Gender matters - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 93

few communities in the LVB have joined forces to adapt to increasing climate
variability and change by working to improve their livelihoods and wellbeing.
Their informal institutions, while still based on trust and mutual engagement,
are also rooted in a collective culture of planning and saving, which has enabled
them to pool labour, share risks, land plots and tools, and thus improve both
food and income buffers by diversifying farm and non-farm incomes, while
experimenting with new crops, business ventures and conservation of natural
resources (Andersson and Gabrielsson 2012). Moreover, women in these
groups have shown that deliberate transformations are possible if people can
attain the power to access resources and decision-making; if they can draw on
the power from the mutual support and collective solidarity generated among
group members; and recognize the positive changes in individual attitudes,
consciousness and confidence developed from their actions and outcomes
(Kabeer 1999). Such empowerment has the potential to allow not only widows
to adapt to climate variability and change - it may challenge the very structures
and social norms that contribute to climate vulnerability or limit adaptive
capacity in the first place.
What are the lessons here for the development of future climate-adaptation
projects and policies in SSA? The findings discussed here highlight the
importance of engaging more with local communities to understand their
specific cultural contexts and conditions, to be able to identify avenues for
change and agents of change. In theory this means a radical paradigm shift
in how we approach and address adaptation on the African continent in the
future, where gender empowerment must be a fundamental driving force in
the development, selection and funding of specific adaptation projects targeting
rural areas. In practice this means improving the adaptive capacities of men but
even more so those of women, by focusing on improving the areas of their lives
that currently divert attention and resources away from pursuing adaptation
strategies that can respond to increased climate risks, as well as directly targeting
areas that will encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural production or
diversification activities.
For instance, this could mean projects focused on improving and scaling
up access to basic needs such as clean water and sustainable sanitation. Today,
fetching water diverts much of women's time away from farming and potential
business ventures; and unnecessarily large amounts of household incomes are
spent on treating preventable water-related diseases. Projects could also target
road construction and maintenance, to facilitate mobility to and from market
places, educational facilities and health clinics. For women this is particularly
important, because many are highly immobile and must depend on male modes of
transport, like motorbikes. Greater mobility through the use of bicycles and better
public transport, like buses and minibuses, would also enable women to have the
opportunity to build social networks outside their own villages and give them
access to financial institutions and educational facilities. Projects could also target
education and training for farmers, particularly female farmers, who have rarely