Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Women's Poverty and Domestic Burdens: A Bolivian Case Study

Citation:

Escalante, Luis, and Hélène Maisonnave. 2020. "Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Women's Poverty and Domestic Burdens: A Bolivian Case Study." Working Paper, Archive Ouverte de la Communauté Scientifique Normande, HAL Normandie Université, Normandy, France.

Authors: Luis Enrique Escalante, Hélène Maisonnave

Abstract:

Climate change affects men and women differently and pre-existing gender disparities may be worsened. In Bolivia, high vulnerability levels and gender disparities exist in terms of education, access to employment, and poverty, making women a highly vulnerable population group. Our analysis uses a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model that explicitly incorporates household production with a gender focus, linked with micro-simulations to assess the effects of climate change on poverty and inequality in Bolivia. Two scenarios are evaluated. The first scenario refers to damages and losses of capital and land in the agricultural and livestock sector due to climatic events, while the second scenario analyses the decrease in agricultural production yields.

The simulations reveal that the climatic scenarios have negative impacts on the Bolivian economy, with the agricultural sector being the most affected. The results also reveal that climate change affects employment negatively in both simulations, and further increases the burden of domestic work, especially for women thus increasing their vulnerability. Furthermore, both simulations reveal negative impacts on poverty and inequality, with women being more affected than men. The results reveal that Bolivian women are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than men.

Keywords: CGE, climate change, 'gender', unpaid work, poverty, Latin America, Bolivia

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Poverty, Education, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Men, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Bolivia

Year: 2020