Women Bear the Brunt of Asia's Climate Failures
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30 December 2023 14:29 WIB
Climate crisis, livelihoods, and gender disparities
Global agrifood systems play a more important role in the livelihoods of women than men in many agriculture-dependent countries, particularly for young women aged between 15 and 24. For example, in South Asia, 71 percent of women engage in the agrifood sector, compared to 47 percent of men.
In Sri Lanka, elderly women also rely on the agrifood sector when other avenues of income are closed to them. Despite their significant role and contribution, women often confront challenging working conditions and limited economic opportunities due to pervasive gender inequalities.
These inequities fail to recognize women's roles in both skilled and unskilled labor, issues of land ownership and rights, restricted access to financial resources, and the unequal distribution (often unpaid) of domestic care responsibilities.
The impact of climate-induced livelihood loss has also led to men abandoning the land, leaving women behind to grapple with traditional norms and legal frameworks that often discriminate against their access to crucial resources such as land, water, agricultural subsidies, insurance, and credit.
These issues are compounded as women continue to face gender-based obstacles to recognition of their leadership, meaningful participation in livelihoods, and decision-making processes in formal and informal governance structures, including natural resource management.
In response to the catastrophic climate impacts and ensuing livelihood loss, agricultural households try to cope financially by selling household assets and livestock to generate immediate income or borrow cash at high-interest rates from local sources or community networks.
Farmers sometimes turn to multiple high-interest micro-loans for financial relief, resulting in over-indebtedness. Women also engage in unpaid work in exchange for food to feed their families.
Climate, economic insecurity, and health
There is a need to understand the gendered impacts of climate change and ensuing economic insecurity on health. Although climate-induced livelihood loss directly impacts everyone's health, there are important gendered ways in which women's health is affected.
Given their dependence on outdoor agricultural work, and accounting for physiological differences, heat-related health risks affect women more than men. This has been associated with an increase in pregnancy complications.
As climate impacts increase food scarcity and hunger, and with a lack of government-led food assistance programs, women often prioritize the needs of male family members (breadwinners), increasing rates of malnutrition and anemia.
Stress-induced livelihood loss also increases mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and increasing suicide among male and women farmers.
