Is Adaptation to Climate Change Gender Neutral? A Case Study Among Communities Depending on Livestock and Forest in Northern Mali

Abstract

"The growing risk of vulnerability under climate change will first and foremost affect poor people, particularly women, as it tends to widen existing inequalities. In the Lake Faguibine area in Northern Mali the social, political and ecological conditions have drastically changed in the past 30 years decades. We conducted 6 single- gender participatory workshops using PRA in two communities to assess vulnerability and adaptive strategies to climate variability and change for livestock and forest-based livelihoods. Our results show divergences in the adaptive strategies of men and women. Migration represented one of the most important strategies for men. Women perceived this strategy more as a cause of vulnerability than an adaptive strategy, as traditionally male activities have been added to the workload of women (e.g. small ruminant herding). The historical axes show that development projects targeting women have not integrated climate change and variability into their planning. Most activities have been built around small-scale agriculture. With the drying out of Lake Faguibine, those water- dependent activities are no longer relevant. Women have developed their own adaptive strategies based on newly emerged forest resources in the former lake area (e.g. charcoal production). However, loss of manpower in the household, unclear access to natural resources, lack of knowledge, financial resources, and power as well as limited market opportunities for women hinder them from realizing the potential of these new activities. Even though women’s vulnerability is increasing in the short term, over the long term the emerging changes in women`s roles could lead to positive impacts, both societal (division of labor and power, new social spaces), and economic (market access, livestock wealth). Locally specific gender-sensitive analysis of vulnerability is needed to understand dynamics and interaction of divergent adaptive strategies. Societal and political change at broader scales and beyond rhetoric’s is needed to realize potential benefits for women in the long term."