Livelihoods

Characterizing the Vulnerability of Fishing Households to Climate and Environmental Change: Insights from Ghana

Citation:

Koomson, Daniel, Katherine Sian Davies-Vollum, Debadayita Raha. 2020. “Characterizing the Vulnerability of Fishing Households to Climate and Environmental Change: Insights from Ghana.” Marine Policy 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104142

 

Authors: Daniel Koomson, Katherine Sian Davies-Vollum, Debadayita Raha

Abstract:

Rural coastal communities in the global south are mostly natural resource-dependent and their livelihoods are therefore vulnerable to the impacts of climate and environmental changes. Efforts to improve their adaptive capacity often prove mal-adaptive due to misunderstanding the dynamics of the unique socioeconomic factors that shape their vulnerability. By integrating theories from climate change vulnerability and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, this study draws upon household survey data from a fishing community in Ghana to assess the vulnerability of fishing households to climate change and explore how their vulnerability is differentiated within the community. The findings suggest that household incomes in the last decade have reduced significantly, attributable to an interaction of both climatic and non-climatic factors. Analysis of the characteristics of three vulnerability groups derived by quantile clustering showed that the most vulnerable household group is not necessarily women or poorer households as expected. Rather, it is dynamic and includes all gender and economic class categories in varying proportions depending on the success or failure of the fishing season. The findings suggest furthermore that the factors that significantly differentiates vulnerability between households differ, depending on whether households are categorised by economic class, gender of household-head or vulnerability group. Consequently, the study highlights the importance of looking beyond existing social categorizations like gender and economic classes when identifying and prioritizing households for climate change adaptive capacity building.

Keywords: Ghana, fishing, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, climate change

Topics: Class, Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2020

Going Back to the Well: Women, Agency, and Climate Adaptation

Citation:

Huyer, Sophia, Tatiana Gumucio. 2020. “Going Back to the Well: Women, Agency, and Climate Adaptation.” World Journal of Agriculture and Soil Science 5(3). 

Authors: Sophia Huyer, Tatiana Gumucio

Abstract:

Rising temperatures and more extreme weather associated with climate change are expected to exacerbate existing social and gender inequalities across the globe. Climate change has differential effects on women and men: they are exposed to different climate shocks and experience different impacts related to gender differences in roles, rights, and opportunities. Women’s knowledge, networks, and assets are a significant aspect of resilience, but little attention is given to enabling their capacity as active agents. Instead the focus is on women as vulnerable victims of climate change. Evidence is emerging that adaptation and mitigation approaches in climate-resilient agriculture can and must reduce women’s and men’s vulnerabilities, promote their capacities for resilience, support women to exercise their agency, and, consequently, increase gender equality. Not only do we need to implement climate approaches that benefit women, we need to increase women’s resilience if we are going to effectively address and mitigate climate impacts. If we don’t, we will be on track to miss the 2 degree target – and at same time gender inequality will increase worldwide.

A recent review of literature and regional case studies with researchers from four regions identified the critical dimensions of gender in/equality in climate-resilient agriculture. They are: (1) participation in decision-making at different levels, (2) work burden, (3) access to and use of productive resources such as agroclimatic information, technology, livelihood incomes, and credit, and (4) collective action. Models for action are presented that show how gender-responsive approaches can promote equality while increasing resilience for all.

Keywords: 'gender', climate, women, agency, equality, equity, technology, collective, decision-making, workload

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Livelihoods

Year: 2020

Gender-Specific Livelihood Strategies for Coping with Climate Change-Induced Food Insecurity in Southeast Nigeria

Citation:

Anugwa, Ifeoma Q., Agwu E Agwu, Murari Suvedi, Suresh Babu. 2020. “Gender-Specific Livelihood Strategies for Coping with Climate Change-Induced Food Insecurity in Southeast Nigeria.” Food Security 12 (5): 1065-84.

Authors: Ifeoma Q. Anugwa, Agwu E. Agwu, Murari Suvedi, Suresh Babu

Abstract:

This study assessed the livelihood strategies adopted by husbands and wives within the same households for coping with climate- induced food insecurity in Southeast Nigeria. Collective and bargaining approaches were used in collecting individual and intra- household-level data of 120 pairs of spouses in Southeast Nigeria; husbands and wives were interviewed separately. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and household surveys were used to elicit responses from the respondents. Quantitative data for the study were analyzed using percentage, mean scores, and multinomial logit regression analysis. Results of the study revealed that 90% of the wives were more food insecure than their husbands (79.2%). The respondents noted that the observed changes in the climate contributed immensely to their food insecurity situation. To cope with food insecurity, a slightly higher proportion (47.3% and 14.2%) of wives adopted on-farm and non-farm strategies, respectively, while men (39.8%) adopted more off-farm strategies (38.5%). Additionally, results of the multinomial logit regression revealed that market distance and credit access significantly influenced the choice of husbands’ and wives’ engagement in off-farm livelihood strategy; sourcing information on climate change issues significantly influenced women’s choice of engagement in off-farm/non-farm strategy; and receiving remittances significantly influenced men’s choice of engagement in non-farm strategy. The study concluded that, although women play crucial roles in addressing food insecurity within their households, gender-specific obstacles typically impede their abilities to cope with climate-induced food insecurity. 

