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- Convenors:
-
Helle Samuelsen
(University of Copenhagen)
Britt Pinkowski Tersbøl (University of Copenhagen)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Transfers:
- Open for transfers
Short Abstract:
In this panel we invite papers that ethnographically explore the role of gender in local negotiations of climate change adaptation initiatives. We especially welcome empirical perspectives from the Global South and inputs discussing how anthropology can inform a more gender -sensitive CCA agenda?
Long Abstract:
Climate change is very real and has existential consequences for people around the globe. Indeed, the world is at a critical junction where livelihood conditions are faced with unprecedented challenges and new avenues need to be construed. The international community as well as national governments formulate climate change adaptation (CCA) plans to mitigate the consequences. However, anthropological studies show that policies and interventions often change as they ‘hit the ground’ and that exposure to climate change, vulnerability and adaptive capacity are gendered in contextually specific ways. In this panel, we aim to critically examine how gender equity and justice inform and impact CCA negotiations and implementations at local levels. With inspiration from intersectional and gender-transformative approaches, we want to explore concrete cases of how CCA initiatives succeed, or may fail, in creating real improvements for both women and men at community level. We welcome ethnographically based papers that discuss future pathways for gender-focused and participatory CCA implementation at local levels.
In addition, we want to reflect on how anthropology as a discipline with its often very detailed micro-political ethnographies, can bridge the gap from community studies to the international agenda setting community. How can anthropology inform and influence the ways in which other societal actors address the global climate change crisis? Can anthropological methodologies actually contribute to a more inclusive and gender-sensitive CCA agenda? And, could anthropology provide pathways for a new and more nuanced language about CC and CCA that captures social and structural particularities?
Accepted papers:
Paper short abstract:
We explore the daily lives of social groups around a hydro-agricultural dam in Burkina Faso designed to ensure the continuity of agro-pastoral activities. We look at the invisible barriers that prevent women and men from benefiting equally from the resources they need to adapt to climate change.
Paper long abstract:
In response to droughts induced by climate changes, Burkina Faso has turned to hydro-agricultural dams as a key strategy in its adaptation mechanism. However, the implementation of this strategy requires environmental modifications that have an impact on the everyday practices of riverside communities. The aim of this research is to explore the socio-economic and health consequences of these changes on the daily lives of the women, men and young people living near the Soum dam. To achieve this, we conducted ethnographic research in communities around the Soum dam and conducted semi-structured interviews (individual and focus group) and informal conversations. We also followed a number of households over a long period. This research shows that new hydro-agricultural development projects are reinventing traditional rights of access to agricultural land, sometimes worsening the conditions of women and young people. Women no longer have access to plots of land that used to sustain their economy. They are further excluded by the new technological requirements of irrigated production. Furthermore, the destruction and non-reinstallation of pre-existing basic social infrastructure such as boreholes is making women's conditions even more precarious. In this context, their health and that of their children is severely tested. In view of these results, we conclude that the construction of hydro-agricultural dams like the Soum dam, without considering the needs of specific groups, cannot make adaptation to climate change effective. In the context of the Soum dam, we see a reinvention of the wheel, where women's living conditions are becoming even more precarious.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores severe disconnects that exist between policy, strategy and on-the-ground implementation of climate change policy in Tanzania, through the voices of diverse interlocutors and with focus on gender transformative climate change adaptation.
Paper long abstract:
It is well established that women and men of different ages and life circumstances, experience climate change differently. Exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity is gendered in contextually specific ways with consequences for livelihoods, and physical and mental health. In Tanzania, as elsewhere, poor women with low educational levels are particularly subjected to discrimination in access to resources, financing-opportunities, employment, training, extension services, and land-rights. Women may have limited decision-making power in the household and community and are often overlooked by governing institutions.
The research project, Himili Pamoja focus on the gendered nature of existing and tentative climate change adaptation processes at household- and district authority levels. National and local authorities shoulder the task of implementing climate change policies and promoting climate change adaptation to reduce vulnerability. District extension officers, often referred to as street-level bureaucrats, are potential agents of change and also important co-producers of climate change adaptation strategies in dialogue with other local stakeholders. However, their role is constrained by lack of adequate funding to promote climate change adaptation, and also by conflicting local interests and priorities. In addition, technical knowledge and capacity to interact, guide and support is hampered. These central disconnects mentioned above stalls positive change and sidelines investments in gender transformative development. This paper presents voices of diverse interlocutors in communities and district offices, living with and navigating within stalled and tentative climate change adaptation-processes.