Abstract
How to support those responding to environmental change in resource-constrained environments is central to literature on climate change adaption. Our research explores a gap in this literature relating to the negotiation of intra-household relations and resource access across different types of household in contexts of social and environmental transition. Using the example of the semi-arid Awash region in North-Eastern Ethiopia, which has experienced drought and alien plant invasion over the past decade, we explore how men and women use changes in household structures and relationships to adapt more effectively. We draw evidence from life histories with 35 pastoralists across three rural, peri-urban and urban communities. Using Dorward et al.’s taxonomy, we find Afar people are not only ‘stepping up’, but also ‘stepping out’: shifting from pastoralism into agriculture and salaried employment. As this often involves splitting households across multiple locations, we look at how these reconfigured households support pastoralists’ wellbeing.
Highlights
The gendered negotiation of intra-household relationships and resource access and how this varies across different household structures1 is not well understood in literature on climate change adaptation (Tschakert and Machado 2012; Djoudi et al 2016; Bunce and Ford 2015; Aregu et al 2016)
While respondents held high aspirations for their children, and to a lesser extent for themselves, there is little evidence that these can be achieved in an environment with multiple barriers to schooling and little skilled employment (Camfield 2011). It was clear from across our case studies, and in line with other research, that pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Awash are experiencing considerable stress due to climatic changes. This is felt in a range of ways—water and pasture scarcity, erosion of herds, declining quality of livestock and decline in agricultural production—with direct negative impacts on wellbeing through the effects on incomes, food security and nutrition
People manage this through livelihood diversification, including migration to urban centres and spreading households across pastureland and rural and urban centres
Summary
The gendered negotiation of intra-household relationships and resource access and how this varies across different household structures is not well understood in literature on climate change adaptation (Tschakert and Machado 2012; Djoudi et al 2016; Bunce and Ford 2015; Aregu et al 2016). The paper uses Dorward et al.’s (2009) taxonomy of ‘hanging in’, ‘stepping up’ and ‘stepping out’, developed to categorise the strategies and aspirations of poor people in Mexico and Bolivia, to look at the ways in which people have responded to these challenges Their responses include ‘hanging in’ through travelling longer distances to pasture or moving family members and high-value livestock to traditional rangelands, ‘stepping up’ through engaging in activities alongside pastoralism, including migration, and ‘stepping out’ through moving to urban centres and engaging in nonagricultural activities (see Little et al 2001). As described earlier, these strategies have involved the creative refashioning of household structures to respond to new expectations and realise aspirations. These are typically centred around education and employment, as we discuss in the final section
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