Photo: Fisherwomen building traditional fishing gear, Al Hoceima, Morocco.
Two gender-sensitive assessments of climate change risks conducted in Kotor Bay in Montenegro and the Tangier-Tetouan-Al-Hoceima region in Morocco shed light on how gender inequalities exacerbate vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean context. Undertaken by Plan Bleu, the UNEP/MAP Regional Activity Centre specializing in sustainable development, the assessments are part of the implementation of the GEF-UNEP MedProgramme Child Project (CP) 2.1: “Mediterranean Coastal Zones: Water Security, Climate Resilience and Habitat Protection”.
As we mark the 2023 edition of International Women’s Day (8 March), here are four important assessment findings that policymakers and climate adaptation practitioners should consider in shaping climate action in the Mediterranean:
1. Vulnerability peaks among rural women
Women in rural areas are affected by extreme weather events in more acute ways than other members of coastal communities. As the intensity and frequency of torrential rain (and consequent floods) and heatwaves (and resulting wildfires) are likely to increase around the Mediterranean, the vulnerability of rural women has roots in their structurally limited access to assets (land, livestock, natural resources), which in turn hobbles their ability to respond to climate-induced stress and shocks with the necessary nimbleness.
Beyond extreme weather events and due to their dependence on ecosystem services that are prone to disruption by slow-onset climate change impacts, rural women must grapple with stressors that outstretch their ability to adapt. Crop failures due to erratic rainfall patterns and dwindling fish stocks imperil livelihoods and erode sources of income. Social safety-nets, where available, are ill-equipped to meet the sheer scale and extent of climate-related disruptions. Rural women—especially those already treading the poverty line and the elderly—are more likely to feel the heat across the full set of themes addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals: from poverty traps to restricted access to education and health services.
2. Businesswomen are more vulnerable than their male peers
Women-led businesses in tourism, fisheries and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The assessments conducted in Montenegro and Morocco point to a combination of lower adaptive capacity (compared with other businesses) and a vulnerability inherent to the sectors in which they operate. Being smaller in size and lacking access to capital and technology, women-led businesses appear more exposed to possible climate-induced disruptions.
Agribusinesses are a case in point. Structural land tenure imbalances are rife in the Mediterranean and curtail women’s access to opportunities of investment in climate-resilient practices and technologies. In Montenegro, according to the 2010 national census, women represent 66 per cent of the workforce on family farms. By contrast, 87.13 per cent of the farm owners are men. In business or in the management of household finances, women’s limited participation in decision-making processes means that their needs are not adequately represented, thus exacerbating their vulnerability.
3. Data gaps hinder gender-sensitive climate action
The preparation of the assessments conducted in Morocco and Montenegro highlighted the need for a more consistent production of local and national gender-integrating data. For example, improving the availability and quality of sex-disaggregated socio-economic and environmental statistics is essential to designing site- and context-specific, gender-sensitive climate action. Coastal planning should be a priority for a surge in the production of gender-integrating data.
There is also a need for a higher level of granularity in understanding the local gender settings through social science tools. Women may not have the same capacity to rapidly react to climate emergencies as men, due to societal restrictions and gender roles, and are thus at greater risk of injury and death. Climate action that is gender-sensitive can save lives and livelihoods.
4. Both vulnerability and coping skills must be considered
While exposed to the same hazards, women and men may determine the urgency of adaptive action differently, depending on the assets and options they have access to. Adopting a gender-differentiated approach is key to achieving effective, inclusive and equitable climate risk management.
In addition to differentiated vulnerability, climate risk management frameworks must consider the role that women play as stewards of natural resources, household managers or leaders. Women must be empowered to fulfill their potential as agents of change in climate adaptation. Empowered women can use their skills to bolster community-based adaptation in several ways, including by taking up climate-resilient practices as early adopters, deploying coping skills, climate-proofing household budgets, and acting as message-multipliers and first responders to climate-induced disasters within their communities.
