Environmental Disasters

Citation:

Parker, Helen, Naomi Oates, Nathaniel Mason, Roger Calow. 2016. “Gender, Agriculture and Water Insecurity." ODI Insights.

Authors: Helen Parker, Naomi Oates, Nathaniel Mason, Roger Calow

Abstract:

Rural female farmers are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate variability and water insecurity.
El Niño has already had devastating impacts on countries in Africa that primarily rely on agriculture. Drought, loss of livestock and failed harvests push poor households into food stress and result in children being removed from school or families migrating. 
Policy and programme implementation for water insecurity must consider social norms around gender and other drivers of inequality. Too often, policies and programmes on agricultural water management are gender blind and don't consider women's unique needs and experiences.
This paper explains how and why improved water management on the farm matters for women and girls, and what can be done to better support opportunities for them, as well as for men and boys, in the face of climate change.
The authors identify three areas where gender-focused programming needs to address the unique vulnerabilities of women to water (in)security:
• Women are often at the pinch point of water-related tasks in the home and on the farm, with pressure intensifying around seasonal periods of scarcity in many developing countries.
• Compared to men, women may have less access to or control of assets that can be used to buffer against the effects of rainfall variability.
• Women often have fewer opportunities to pursue off-farm work or migrate to urban areas as a temporary coping strategy for seasonal food and income shortages, or for shortages caused by droughts and floods.
(Abstract from original source)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Asia

Year: 2016

Citation:

Roy, Sajal. 2018. “Women and Disasters in South Asia: Survival, Security and Development.” Gender, Place & Culture 25 (2): 315–16.

Author: Sajal Roy

Abstract:

Women and Disasters in South Asia: Survival, Security and Development is an edited collection that investigates primarily how gender and politics are shaping post-disaster reconstruction and development processes in South Asian countries. Most of the disasters included in this collection are profiled in Indian case studies, including the Indian Ocean tsunami as witnessed in Tamil Nadu (2004), the earthquake in Gujarat, (2001), the super cyclone in Odisha (1999), the flood in Bihar (2008), the Cloudburst in Ladakh (2010). A few chapters extend beyond India to examine events such as the floods in Pakistan (2010) and post-tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka (ongoing since 2004). The book captures both women’s vulnerabilities and resiliencies in post-disaster setting, demonstrating that women and men experience disasters differently due to the social construction of their socioeconomic positions, gender roles and relationships with government and society.

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Men, Women, Post-Conflict Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Year: 2018

Citation:

Resurrección, Bernadette P., and Rebecca Elmhirst, eds. 2020. Negotiating Gender Expertise in Environment and Development. Routledge.

Authors: Bernadette P. Resurrección, Rebecca Elmhirst

Abstract:

This book casts a light on the daily struggles and achievements of ‘gender experts’ working in environment and development organisations, where they are charged with advancing gender equality and social equity and aligning this with visions of sustainable development.

Developed through a series of conversations convened by the book’s editors with leading practitioners from research, advocacy and donor organisations, this text explores the ways gender professionals – specialists and experts, researchers, organizational focal points – deal with personal, power-laden realities associated with navigating gender in everyday practice. In turn, wider questions of epistemology and hierarchies of situated knowledges are examined, where gender analysis is brought into fields defined as largely techno-scientific, positivist and managerialist. Drawing on insights from feminist political ecology and feminist science, technology and society studies, the authors and their collaborators reveal and reflect upon strategies that serve to mute epistemological boundaries and enable small changes to be carved out that on occasions open up promising and alternative pathways for an equitable future.

This book will be of great relevance to scholars and practitioners with an interest in environment and development, science and technology, and gender and women’s studies more broadly.

Annotation:

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Troubling Gender Expertise in Environment and Development: Voices from Feminist Political Ecology

Part 1: The Politics of Identity and Boundary Marking

1. Strategic Reflexivity in Linking Gender Equality with Sustainable Energy: An Engineer in the Gender Profession
By Rebecca Elmhirst and Bernadette P. Resurrección
In conversation with Joy Clancy

2. Is Epistemic Authority Masculine? Reflections on Gender, Status and Knowledge in International Agricultural Research and Development
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Gordon Prain

3. Epistemic Crossings of a Marine Biologist through Gender Encounters
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Maeve Nightingale

4. Beyond the Business Case for Gender: A Feminist Political Ecologist in the FAO
By Rebecca Elmhirst and Bernadette P. Resurrección
In conversation with Clara Mi Young Park

5. Challenges and Dilemmas of Integrating Gender in the Field of Environment and Development at SEI: Metrics and Metaphors
By Andreea R. Torre
In conversation with Natalia Biskupska, Marisa Escobar, Laura Forni, Emily Ghosh, Ha Nguyen, and Lisa Segnestam

Part 2: The Politics of Knowledge in Environment and Development Realms

6. The Politics of Feminist Translation in Water Management
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Seema Kulkarni and Margreet Zwarteveen

