AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT N O T E S ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 2014 Gender, Agriculture, and Climate Change BY NILUFAR AHMAD, LAMIA EL-FATAL, EIJA PEHU, PIRKKO POUTIAINEN, AND MARIALENA VYZAKI Climate change affects rural women’s and men’s ability to production, a task that becomes even more challenging secure their livelihoods. At the same time, it poses new under changing climate conditions (OECD-FAO 2012). challenges for the agricultural sector in reducing poverty Crops, livestock, forests, and fisheries are highly sensitive and food insecurity and in transforming itself into a strong to variations in temperature and rainfall as well as to engine for sustainable economic growth. Climate change more-extreme climate events (such as, heat waves, is likely to exacerbate inequalities between women and droughts, floods). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate men if efforts to integrate gender concerns in climate Change estimates that agriculture is directly responsible change responses are neglected (Skinner 2011). Already, for at least 14 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, in view of the increased climate variability, there is a with deforestation and forest degradation accounting for pressing need to adopt gender-sensitive approaches in another 17 percent (IPCC 2007). order to achieve food security and poverty reduction (FAO 2011). This AES Note examines the nexus between While climate change is a global phenomenon, its impacts Gender, Agriculture, and Climate Change, discusses how are felt locally. Developing countries are expected to and why women and men are differently affected by be hit the hardest by climate change, not least because climate change and why addressing gender inequality agriculture represents the primary source of income and is crucial to addressing climate change impacts. It also livelihood for 75 percent of the world’s poor and because offers recommendations for gender-sensitive responses to their national, local, and household capacity to cope with climate change. climate change impacts is limited (IFAD 2002, World Bank 2008, WRI 2009). Although poor smallholders are hardest AGRICULTURE VIS-À-VIS CLIMATE hit by climate change, they are the group least responsible CHANGE for it. When a family’s livelihood strategy is altered by climate change, all its members are affected; however, Agriculture is affected by climate change, yet it also the effects are different for women and men and, as a contributes to climate change and can reduce the impact result, women’s coping responses are also different from of climate change. FAO estimates that by 2050, feeding those of men. A good example comes from Cameroon on 9 billion people will require a 60 percent increase in food how climate change can spur agricultural innovation. In Cameroon, women experiencing high post-harvest losses Shutterstock, LLC because of heavy rainfall are harnessing their indigenous knowledge by turning crops into processed foods that last longer and have a better market value (Fordham et al. 2001). At the same time, agriculture can also be part of the solution: crops “grab” carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it for their growth. Production systems that retain extensive crop cover for a long period of time and that store carbon in the soil can be a powerful solution to capturing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and thus reducing climate change effects. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) uses a holistic and integrated approach which relies on a package of technologies and practices to meet food security goals and to address poverty while adapting to and/or mitigating climate change. producers facing different risks and vulnerabilities, but men and Mitigation seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/ women farmers also contribute differently to climate change and or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere have different ways of coping with it, adapting to it, and mitigating through carbon sinks. This can include growing more trees or its impacts. There is enough evidence to suggest that women the use of improved feeding practices for livestock. farmers have a higher exposure to climate risks compared to men, because: Adaptation refers to adjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, • Women have fewer endowments. Most women are which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities landless, and when they do own or lease land, their plots (IPCC 2007 Glossary). Adaptation practices include developing tend to be small and of poor quality. In Brazil, for example, and growing more drought-resistant crops, building terraces, women own as little as 11 percent of the land, and in Kenya, or using compost and mulch to increase soil moisture. women account for only 5 percent of registered landholders. In Ghana, the mean value of men’s landholdings was three Resilience is the ability of a system and its component parts to times that of women’s landholdings (World Bank 2011a). anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects These plots require more labor, which women often provide of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient manner (FAO in addition to working on the family farm. Similar patterns are 2013). observed regarding livestock, with women owning fewer and Adaptive capacity is essential to resilience. It encompasses smaller animals. Women also have less access to credit or cash two dimensions: recovery from shocks and response to to afford fertilizers, pesticides, and improved seeds, or to cover changes in order to ensure the ‘plasticity’ of the system. For their capital and running costs to set up a business. example, the organization of seed systems enables farmers • Women have fewer entitlements and less access to who have lost a crop to have seeds for the next season. It also services. Women coping with the effects of climate change enables them to have access to seeds that are adapted to new are also hampered by restrictions and limited rights in the conditions (FAO 2013). community. For example, a study in Andhra Pradesh, India, showed that only 21 percent of women surveyed compared In practice, CSA