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Abstract
Most policy makers and practitioners have now started to recognise the different ways in which climate change impacts on poor, vulnerable, and socially excluded women and men. However, making adaptation policies and programmes sensitive to gender issues does not simply mean ‘adding on’ a concern for women. It also requires a nuanced understanding of gendered forms of vulnerability, and a stronger commitment of resources – financial, technical, and human – to address specific gendered priorities. Drawing on insights from coastal Gujarat, in India, this article illustrates how researchers and practitioners can collaborate to strengthen learning across communities and regions. Simple and practical tools for assessing vulnerability, as well as empirical research and documentation, can further and support advocacy on climate-resilient development policies.
Notes
1. While this article builds on insights from two specific ISET projects (namely, one funded by DFID (Department for International Development, UK) on the costs and benefits of disaster risk-reduction measures and the other funded by IDRC (International Development Research Centre) on understanding vulnerability and adaptation to climate variability), it also draws on other ISET climate-change projects. The authors would like to thank the Utthan team, as well as ISET colleagues, for sharing their work with us.
2. See www.i-s-e-t.org (last accessed November 2008).
3. See www.climate-transitions.org (last accessed November 2008).
4. Our understanding of adaptation draws on ISET's collective analysis and conceptual framework which is rooted in research and practice around climate variability in South Asia.
5. The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015: Building Resilience of Nations and Communities was adopted by participants (government, international organisations, civil society, scientific community) at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held 18–22 January 2005 in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan. It outlines strategies and actions to guide governments and civil society on reducing vulnerability and improving resilience to disasters and environmental change. See www.unisdr.org/eng/hfa/docs/Hyogo-framework-for-action-english.pdf (last accessed November 2008).
6. The project ‘Adaptation and Livelihood Resilience’, supported by the IDRC, is being implemented by ISET and partners in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Chennai, and Nepal, from 2006–2009. A key component is the development of pilot activities at community and state levels to enhance adaptation and resilience.
7. PLC-Coastal was established in 2006 with support from the American India Foundation to Utthan. See www.plccoastal.org/ (last accessed November 2008).
8. Groups of higher castes or higher social standing may perceive those of lower caste as being ‘polluted’ or ‘dirty’, and will not permit them to share social spaces such as temples, even in times of need.
9. For a full discussion on gender and land rights in India, see Agarwal (Citation2003). Despite recent reforms in Hindu property laws to give women (wives, daughters) equal inheritance rights over land as men/sons, the implementation of such laws varies from state to state in India. In Gujarat, there is an active civil-society land-rights network, which Utthan is a part of, and which has successfully helped many small and marginal women farmers claim their just rights over land they had inherited.
10. See www.cspc.org.in (last accessed November 2008).
11. Self-help groups are small (10–15 people), voluntary groups, primarily of women, that were initially facilitated by NGOs with the intent of mobilising collective savings and empowering women economically through access to credit, bypassing exploitative moneylenders. Gradually, self-help groups have been linked to banks for larger loans, and federations are being promoted to support micro-enterprises as well as raise larger gender-rights issues.
12. Women are actively involved in several village water committees, facilitated by Utthan under various decentralisation programmes. They are not part of the water sub-committees as these are largely responsible for accessing safe water and sanitation after a disaster, rather than for daily water governance.
13. The proposed Micro-financial Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill (2007), which is still under consideration by Parliament, has been strongly opposed by civil society for its anti-poor and anti-women implications.