Africa: Climate 'will hit women hard'

August 22nd, 2009

 

 

Johannesburg (South Africa) — Poor women farmers comprise the group likely to be hardest hit by climate change in Africa , leading to poverty and greater dependence on the state.

A report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature , released this month by the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), said women would be disproportionately affected by climate change and were generally hardest hit by any disaster because of their economic and social inequality. A study of disasters in 141 countries found that women and children were 14 times more likely to die than men during a disaster.

Statistics show that rural women are net food producers all over the world. According to the Women's World Summit Foundation, rural women produce more than half of all the food that is grown -- up to 80% in Africa, 60% in Asia, and 30%-40% in Latin and North America. Farmers' union Agri SA believes the figure is similar for rural female subsistence farmers in SA.

Richard Worthington, manager of the Climate Change programme for the World Wide Fund for Nature SA, says there are programmes to develop female farmers. But not enough is being done by local government to help rural farmers, who are mainly women, to adapt to changing weather patterns and plant crops better suited to the climate, or to cope with increased rainfall or flooding.

"The Department of Environmental Affairs has done its best to engage on climate change with regards to adaptation and mitigation, but there appears to be a mixed response at local government level. Some municipalities, like eThekwini, are doing great things (but) in other areas very little is being done. It does not need money thrown at it, it needs more capacity and training of staff who can pass the message on. "

Worthington said the department could do very little without additional funding. "A lot of work being done in this area is dependent on donor assistance, and SA cannot wait for donor money -- it needs to be mobilised locally, too."

Climate change would affect sectors traditionally associated with women in Africa, such as food production, water collection, and fuel gathering, the report said. Apart from increased poverty, climate change could mean women spending more time trying to meet their food and water needs for their families, reducing the quality of their lives.

ISS senior legal adviser on environmental security Rose Mwebaza said women's perspectives had to be carefully considered because women were powerful agents of change in many societies in Africa.

"Women can play a critical role in either hindering or promoting vital climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives relating to energy consumption, deforestation, burning of vegetation, population growth, development of scientific research and technologies and policy making."

Agri SA said commercial farmers were carrying out precision farming, which allowed them to adapt, but as Worthington said, climate change would always hit the poor harder because they were more vulnerable and did not have the money to adapt their crops or behaviour.

The report said apart from climate change, productivity was expected to drop 20%-50% during a new el Niño weather event, which forecasters say is likely to bring below-average rainfall from October to March .

source.Business Day (South Africa)