Climate change; the long term shifts in temperature and weather patterns have been manifested in forms of intense droughts, scarcity of water, severe wildfires, rising seawater levels, frequent flooding, shrinking glaciers, destructive storms and biodiversity loss.

The myriad impacts of climate change are interrelated and are detrimental to every facet of human life affecting health, security, energy and economy. For instance, drought causes agricultural production losses, heat-related health risks; flooding damages properties, livelihood, and infrastructure and leads to spread of diseases. Both severe flooding and drought destroy the ecosystem.

Similarly, climate change engenders mobility of people creating climate refugees. While everyone is affected by climate change, some people are more vulnerable to it than others. This vulnerability is worsened by inequities and marginalisation associated with social variables such as gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status.

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change yet climate change exacerbates extant gender inequalities posing significant threat to their health, livelihood and security. Women and girls are more likely to die or be injured due to deeply entrenched inequalities that lead to their disparity in accessing resources, information, and training, ability to move and make decisions impacting their lives.

Women are closer to nature

In developing countries, women farmers contribute to between 45 to 80% of food production. Women are highly involved in subsistence farming. In 2014, a report by MINECOFIN deduced that agriculture was the main employer of women in Rwanda; women accounted for 83% of workers in the sector. The same report posited that in 27% of farming households, labour was solely supplied by women, with certain activities like sowing, weeding, wind winnowing and sun drying traditionally considered purely women’s task.

Women and girls in most rural communities are responsible for fetching firewood for cooking. They are similarly responsible for securing water for household water supply. Women are engaged in these activities that are labour intensive and time consuming and most often still carried out manually and using crude tools.

Climate variability increases the burden women face to secure a livelihood or resources. For instance, intense drought means that women and girls will have to travel further to access water and firewood, leaving women: less time for paid work; rest; engagement in civic and public activities such as politics; girls are absent or are late to school; women and girls become susceptible to injuries from heavy loads over a long distance and threats to their personal safety such as sexual harassment. This worsens the disempowerment of women.

Climate change impact is not "gender-neutral”

It is widely known that climate change impacts the indigent in society; who rely most on nature and have limited capacity to confront climate extremes. Poverty is female; poverty rates are higher among women (than men); female-headed households are also inordinately concentrated in the low-income group.

As highlighted above, women in developing countries such as Rwanda make up the majority of the labour force in agricultural work. Climate change has severed traditional food sources making it unpredictable and scarce leading to loss of harvest, thereby, loss of source of food and income. Relatedly, the food prices hike leads to inaccessibility of food to the poor and vulnerable, particularly women and girls whose health deteriorates faster than their male counterparts during food shortages.

Climate change impacts availability of water for domestic and productive tasks. Both frequency of drought and floods have far reaching consequences to vulnerable groups including women who are relegated to water management tasks at household levels. Women and girls have to walk longer distances to fetch water which doesn’t meet the household needs and are often contaminated. Women, therefore, also bear the burden of poor sanitation. Higher temperatures and high floods worsen water pollution in the form of sediments, pathogens and pesticides.

Environment deterioration causes human mobility and migration internally and across the border. Weather events such as floods, drought and agricultural disruption causes increased migration for safety, livelihood and employment purposes. Migration is part of an adaptive response to climate building resilience and reducing further exposure to danger.

Deeply entrenched cultural gender norms impact women’s opportunities for migration. This leads to more exposure to climate hazards. Women are often the last to migrate due to their primary care responsibility over children, the old and sick. They are also faced by the lack of socio-economic resources to move and access to information on migration routes.

On the other hand, migration and displacement heightens the risk for violence against women and girls, such as sexual abuse and exploitation among women and girls who lack privacy in camps. Absence of safe and regular migration paths may expose women and girls to traffickers and smugglers of violence in the hands of the police and border officials.

Globally, women compared to men have less access to resources such as land, credit, agricultural inputs, decision-making structures, technology, training and extension services that would bolster their capacity to adapt to climate change. This increases their vulnerability. Climate change also deepens the gender gap by furthering disempowerment of women and girls.

Climate action needs women

Being "closer to nature”, women are more vulnerable to climate change. They are also at the heart of climate action; mitigation and adaptation.

Women possess a wealth of knowledge on the environment and the ecosystem that can be utilised in climate mitigation, adaptation and disaster reduction. For instance, indigenous women’s understanding of the environment includes comprehension of wild ancestors of crop plants, medicinal plants and domesticated animals. Their knowledge is critical in orienting the way we interact with nature; creating symbiosis with ecosystems, preserving our biodiversity and limiting deterioration.

Women are on the frontline in natural disaster responses, disaster risk-reduction and post disaster recovery by addressing their families’ early recovery needs.

As stewards in their households and of natural resources, women are well-placed to contribute to subsistence strategies that are adapted to alternating environmental realities.

Studies reveal women have depicted more concern for the environment and are more likely to support and vote for pro-environmental policies and leaders. More presence of women in parliament is more inclined to ratify international environmental treaties. Against this background, a greater engagement of women in politics and civil society could potentially engender environmental gains with compounding effects across all the Sustainable Development Goals.

Women make up more than 50% of the world population. It is core that their needs and priorities are captured in development planning. They should be involved in decision-making at all administrative levels when it comes to climate change planning such as adaptation, mitigation, capacity-building and technology transfer.

Empowering women and dismantling retrogressive cultural norms are primary to strengthening climate action strategies. It bolsters women’s ability to respond to climatic events. Women should be empowered to have ownership and control over factors of production such as land, labours, markets, financial resources, technology and training.

Educating women and girls fosters choices and decisions that promote environmental conservation such as climate-smart farming. They would be able to develop green skills and take up green jobs. Furthermore, educated women and girls can take up leadership in climate action initiatives.