Participatory gender-sensitive approaches for addressing key climate change- related research issues: Evidence from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda

Getting a better understanding of how climate variability affects rural men and women differently, and in different regions, is challenging. Since their ability to respond to change and take action that will make them more resilient and able to adapt to a changing climate (alongside all the other social and economic change they are dealing with) differs, we need to focus more research efforts on enhancing this understanding and linking this knowledge with actions aimed at enhancing livelihoods and food security. We examine how well existing participatory gender-sensitive research approaches address some key climate change-related research issues that CCAFS has prioritized. Bringing together gender experts and experienced agricultural research teams from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda, multiple methods were tested in the field, and refined through the lessons learned, to help inform future action research and development efforts towards enhancing communities’ and individuals’ (particularly women’s) access to, and use of, information and knowledge to help them adapt to climate variability through more resilient livelihoods and agro-ecosystems

Understanding gender dimensions of agriculture and climate change in smallholder farming communities

In Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh, participatory tools were used for a socio-economic and gender analysis of three topics: climate-smart agriculture (CSA), climate analogue approaches, and climate and weather forecasting. Policy and programme relevant results were obtained. Smallholders are changing agricultural practices due to observations of climatic and environmental change. Women appear to be less adaptive because of financial or resource constraints, because of male domination in receiving information and extension services and because available adaptation strategies tend to create higher labour loads for women. The climate analogue approach (identifying places resembling your future climate so as to identify potential adaptations) is a promising tool for increasing farmer-to-farmer learning, where a high degree of climatic variability means that analogue villages that have successfully adopted new CSA practices exist nearby. Institutional issues related to forecast production limit their credibility and salience, particularly in terms of women’s ability to access and understand them. The participatory tools used in this study provided some insights into women’s adaptive capacity in the villages studied, but not to the depth necessary to address women’s specific vulnerabilities in CSA programmes. Further research is necessary to move the discourse related to gender and climate change beyond the conceptualization of women as a homogenously vulnerable group in CSA programmes