The impacts of climate change on measures to reduce extreme

povertyProfessor Margaret Alston OAMHead of Social Work Department

Director of the Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability (GLASS) research unit

Monash University, Australia

Summary

• Our research

• Ongoing improvements – poverty measures

• Why gender lens?

• Impacts of CC

• Effects on poverty alleviation

Monash-Oxfam partnership

• Monash University

• Oxfam

• Oxfam GB and their local program partners

• Oxfam Australia

• Dhaka University

• Emminence and

• Research and NGO community in Dhaka

Our research

• Questions

• Map

• Methodology

Research Aim

To assess the gendered impacts of climate variability

• with a particular focus on slow-onset change and climate events and

• on the experiences, vulnerability and agency of women,

• to determine appropriate and practical ways to address the issues.

Research questions

1. What are the gendered impacts of climate variability?

2. What are the experiences of women, men and girls and boys?

3. What strategies or adaptations do they adopt?

Fieldwor

Satkhira

Barguna

Gaibandha

Oxfam GB’s local partners

District - GaibandhaPartner - GUK Gana Unnayan Kendra

District – SatkhiraPartner - Shushilan

District - BargunaPartner - Jago Nari

Field sites (District – Union)

Gaibandha – Kamarjani, Kapashiya, Mollarchar

Barguna – Baliatoli, Dholua, Fuljhari

Sathkira – Ishorpur, Koikhali, Gabura

Data collection Gaibandha – Oxfam GB staff,

GUK staff, Dhaka Univ graduates, Margaret

and Alex

Fieldwork

Stage 1 FGD, interviews

(Oct 2011 to Jan 2012)

375 participants

Stage 2 Survey

(Feb to May 2013)

617 participants

Ongoing improvements

• Education access

• Family planning

• Microcredit

• Government programs

• NGO support

Why gender?

• Women make up:

– Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate (UNICEF 2013);

– Earn 10% of the world’s income (Global Poverty Project 2013);

– Occupy only 18% of seats in the world’s parliaments (International Women’s Democracy Centre 2008);

– Constitute 70% of those living in extreme poverty (Global Poverty Project 2013)

Post-disaster

• Less control / ownership of land and resources;• greater likelihood of deaths and injury during natural disasters;• higher levels of physical and mental health issues;• a greater role in caring for the sick and injured;• a greater role in caring for sick children especially in relation to water-borne disease;• a greater role in caring for the elderly especially in relation to respiratory disease;• greater likelihood of violence and breakdown of societal protections following disasters and climate

events;• fewer employment opportunities;• a greater likelihood that women will lose land rights;• a higher rate of malnutrition as women tend to eat last;• a greater burden of work collecting clean water and fuel for cooking;• fewer roles in post-disaster reconstruction and decision-making;• a greater loss of status due to declining participation in post-reconstruction, higher levels of

violence, and a loss of basic freedoms;• a lack of participation in household/community decision-making;• relationship stress; and• a loss of traditional women’s knowledge (Alston and Vize 2010; Alston 2012).

Impacts of Climate change

• temperatures will rise across South Asia (Christensen et al 2007);

• Seasons warmer in Bangladesh (Tanner et al 2007);

• monsoonal rainfall more intense, times when rain falls varies; • Rainfall increase - many areas wetter in winter and drier in summer (Tanner et al 2004);

• Flooding increase across Bangladesh in monsoonal season and reduced water in the rivers in dry seasons (Alam 2004);

• areas affected by flooding will increase (Ahmed 2006);

• river bank erosion affecting 1200 kilometres of riverbank and approximately 8700 hectares lost (Ahmed 2006);

• major droughts increasing, affecting food production (Selvaraju et al 2006);

• ground water availability is affected (Roy 2008);

• shrinking of Himalayan glaciers affecting water in the rivers (Stern 2006);

• Bangladesh third most vulnerable country to sea level rises –will affect up to 30 million(McGranahan et al 2006);

• Salinity encroaching into land and water supplies, exposing people to high salinity (NAPA 2005);

• Cyclones more intense, more frequent, increased wind speed and rainstorms (Tanner et al 2007);

• Hotter summers creating violent tornadoes (Roach 2005); and

• extreme weather events increasing exacerbating mortality from extreme heat waves, cold snaps and increasing disease impacts;

• during flooding extensive areas of Dhaka experience major health crises as a result of raw sewage sludge pouring out of storm water drains (Alam and Rabbani 2007).