Keywords: climate change, food security, livelihood strategies, multinomial logit regression, gender

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Roles, Households, Livelihoods, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2020

Gender, Conflict, and Global Environmental Change

Citation:

Fröhlich, Christiane, and Giovanna Gioli. 2015. “Gender, Conflict, and Global Environmental Change.” Peace Review 27 (2): 137–46.

 

Authors: Christiane Fröhlich, Giovanna Gioli

Annotation:

Summary:
"Gender has long been identified as an important variable in both conflict (de-)escalation processes and vulnerability or adaptive capacity toward global environmental change.We understand gender as the socioculturally and politico-economically constructed roles and responsibilities ascribed to men and women that change over time, are context- and history-specific, and are inseparable from power relations. With increasing scarcity and degradation of land and water, those who are poor in resources, income, and power—many of them women—lose their rights to use these existential resources. The loss of livelihood due to environmental change, regardless of whether it was caused mainly by global warming or more by bad governance, is often the starting point of resource-related conflicts on the micro and meso levels. Such escalation processes have gender-differentiated causes and consequences: each societal group is affected differently both by environmental change and by conflict, depending on its specific position in the respective structures along which access to resources, income, and decision-making power is distributed. This position is defined by various in- and out-group markers: age, ethnicity, (dis-)ability, religion, and so on—and, crucially, by gender. Thus, gender is a relevant category both for the analysis of (de-)escalation processes in violent conflicts and for examinations of the different vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities of women and men to (global) environmental change. This understanding, however, has yet to be translated into a comprehensive research framework that integrates gender as an analytical category into environmental and conflict research. With no pretense of being exhaustive, we provide a critical review of the main frameworks and research gaps in the relevant fields with a special regard for the current or potential integration of a gender lens. These include environmental conflict research; gender and environment; and gender and conflict. Hence, provided is a list of common fallacies and gaps, thereby uncovering popular myths and answering the very crucial question: What are we talking about when referring to gender in the context of conflict and global environmental change?" (Fröhlich & Gioli 2015, 137).
 

Topics: Conflict, Resource Conflict, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Livelihoods

Year: 2015

Indigenous Perspectives on Gender, Power and Climate-Related Displacement

Citation:

Pentlow, Sarah. 2020. "Indigenous Perspectives on Gender, Power and Climate-Related Displacement." Forced Migration Review 64: 28-31.

 

Author: Sarah Pentlow

Abstract:

The impacts of climate change are most severely felt by those who live closest to their natural habitats. Indigenous Peoples in the Greater Mekong subregion of Southeast Asia are facing threats to their livelihoods and traditional ways of life and are being forced to migrate as an adaptation strategy. Within these communities, women bear the brunt of the work to adapt as they, culturally, are responsible for the food supply and livestock care. In this context, the Climate Smart Women initiative undertook village-level field research in selected Indigenous communities in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to understand the gendered impacts of climate change at a community level and how communities are responding. Pre-existing inequalities are exacerbated by climate change, resulting in differentiated vulnerabilities.

 

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

Year: 2020

‘We Are Free When Water Is Available’: Gendered Livelihood Implications of Sporadic Water Supply in Northern Ghana

Citation:

Jeil, Emmanuel Bintaayi, Kabila Abass, and John Kuumuori Ganle. 2020. “‘We Are Free When Water Is Available’: Gendered Livelihood Implications of Sporadic Water Supply in Northern Ghana.” Local Environment 25 (4): 320-35.

Authors: Emmanuel Bintaayi Jeil, Kabila Abass, John Kuumuori Ganle

Abstract:

Water shortages may present different and diverse implications for gender subgroups particularly in low-income settings. Yet, little research has documented the gendered livelihood implications of water shortages in Ghana. Based on a cross-sectional mixed method research involving a survey of 250 household heads and complemented with a qualitative study of 86 participants, the paper examines the differential effects of sporadic water supply in Tatale-Sanguli District of Northern Ghana. Our findings suggest that the livelihood effects of sporadic water supply in Tatale-Sanguli area are gendered, with females being disproportionately affected as compared to males. These differential effects are often framed by both gender role differentiation and inequities in access to vital productive resources and critical assets such as bicycles, tricycles and motor bikes. These findings highlight not only the need for local government and non-governmental organisations to step up efforts in water provision, but also to recognise the gendered effects of water shortages in Tatale-Sanguli District. Key to policy is also to ensure that programmatic interventions during water shortages take account of the likely gendered effects and differentiated burdens.

Keywords: gender, livelihood, water supply, Northern Ghana, sporadic

Topics: Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana

Year: 2020

Pathways among Human Security, Gender, and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

Citation:

O'Manique, Colleen, and Sandra J. MacLean. 2010. “Pathways among Human Security, Gender, and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines 44 (3): 457-78.

