
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis examines the gender implications of climate change adaptation. The main objective is to understand the difference in gendered climate change perception, experience, adaptation measures, and capacities of women and men agro-pastoralists of the five Lowland Districts of Bale Zone, Ethiopia. A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from June, 1-30, 2022. A mixed study with a quantitative household survey and an exploratory qualitative study was employed to explore the complex phenomenon and enhance triangulation. Thus, the study employed household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observations. The household survey covered 170 randomly selected households. In addition, 10 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 8 members each, and 15 Key Informants (KIIs) participated in the qualitative study. In this study, 99.4% of agro-pastoralists perceived climate change in terms of reduced rainfall amount, increased temperature, drying of water sources, barren agricultural lands, short rainy season, and prolonged drought. A high rate of deforestation, fast population growth, and increased depletion of natural resources were the major factors highlighted by 78.2% of the participants as a cause of climate change. The study participants identified massive cattle deaths (40.6%), reduced crop yield, diminished animal products (40.0%), household food insecurity (10.0%), reduced crop yield (6.5%), and de-flocking of livestock (2.9%) as the consequence of climate change induced recurrent drought. Further analysis of gender and the effects of climate change revealed that in the study area, women are required to travel long hours since climate change affected resources critical for basic needs like water and firewood. In addition, the fact that women’s routine and time-taking roles restricted participation in social and economic activities. Moreover, the effect of climate change shifted the traditional role boundaries of women and men agro-pastoralists. This worsened women workload despite its positive implication on changed attitude for equal distribution of labor at household level. Despite women’s contribution to agro-pastoral activities, they did not enjoy equal rights to access, control over, and decide on key agro-pastoralist resources and household income. These increased their financial dependency, which may hinder their adaptive capacity to climate change effects. Furthermore, the climate change effect is exacerbating harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriage to secure bride prices to subsidize the rest of the family. In addition, women and girls were exposed to safety and security risks as they traveled a long distance to collect water and firewood. This study also indicated that adaptation mechanisms employed by women and men agro-pastoralists vary. Men often actively engage in seasonal mobility and livestock diversification whereas women take on petty trade including selling charcoal, firewood, and animal products to better adapt to climate change. In this study, 52.9% and 60% of the participants witnessed that support from government and non-government institutions did not consider local coping strategies and the different or unique needs of women and men respectively. Thus, climate change adaptation measures and institutional (government and nongovernment) efforts should be based on the critical analysis and understanding of the intersection between climate change effects and the gender dynamics determining the experience, adaptation measures, and capacities of women and men agro-pastoralists to come up with a holistic approach for climate change adaptation.
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adaptation measures, and capacities