Women and Climate Change

Africa is more vulnerable than any other region to changing weather patterns (BBC, 2019). West Africa is disproportionately affected by climate change due to the region’s susceptibility to drought and desertification as well as its dependence on subsistent agriculture. This affects the population’s access to food and safe water. Many women have already had to alter their food preparation as a result, meaning meals have become less nutritious (Denton, 2002). In North Benin, both men and women have adapted to climate change by diversifying crops, changing their farming practices as well as changing their land use. However, more men that women have been able to employ these strategies as men have more control over land and equipment, leaving female farmers more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Yegbemey et al, 2013). 

Extreme events will become more frequent. Following flash floods in Lagos, women in low-income neighbourhoods were disproportionately impacted and not able to recover as fast as men and women in higher social categories. The combination of gender relations and roles intersecting with class, employment and healthcare are to blame. Thus, they argue that the adaptive capacity of these women must be increased through programmes aimed at reducing poverty and improving women’s access to housing and healthcare (Ajibade, 2013). 

Climate change may also exacerbate the existing precarity of water resources. Changes in seasons and climatic conditions have led to women and children increasingly using water supplies from dirty ponds, as they tend to dry up during the dry seasons. As primary water collectors, this increases their exposure to water-borne diseases. This increased water scarcity means that women and girls may take longer to fetch water and could consequently increase the likelihood of girls missing school (Denton, 2002). Futhermore, communities may not have enough water to empty their toilets or latrines, meaning women and girls will have to depend on water sources that are further away. This may result in increased open defecation (WaterAid, 2020). 

Climate change also poses a threat to sanitation systems. For example, floodwater can damage toilets and spread human waste into water supplies, crops and homes. These incidents are becoming more frequent and can lead not only to environmental degradation, but also public health emergencies (worldtoiletday, 2020). Increased open defecation will exacerbate this further. 

The story of Lake Chad

Lake Chad is now a tenth of the size that it was 50 years ago. An increasing population, agriculture and climate change are to blame. 

30 million people rely on freshwater from the lake and it also supports fishing, irrigation and economic activity in neighbouring countries. However, as the lake shrinks, there is increasing competition for the resource. In certain communities, men have had to find work elsewhere in bigger cities during the dry seasons. Additionally, internal and external migration is increasing, as people look further afield to regions such as Europe for work. Consequently, women and children must fill this gap. They have been forced to adapt to maintain food security and are using local indigenous knowledge to overcome this scarcity. An old technique known as Zai, whereby bits are dug to catch rainwater, has been revived. Compost and plants seeds are added which concentrates nutrients and can boost crop yields considerably (Edmond, 2019).   

Whilst women in Africa are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, strategies have already been employed by them using ancestral knowledge at a local level to help mitigate climate change. Although a positive outcome, action on the world stage is needed, especially considering that Africa has contributed the least to climate change yet will see the greatest impact (BBC, 2019). Climate change negotiations such as the Kyoto Protocol, reflect the global north’s priorities and interests (Denton, 2002), thus it is important that the disproportionate impacts on people in Africa and other nations of the global south are not left out and that female perspectives are incorporated in the process.

Many climate policies in certain east and southern African countries do recognise the disproportionate impacts of climate change concerning women and many speak of the need for female representation and of their crucial role in creating solutions. In most instances however, women are mentioned for purely ‘symbolic’ reasons rather than as an actual commitment to gender mainstreaming. Nhamo argues that without national commitments to gender equality on a wider scale, gender mainstreaming within climate change will not be achieved (Nhamo, 2014).