Considering an Intersectional Lens in Agriculture and Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Climate change has detrimental effects on agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods. Disasters such as droughts, wildfires, floods, changes in intensity and timing of temperatures often cause gendered differential impacts. Furthermore, gendered climate vulnerability increases its impacts over time, threatening rural livelihoods and global food security. Consequently, the most vulnerable sections of the society experience severe effects due to their lack of capacity and opportunities to respond to these clime shocks. PROBLEM:Available literature on climate change, agriculture and gender explore vulnerabilities in rural populations through binary gender lenses, whereby men and women are categorised distinctly in terms of needs, climate adaptation and agricultural practices. These studies utilise a narrow gender analysis. In so doing, indicators like age, household types, income and ethnicity are made analytically invisible. METHODS:This paper utilised a systematic review method. Literature from the 1991 to 2020 was utilised in a comprehensive literature review to show how the concept of gender in agriculture and climate change has evolved in the past three decades. A content thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the data. Results: Findings indicated that without considering social variances between and within genders, policy and programming lacks comprehensive insights in responding to differential climatic impacts. This leads to obscurity experienced in one-size-fits-all approaches taken to address the needs of all vulnerable members of society. RECOMMENDATIONS:This paper recommended that climate change programming and policy frameworks must be informed by comprehensive analysis aimed at developing suitable climate change adaptation strategies within and between genders.