Women Bear the Brunt of Asia's Climate Failures

The infrastructure damage, geographical barriers and poor financial assistance also create significant barriers for women to seek timely and essential healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive health. Women may delay or forego healthcare, resulting in pregnancy complications, miscarriages, unsafe abortions, poor contraceptive use, chronic disease mismanagement and domestic violence.

The economic strain exacerbated by climate disasters often compels agriculture-dependent households to resort to traditional practices such as bride prices and dowries. Studies have found that in countries such as Vietnam and India, economic pressure can force young girls into early marriages, resulting in school drop-outs, teenage pregnancies, and increased gender-based violence and femicide.

Beyond crop failure: the way forward

Women are already at the forefront of just transitions, given their strong engagement in advocacy, social movements, agriculture, and building green economies. Ironically the failure to fully recognize women's leadership, including at the recent COP28, and their integral role in the agri-food sector, women often face systemic barriers that hinder their full participation in shaping sustainable, inclusive, and gender-just transitions.

To build upon the commitments of the Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership, it is imperative to prioritize and recognize the pivotal role of agricultural women.

Women-led initiatives such as Women-Led Climate Resilient Farming (WCRF) models hold promise to reposition and promote women as farmers, leaders, and agents of change to empower the health and well-being, food security, livelihoods, and natural resources of farming communities.

There is also the pressing need for gender-responsive, gender-just, and transformative policies and programs. Such initiatives could encompass needs-based insurance products designed to mitigate climate-related health impacts, along with cash-based assistance programs that have integrated healthcare deliverables.

These measures could specifically target the health and climate vulnerabilities of girls and women, mitigating the unintended consequences of current farming and agricultural practices.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

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