Africa: How African Women Are Protecting Communities From Devastating Droughts

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have released a new global report today – the International Day of Rural Women – calling for better recognition and support for women-led efforts to protect vulnerable communities from the devastating effects of drought.

The report highlights 35 promising practices showcasing the efforts of organisations and community members, particularly women leaders, in combating, mitigating, and responding to drought and its deleterious impacts.

This is a view of the African countries included in the report’s case studies:

A lack of, or limited access to, markets, capital, training, technical assistance, financial services, and technologies:

The case studies in Australia, Iran, Nigeria, and Uganda demonstrate the efforts of local organisations, women’s groups, and women leaders in supporting women’s access to vital information, knowledge, and support. In Nigeria, information is disseminated via the radio, providing critical information and education to even the most remote and isolated communities. Local farmers, agricultural experts, and supply chain partners are invited to share their knowledge, expertise, and experience on the radio, promoting water conservation and improved irrigation technologies, and providing climate information services. This approach has proved effective, with nearly 40 per cent of women listeners trying at least one climate change adaptive practice as a result of the radio programme.

In Uganda, women are equipped with the knowledge and skills to interpret and disseminate climate information and to provide their communities with localised weather forecasts, early warning alerts, and advisories on climate-smart agricultural practices and disaster preparedness measures. Farmers – particularly women – who receive this information make better-informed decisions on crop planning, water management, and livelihood diversification. Also in Uganda, a weather update centre provides farmers with accurate, timely weather information to support their agricultural activities, while a mobile van equipped with a projector delivers training sessions to farmers in remote areas.

Patriarchal, discriminatory, and violent norms and laws:

In Costa Rica and Senegal, women are shifting gender norms through their engagement in traditionally male-dominated domains, like firefighting
and beekeeping.

Gendered division of labour and unequal social and economic organisation of care:

Efforts in Angola, Cambodia, and internationally are helping render the division of labour and care work more equitable. Programming in Angola recognises that family diet and nutritional status impact women’s participation in project activities, given that women are typically expected to care for ill family members. The critical need for indicators to measure national performance against gender targets is evident in Cambodia, the only country to identify actions with indicators to gauge its progress towards reducing women’s unpaid care and domestic work.

Given the gendered division of labour and unequal social and economic organisation of care hinder women’s advancement, targeted measures in line with the 3R framework (recognise, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work) integrated into initiatives to combat drought can help foster gender equality and enable responsibilities to be shared more equitably.

The Great Green Wall Initiative, under UNCCD in alliance with UN Women, is helping make strides in this regard.

Concentration of power and hierarchical relations in the public and private spheres:

Efforts are under way in favour of gender balance in decision-making. The Special Rapporteur Report on human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment further emphasises the need for the perspectives of women and girls to be integrated into climate and environmental decisions influencing the future of humanity.

As we see in major financing mechanisms, like the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility (GEF), Global Mechanism, and Adaptation Fund, the requirement to ensure women’s participation in drought-related initiatives can help shift change in favour of all, supporting gender equality and improving drought management and response. Nonetheless, even where women are equally represented, measures must be in place to support their active inclusion and engagement and ensure their voices are heard.

At a UNFCCC climate conference, for example, women were equally represented among registered delegates, but nevertheless men still spoke three-quarters of the time. Measures must promote women’s leadership, ensure women’s equal participation in drought management, and shift norms, by enabling women to take on non-traditional roles and jobs and by empowering women through collectives and associations, where they can pool resources and increase their negotiating power. The benefits of engaging women as leaders of initiatives and as members of women’s groups and cooperatives are evident in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Ethiopia, and Morocco, where women are leading efforts to revitalise degraded land.

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In Morocco, female engineers are revitalising land and training other women to build their capacities in sustainable and regenerative agricultural techniques, helping improve food security while nurturing the land and empowering local communities. Likewise, in China, women are leading and being mobilised to reforest land and prevent further desertification, using traditional land management techniques like water conservancy, afforestation, and soil conservation, as well as through an innovative rotational grazing technique and rural cooperatives. In Ethiopia, reportedly one of the most gender-unequal countries in the world, women’s cooperatives are helping combat hunger by restoring degraded land, diversifying their sources of income, and investing in milk processing equipment.

In Chile, a women-led, community-based group is bringing women together to identify solutions to the impacts of mega-drought, climate change, water scarcity, and soil degradation. Similarly in Benin and Burkina Faso, women cooperatives are supporting landscape regeneration and sustainable management.

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