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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how women and less-migratory people in pastoralist communities in Tanzania, adapted livelihood strategies in response to a tailored participatory extension and climate services approach, and how this promoted their agency to adapt to climate variability and change.

Paper long abstract:

Women and young people in pastoralist communities are often perceived as disempowered and lacking agency, since the cattle-herding activities that are the mainstay for such communities, are predominantly controlled by adult men. In the semi-arid Longido district in northern Tanzania, climate variability and change, compounded by environmental degradation, create challenging conditions for pastoralists to make decisions about livelihood strategies. Initiatives to support such communities through communication of climate information and encouragement of climate adaptation strategies have proven difficult, because of their nomadic lifestyle, and a perceived inability/unwillingness to engage in livelihood activities beyond rearing cattle. Following a scoping study, motivated by challenges in previous work with pastoralists, we tailored a participatory climate services approach - Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) - to focus specifically on supporting the agency of women and young people in pastoralist communities. The majority of participants (96%) adapted a range of agricultural and non-agricultural strategies, including diversification beyond rearing cattle, in response to the information and decision-making tools included in the approach. As a result, 97% perceived that their ability to cope with climate variability and change had improved. This shows that promoting the agency of women and less-migratory people in pastoralist communities through the use of participatory climate services can support them in developing and implementing effective strategies to cope with climate variability and change.