7. Embodied Engagement with Gender and Agrobiodiversity: Leveraging Transformative Moments in Multidisciplinary Teams
By Rebecca Elmhirst and Bernadette P. Resurrección
In conversation with Marléne Elias

8. Please Genderise My Log Frame: Interactions with Technical Specialists for Gender Mainstreaming in Environment Projects
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Annette Wallgren And Victor Tsang

9. The Gender Professional as Ethnographer: Working for Equitable Forests
By Rebecca Elmhirst and Bernadette P. Resurrección
In conversation with Carol J. Pierce Colfer

10. Disaster Risk Governance and Gender Professionals: Command-and-Control and Re-Doing Gender
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Maria Holtsberg, Napapan Der Kinderen, and Hilde Jakobsen

11. Lifting the Barriers of Integrating Gender in Livestock Production
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Nicoline De Haan

12. We Build the Power in Empowerment: Feminist Activism at the Forefront of Environment and Climate Change Arenas
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Kate Lappin

Part 3: The Power of Gender Champions

13. Supporting Gender Experts: A Donor Perspective
By Bernadette P. Resurrección and Rebecca Elmhirst
In conversation with Maria Von Berlekom, Eva Johansson, Orawan Raweekoon and AnnaKarin Norling

14. Gender Equality Work At USAID: Mandatory as Applicable
By Kai Spratt And Charles 'Will' Lewis II

Afterword: Gender Expertise, Environmental Crisis and the Ethos of Care

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Infrastructure, Energy, Water & Sanitation

Year: 2020

Citation:

Hans, Asha, Nitya Rao, Anjal Prakash, and Amrita Patel, eds. 2021. Engendering Climate Change: Learnings from South Asia. New York & Oxon: Routledge.

Authors: Asha Hans, Nitya Rao, Anjal Prakash, Amrita Patel

Abstract:

This book focuses on the gendered experiences of environmental change across different geographies and social contexts in South Asia and on diverse strategies of adapting to climate variability. The book analyzes how changes in rainfall patterns, floods, droughts, heatwaves and landslides affect those who are directly dependent on the agrarian economy. It examines the socio-economic pressures, including the increase in women’s work burdens both in production and reproduction on gender relations. It also examines coping mechanisms such as male migration and the formation of women’s collectives which create space for agency and change in rigid social relations. The volume looks at perspectives from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal to present the nuances of gender relations across borders along with similarities and differences across geo-graphical, socio-cultural and policy contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, development, gender, economics, environmental studies and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs and think tanks working in the areas of gender, climate change and development.

Annotation:

Table of Contents:

1. Gender, Climate Change and the Politics of Vulnerability: An Introduction
Nitya Rao, Anjal Prakash, Asha Hans, and Amrita Patel

PART I: Vulnerabilities

2. Vulnerabilities of Rural Women to Climate Extremes: A Case of Semi-Arid Districts in Pakistan
Ayesha Qaisrani and Samavia Batool 

3. Gendered Vulnerabilities in Diaras: Struggles with Floods in the Gandak River Basin in Bihar, India
Pranita Bhushan Udas, Anjal Prakash, and Chanda Gurung Goodrich

4. Of Borewells and Bicycles: The Gendered Nature of Water Access in Karnataka, South India and Its Implications for Local Vulnerability
Chandni Singh

5. Vulnerabilities and Resilience of Local Women Towards Climate Change in the Indus basin
Saqib Shakell Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair Anwar, Nusrat Habib, and Qaiser Khan

6. Climate Change, Gendered Vulnerabilities and Resilience in High Mountain Communities: The Case of Upper Rasuwa in Gandaki River Basin, Hindu Kush Himalayas
Deepak Dorje Tamang and Pranita Bhushan Udas 

PART II: Adaptation and Wellbeing

7. Wells and Well-being in South India: Gender Dimensions of Groundwater Dependence
Divya Susan Solomon and Nitya Rao

8. Gender, Migration and Environmental Change in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta in Bangladesh
Katharine Vincent, Ricardo Safra de Campos, Attilan N. Lázár, and Anwara Begum

9. Women-Headed Households, Migration and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Mahanadi Delta, India
Sugata Hazra, Amrita Patel, Shouvik Das, Asha Hans, Amit Ghosh, and Jasmine Giri

10. Gender Dynamics and Climate Variability: Mapping the Linkages in the Upper Ganga Basin in Uttarakhand, India
Vani Rijhwani, Divya Sharma, Neha Khandekar, Roshan Rathod, and Mini Govindan 

11. Shaping Gendered Responses to Climate Change in South Asia
Asha Hans, Anjal Prakash, Nitya Rao, and Amrita Patel

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Migration, Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan

Year: 2021

Citation:

Sangita, Khapung. 2016. “Transnational Feminism and Women’s Activism: Building Resilience to Climate Change Impact through Women’s Empowerment in Climate Smart Agriculture.” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 497–506.