• Pender (2008)

Climate factor Women Men Total

Seasons 38% 66% 53%

53% of all respondents reported season change60% Barguna, 55% Satkhira, 43% Gaibandha

Temperature Change 85% 93% 89%

89% of all respondents reported temperature change 94.4% Satkhira, 93.8% Barguna, 78.6% GaibandhaWomen are much more likely to report temperature change than any other weather/climate variable

Rainfall 78% 82% 80%

80% of all respondents reported rainfall change91% Barguna, 77.6% Gaibandha, 71% Satkhira

Wind 54% 58% 56%

56% of all respondents reported wind change70% Barguna, 55% Satkhira, 42% Gaibandha

Cloud cover 30.5% 45% 38%

Only 9 respondents said they don’t know and only 19 said they couldn’t remember any changes

Perceptions of change – weather

Perceptions of change – weather

SEASONS

shorter rainy season, change in the no. of seasons and unpredictability of weather

hotter during hot months, colder during cold months and increase in temp. overall

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

decrease in rainfall overall, rainfall at unexpected times and rainfall is late

CLOUD

less cloud cover, cloud cover at different times

WIND

stronger winds

we saw many floods before cyclone Sidr. Earlier floods happened [at about a] ten to fifteen year interval. Stormy winds, rain, cyclones etc are common. But Sidr was different. We never faced this type of terrible cyclone. (Women’s focus group, Barguna)

Women and children didn’t *necessarily+ get any early warning messages. This is a great problem. So they are staying at their home and at that time most of the men went to the shelter or out of the area. …Our early warning systems are … gender biased. (NGO Key Informant Dhaka)

I built my house at a cost of seventy thousand taka. I built that house

with lot of difficulties. I had no land. I used to work hard on other

peoples’ land and started saving money. I managed to save that way for

years and finally collected the money and built that house. Then I

bought a cow and started selling the milk of that cow. The milk was

pure. We do not contaminate milk with water or anything else to make it

[last longer]. We were happy. And then Sidr came; and then Aila. They

snatched all our belongings and our happiness. (Older man, Barguna)

Earlier we had milk, butter and ghee in plenty to eat. But now our children have only heard of them. All because of saline water. The cows and goats are not getting straw to eat, because paddy cultivation is becoming rare day by day. (Female focus group, Satkhira)

water and fuelWater –

reduced availability of drinking water,

increased salinity in dry season,

increased time to collect water,

need to find new sources of drinking water,

change in who collects water (men need to do because further away, more time taken)

Fuel –

reduced availability of fuel,

increased time to collect fuel,

need to find a new source of fuel

We suffer. If everything is flooded in the water then [we have difficulty] cooking, collecting, we have to go to and fro for cooking, collecting water and feeding the children. Isn’t it a suffering? … Mothers remain occupied with these types of suffering. Children cry because of hunger. … Women and children suffer the most. (Interview, female, Barguna)

Individual impacts – education

increased hardship getting children to school (143)

pressure to take children out of school (56)

financial hardship (561 responses)

took daughter out of school (86 – 41 in Barguna)

took son out of school to work (54)

gone without something to keep daughter at school (58)

gone without something to keep son at school (66)

took daughter out of school for marriage (58) –age of marriage in table

Because of erosion, people have lost their house, land, property. They have to stay in other people’s houses. They are unable to eat/have three meals a day. So it is quite impossible for them to support their children to continue study. This is the main problem. (Young male focus group, Gaibandha)

Individual impacts – health

new health issue (313 – 51%)

reduced general health(497 responses 81%)