 

Authors: Colleen O'Manique, Sandra J. MacLean

Abstract:

FRENCH ABSTRACT:
La théorie traditionnelle de la sécurité perçoit les préoccupations d'ordre sanitaire comme menaces isolées à l'intérêt national, séparés analytiquement de leurs causes et contextes sociaux et politico-économiques élargis. Si la notion de la sécurité humaine est limitée à ces mêmes paramètres, comme dans la définition étroite de la sécurité humaine comme "absence de la peur," et que la santé n'est perçue comme question de sécurité qu'une fois qu' apparaît la violence ouverte, en particulier la violence militaire, le potentiel tant explicatif qu'émancipateur de la notion est diminuée. Cependant, un vaste concept de la sécurité humaine qui englobe "l'absence du besoin" offre un espace conceptuel permettant d'identifier et d'analyser la nature des relations sociales, politiques et économiques qui caractérisent aujourd'hui les problèmes de santé mondiaux, tels que le VIH/sida. Dans le cadre conceptuel de la sécurité humaine, une analyse qui éclaire les dimensions sexospécifiques de la sécurité humaine — en termes de prédisposition individuelle à la maladie, d'accès au traitement et de d'impacts sur les moyens de subsistance — est essentielle afin de fournir des éclairements pouvant orienter des politiques efficaces contre le VIH/sida. En outre, les politiques doivent prendre en compte les multiples facteurs sociaux, culturels, économiques et politiques qui déterminent le cheminement de la maladie.
 
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
Traditional security theory has treated health concerns as isolated threats to national interest, separated analytically from their broader social and political economy causes and contexts. If the concept of human-security is restricted to these same parameters, as in the narrow definition of human security as "freedom from fear," and health is considered to be an issue of security only when overt physical, especially military, violence is involved, the explanatory as well as emancipatory potential of the concept is diminished. However, a broad concept of human security that encompasses "freedom from want" offers a conceptual space for identifying and analyzing the relevant social, political and economic connections that characterize contemporary global health problems such as HIV/AIDS. Within the conceptual framework of human security, a gender analysis that illuminates the gender dimensions of human security — in terms of individual disease risk, access to treatment, and impacts on livelihood — is critical to providing insights to guide effective policy on HIV/AIDS. Also, policies need to take into account the multiple social, cultural, economic and political factors that determine the disease pathways.
 

Topics: Economies, Gender, Gender Analysis, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Security, Human Security

Year: 2010

Gendered Livelihoods and Social Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Citation:

Keahey, Jennifer. 2018. “Gendered Livelihoods and Social Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Gender, Place & Culture 25 (4): 525–46.

Author: Jennifer Keahey

Abstract:

This article employs gendered livelihoods analysis and participatory methods to examine the politics of development among small-scale rooibos tea farmers in a rural coloured area of southwestern South Africa. Differentiating between sources of conflict and cohesion, I discuss how communities navigated resource scarcity, unstable markets, and shifting relations. While patriarchal dynamics informed livelihoods, with males and elders enjoying greater access than females and young adults, women took advantage of relatively fluid female roles to enter into agriculture and commerce. In contrast, rigid male roles and unattainable expectations of manhood isolated men, engendering destructive behaviors among young men in particular. Communities maintained social cohesion through democratic arrangements, and a politics of identification enabled research participants to relate to differential interests. In addition to providing situated and relational insight into the identitarian aspects of rural development, participatory gendered livelihoods analysis offers a critical means for deconstructing power and decolonizing knowledge.

Keywords: development, gender, identity, postcolonial feminism, social change, South Africa

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2018

We Have to Wake Up, Humankind! Women’s Struggles for Survival and Climate and Environmental Justice

Citation:

Rodriguez Acha, Maria Alejandra. 2017. “We Have to Wake Up, Humankind! Women’s Struggles for Survival and Climate and Environmental Justice.” Development 60 (1–2): 32–9.

Author: Maria Alejandra Rodriguez Acha

Abstract:

The climate and environmental crises of our times heighten existing inequalities and pose challenges to our very survival. The lives, livelihoods and bodies of women around the world are at the frontlines of its impacts and of the struggles to resist and build alternatives centred around justice and the sustainability of life. The 2016 AWID Forum gathered ecological and women’s rights activists to share experiences and perspectives on how the exploitation of people and planet is interlinked and interdependent and what shapes our resistance does and must take.

Keywords: climate change, climate justice, environmental justice, women's rights, women human rights defenders

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Justice, Livelihoods, Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2017

Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions

Citation:

Perkins, Patricia E. 2010. Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions. Paper presented at the 2nd Conference on Economic Degrowth: For Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity. March 26-29.

Author: Patricia E. Perkins

Abstract:

This paper uses feminist ecological economics and ecofeminist methodologies and theory to contribute to Degrowth in theory and practice. These feminist contributions involve highlighting unpaid work and ecological services, redistribution, and participatory processes as crucially important in developing the new paradigm and movement for equitable material Degrowth. 

Keywords: feminist ecological economics, ecofeminism, unpaid work, economic redistribution, political participation, diversity

Topics: Economies, Ecological Economics, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Livelihoods

Year: 2010

Pages

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