Author: Khapung Sangita

Abstract:

The far western part of Nepal is the most under-developed region of the country. The majority of the population here relies on subsistence agriculture. Floods, landslides, drought and extreme temperatures associated with climate change are impacting the agricultural productivity of the region. Consequently, this area faces ongoing food insecurity, particularly affecting women and children of marginalized groups. Although the aid agencies are trying to mitigate agricultural issues associated with climate change by introducing climate smart technologies, such as Multi Water Use Systems (MUS), Multi Irrigation Technologies (MIT), Conservation Agriculture (CA) etc., the local population has been reluctant to adopt these. Moreover, the low productivity of land forces males to migrate in search of better livelihood options, leaving women to bear the extra burden of domestic and agricultural activities, resulting in adverse effects on their health and nutrition. The Anukulan-Building Resilience to Climate Change and Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) project funded by UKAID aims to create agricultural practices that are resilient in the face of climate change and natural disasters. Its target is 500,000 poor and vulnerable people (especially women and children) through the introduction and awareness generation about climate smart technologies.

Keywords: subsistence agriculture, gender, climate change, climate smart technologies, Agricultural productivity

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Girls, Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2016

Citation:

Garvey, Michelle. 2011. “Toward ‘Global Feminist Environmental Justice’.” Feminist Formations 23 (2): 216–23.

Author: Michelle Garvey

Annotation:

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Intersectionality

Year: 2011

Citation:

Amadi, Luke A., Mina M. Ogbanga, and James E. Agena. 2015. “Climate Change and Feminist Environmentalism in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 9 (9): 361–71.

Authors: Luke A. Amadi, Mina M. Ogbanga, James E. Agena

Abstract:

Feminist environmentalist debate explores possible linkages between women and environmental issues such as inequality. One of the most pressing global problem at the centre of this debate is climate change vulnerability. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) creates global policy awareness on the realities of climate change vulnerability, women in the poor coastal regions of the periphery societies such as the Niger Delta, Nigeria, prone to environmental degradation seem to be missing out. This subject matter has been of immense policy concern. The increase in recent decades of environmental disasters, deleterious effects of oil resource exploitation by the Multinational Corporations (MNCs), pollution, gas flaring, acid rain, sea level rise, ozone layer depletion, global warming and related pressures, provide the need to explore feminist environmental challenges. As all such problems manifest with divergent climate related implications, the most fundamental challenge they pose to women seem less talked about. Niger Delta women who are largely bread winners in most rural households are at risk as their subsistence relies heavily on the natural environment such as farming, fishing, petty trading, gathering of periwinkles, oysters, crayfish etc. To explore this dynamic, the study deployed a desk review of relevant secondary data to examine possible linkages between feminist environmentalism and climate change mitigation. Findings suggest that climate change, mitigation has been minimal. The paper made some policy recommendations.

Keywords: environmental security, climate change, women, development, Niger Delta

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Multi-National Corporations Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2015

Citation:

Resurrección, Bernadette P., and Edsel E. Sajor. 2015. “Gender, Floods and Mobile Subjects: A Postdisaster View.” In Gendered Entanglements: Revisiting Gender in Rapidly Changing Asia, edited by Ragnhild Lund, Philippe Doneys, and Bernadette P. Resurrección, 207-34. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

Authors: Bernadette P. Resurrección, Edsel E. Sajor

Annotation:

Topics: Environment, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Security Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2015

Citation:

Alston, Margaret. 2020. “Gendered Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change.” In Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture, edited by Carolyn E. Sachs, Leif Jensen, Paige Castellanos, and Kathleen Sexsmith, 137-48. Abingdon: Routledge.

Author: Margaret Alston

Abstract:

This chapter challenges the notion of women as either undifferentiated vulnerable victims of climate change events or virtuous defenders of environmental health, arguing the need for a complex attention to the intersectional factors that shape gender vulnerability in the face of climate disasters. Offering a nuanced assessment of vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience, the chapter argues for a commitment to transformative resilience to address the potential for gender inequalities to be cemented by climate-based actions. Noting the widespread dominance of climate denial amongst policy makers and the slow and incremental attention to gender at international climate forums, the chapter notes the need for critical attention to gender. Outlining the gender impacts of health impacts, food and water insecurity, and displacement, the chapter notes that gender, poverty, and rurality are critical elements of vulnerability. Moving forward the chapter calls for attention to the complexity of gender and power relations in climate change policies and practices to give the lie to the simplistic notion of women as vulnerable or virtuous.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Climate Displacement, Economies, Poverty, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Intersectionality, Security, Food Security

Year: 2020

Citation:

Author: Bernadette P. Resurrección

Keywords: feminist political ecology, water, neoliberalism, emotions, subjectivities

Annotation:

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Women, Privatization, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam

Year: 2019