means: to 47 percent of men received information on cropping • Judicious use of in-organic and organic fertilizers, as well as strategies for coping with climate variability (Lambrou and crop varieties and livestock breeds that are more adapted to a Nelson 2010). Women also tend to have less access to the changing climate information, education, and extension services they need to respond to climate change. Only recently have women’s • Improving water management techniques to conserve and voices become stronger in international fora. While women use water more efficiently have already made use of valuable adaptation and mitigation • Practicing agro-forestry, where woody perennials are strategies, they have not yet been supported fully by an integrated with agricultural crops and/or livestock enabling policy environment. • Crop rotation, biogas production from livestock manure, • Women are less mobile. When climate change effects mulching, intercropping, integrated crop-livestock occur, there is often a renegotiation of gender roles within management and improved grazing to help conserve water a household, with family members usually relying on each and sequester carbon in the soil other to pool the resources they need to support themselves • Better weather forecasting, early warning systems, and and their children and relatives (Lambrou and Nelson 2010). For example, men will often seek to migrate to find work insurance to help farmers reduce risk. outside agriculture during droughts, while women remain GENDER INEQUALITY VIS-À-VIS CLIMATE behind to tend the crops and livestock and supervise the CHANGE children who may be pulled out of school to do household A focus on women is warranted because of the evidence of their chores (IOM 2009). greater vulnerability to climate change impacts. Their differential Climate change is also expected to increase the frequency and vulnerability vis-à-vis men relates to the prevailing gender intensity of extreme weather events. There is already evidence that asymmetry in the lack of access to assets, services, and voice, which these events affect women and men differently. In Bangladesh, in emerges from the socially and culturally defined roles of women 1991, Cyclone Gorky caused tremendous damage and killed more and men in agriculture. Not only are there gender-differentiated than 140,000 people. Female fatalities outnumbered male fatalities impacts of climate change in agriculture, with men and women by 14 to 1 (World Bank 2011b). Subsequently, Bangladesh took 2 steps to address the cultural reasons why women were reluctant Shutterstock, LLC to use cyclone shelters by creating safe spaces for women in the shelters, providing separate toilets, and training women as early warning leaders. These and other disaster preparedness measures reduced the overall death toll when Cyclone Sidr hit in 2007, whereby the ratio of female to male fatalities was reduced to 5:1. Women can also constitute part of the solution in building climate resilience (World Bank 2011b), as the capacity to adapt to and to mitigate climate change has proven to have a gender dimension. Capitalizing on both women’s and men’s active participation in decision-making processes and utilizing their skills and knowledge oil products and get higher revenues for women through better not only promotes gender equality but also contributes to marketing (USAID 2006). designing and implementing more effective and sustainable agricultural policies in the face of climate change. FURTHER ACTION IS NEEDED ADDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITY IS • Research is needed to better understand how climate change is affecting men and women farmers, especially their use CRUCIAL TO ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS of and access to resources, distribution of benefits, labor allocation and participation in decision-making processes The WDR on Gender Equality and Development (2012) indicated at all levels. Research could inform policy makers about the that correcting the market and institutional failures underpinning different local, indigenous, and traditional adaptation and gender inequality can yield substantial gains in productivity mitigation knowledge men and women rely on in responding and produce broader economic benefits in an environmentally to climate change. sustainable way. This is especially important in regions hit hard by climate change, where opportunities to empower women • Collecting data disaggregated by sex, adopting participatory economically tend to be even greater (GTZ 2010, Ahmad 2012). research tools, and implementing gender and social analysis can capture gender differences to inform technology A strong gender approach to adaptation to climate change is one development and design more effective policy responses. that recognizes the potential of both women and men to make There is also a need to disseminate the research results to the effective choices and to transform those choices into desired public at large to enable rural innovation, strengthen social outcomes. These efforts build on and support women’s agency, capital, and empower women and men in the communities alongside men’s. They empower women by not only developing to become more resilient. their capacity to harness new or traditional adaptation and/or mitigation technology, but also harnessing opportunities such as • Gender perspectives need to be integrated into policy and decision-making. For example, gender equality and women’s literacy programs, educational and training programs, enhancing empowerment in mitigation finance should be reinforced. women’s primary and reproductive health care, reducing child Some of the existing funds can ensure that women are mortality rates, and addressing domestic violence. benefiting (such as the Clean Technology Fund under the As agriculture is transformed into a more commercially oriented Climate Investment Funds). and globally integrated sector, there is a risk that women farmers • Adaptation finance—such as the Special Climate Change are being left out and remain in traditional, small-scale, low- Fund and the newly established Green Climate Fund—can productivity agriculture and therefore more susceptible to the bring in the gender dimension. While National Adaptation impacts of climate change. To include women in the emerging Programmes for Action (NAPAs), that help countries prioritize market economy, policies and interventions must seek to and implement their climate change adaptation actions, overcome the formal and informal institutional barriers to women’s mostly recognize the vulnerability of women to climate participation and firm ownership in climate-smart-agriculture. change effects; few incorporate women as key stakeholders in Diversifying rural revenues away from agriculture in order to defining their activities, and fewer commit to mainstreaming increase resilience to climate change could create additional gender in their action plans. Eritrea, Malawi, and Mauritania opportunities for women. Nature-based tourism is one such are some exceptions to the rule, having engaged women’s activity which can help spur economic activities in which women groups in the development of their countries’ NAPAs and their are predominant. In Morocco, a USAID-financed rural tourism projects target women stakeholders (UNFPA-WEDO 2009). pilot project assisted a women’s cooperative to diversify its argan 3 RECOMMENDATIONS Program design Policy Implementation and outreach Climate-responsive agricultural Use affirmative action strategies like supportive Use agricultural advisory services, farmer field projects are more effective when structures that link local, national, and international schools, water user associations, and other they include broad enabling efforts policy processes, including support for participation community groups to encourage women to to support, for instance, women’s of women’s groups, as instruments to ensure the tap their social capital in self-empowering rights to land, as often it is laws and inclusion of women in climate change policy organizational structures for policy dialogue regulations that place women in a making and in adaptation and mitigation projects. and advocacy about gender equality and in disadvantaged position. defining their needs in income-generating activities. Enlisting the collaborative support of men is key. Focus on specific vulnerable Encourage the accountability of local and national Encourage projects to have gender- households (such as widows or institutions by supporting the examination of disaggregated monitoring and evaluation disabled people) which will effectively their climate change agendas in combination with indicators. increase poverty reduction and women’s inclusion at the policy and project levels. minimizes the devastating impact of Use female extension officers to increase the climate change effects. opportunities for women farmers to learn how to adapt to climate change as compared to more formal and distant training activities. SOURCES Ahmad, Nilufar. 2012. “Gender and Climate Change in Bangladesh: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team: R. K. Role of Institutions in Reducing Gender Gaps in Adaptation Program.” Pachauri, and A. Reisinger (eds.)]. IPCC. Geneva, Switzerland. Working Paper No. 67820, World Bank, Washington, DC. http://documents. Lambrou, Yianna, and Sibyl Nelson. 2010. “Farmers in a Changing Climate: worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/03/16203339/gender-climate-change- Does Gender Matter?” FAO, Rome. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1721e/ bangladesh-role-institutions-reducing-gender-gaps-adaptation-program. i1721e00.htm. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). 2011. The State of Food OECD/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2012. and Agriculture: Women in Agriculture, Closing the Gender Gap for OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2012, OECD Publishing. Development. Rome: FAO. Skinner, Emmeline. 2011. Gender and Climate Change Overview Report. ———. 2013. Climate Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. Rome: FAO. Institute of Development Studies, October. Fordham, M. and S. Gupta, with S. Akerkar, and M. Scharf. 2011. Leading UNFPA-WEDO. 2009. “Making NAPAs Work for Women.” http://www. Resilient Development: Grassroots Women’s Priorities, Practices and unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2009/ Innovations. New York: Groots International and the United Nations climateconnections_4_napas.pdf Development Programme (UNDP). USAID. 2006. Promoting Rural Tourism: Final Report of the Morocco Rural GTZ. 2010. “Climate Change and Gender: Economic Empowerment of Tourism Program. http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacj357.pdf Women through Climate Mitigation and Adaptation.” Working Paper, Eschborn, Germany. World Bank. 2008. Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook. Washington, DC: World Bank. IFAD. 2002. “Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Their Poverty: IFAD’s Strategic Framework for 2002–2006.” Rome: IFAD. http://www.ifad.org/sf/ ———. 2011a. World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and SFeng.pdf. Development. Washington, DC: World Bank. IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2009. “Migration, ———. 2011b. “Gender & Climate Change. 3 Things You Should Know.” Environment and Climate Change: Assessing the Evidence.” IOM, Geneva, Washington DC: World Bank http://go.worldbank.org/TN0KYRX8Q0 Switzerland. http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/migration_and_ environment.pdf. WRI (World Resources Institute). 2009. “Enabling Adaptation: Priorities for Supporting the Rural Poor in a Changing Climate.” Issue Brief, May 2009. IPCC. 2007. “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report.” Contribution of WRI, Washington, DC. http://pdf.wri.org/issue_brief_enabling_adaptation. Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the pdf. This AES Note is based on the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook’s (2009) Module 17 on Gender, Agriculture, and Climate Change. It was prepared by Nilufar Ahmad, Lamia El-Fatal, Eija Pehu, Pirkko Poutiainen, and Marialena Vyzaki. Reviews were provided by Anne Kuriakose, Ademola Braimoh, and David Treguer. The Module is also available online as an e-learning course at http://www. genderinag.org/sites/genderinag.org/files/E-Learning_Course/module-17/story.html 1818 H Street. NW Washington, DC 20433 www.worldbank.org/rural