Flu 74%Cold 54%Cough 52.5%Heart 51%Diarrhea 38.5%Malnutrition 32%Dehydration 30%Jaundice 27% Breathing 27%Skin problems 14% (half in satkhira)Reproductive 12% (more in barguna)Typhoid 11% (most in barguna)High blood pressure 10%Anxiety/stress 6% (most in satkhira)Arthritis 6% (more in barguna)Mental health 5% (16 satkhira)Eclampsia 3%

Gender impacts

• Fatalities • Outmigration – polygamy, cultural issues, class changes• Female headed households• Early marriage• Violence• Early warnings• Safety in shelters• Family planning• Water and food security• Health and care work• Education access• Women working and getting microcredit – empowerment• Young women to garment factories

Gender issues

Access to work, importance of alternative income, need to adjust to changing economic realities are creating space for women’s participation and empowerment

Yet there are factors that restrict this progress – elusive concept of ‘honour’, perceptions of women being less capable

The women do not know any thing. They are ignorant, they have

less brain. We, the men, are wiser than the women... But women’s knowledge is (very poor).” (Interview, male, Gaibandha)

Gender factors

Eve-Teasing – harassment

Early marriage - significant reporting of, and discussion about early marriage and the financial imperatives See, the man who has a daughter, he has to marry her off. Or else you have to feed her. (Interview, older male, Gaibandha)

Many who know it is illegal and understand it is not good for girls but are ‘not able’ to stop it. Also reporting that the bride’s age at marriage is falsified when registering marriage

Dowry – similar situation to early marriage in that there is some recognition it is illegal, some describe dowry like payments (cash, motorbikes) as giftsSignificant shift from groom family paying dowry to now receiving –marriage as a business transaction / source of income

Relationships

Changes in livelihood strategies leading to changing relationships - migration has changed family dynamics, some men taking another wife, some village women abandoned over time

Violence – many different forms (physical, emotional, starvation), links between early marriage and violence from family –in laws

Whose health is most affected?

Broader impactsChanges in women’s lives

Women Men Total

More health problems

56% 66% 61.5%

More stressed and anxious

46% 39% 43%

Increased pressure to provide food/shelter

12% 13% 13%

Increased pressure to acquire loans

47% 49% 48%

More pressure to migrate for work

16% 12% 14%

Better access to paid work

8% 8% 8%

More support from NGOs

38% 35% 36%

Experience more violence

13% 9% 11%

Changes in men’s lives

Women Men Total

More health problems

47% 69% 58%

More stressed and anxious

43% 55% 49%

Increased pressure to provide food/shelter

28% 35% 34%

Increased pressure to acquire loans

18% 31% 25%

More pressure to migrate for work

21% 23% 22%

Better access to paid work

22% 15% 18%

More assistance from NGOs

12% 13% 13%

Experience more violence

8% 12% 10%

My husband is a day labourer. I’m educating my children. One daughter is studying in [high

school]. We remain hungry but I had to give money for the fare for [my daughter to catch the

school bus] to Barguna. Every day she needed 40-50 taka but my husband couldn’t earn even

100 taka. Then how can I eat? I eat rice with chilli paste but give my daughter the bus fare. If I

buy fish with 40 taka then I wouldn’t be able to pay my daughter’s education… (Older woman

in Barguna)

Food security – women compensating

Going hungry

211 women and 198 men reported they had not enough to eat often or sometimes during 2012 (66%)A further 99 stated they had enough but not the right kind of food.

Only 107 stated they had sufficient food (17%)

Who eats less

Both men and women report that women are eating less although women report this more often than men.

Food Security

Who eats less?

Effects on poverty alleviation

• Access

• Slow down of poverty measures

• Survival

• Changing social relations – impact on women

• Agriculture work

• Remittance

Recommendations

• Poverty – broad and encompassing opportunity and freedom, cultural autonomy

• Need to redirect measures to poor rural women

• REE-CALL program – empowerment programs

• Enabling environment must recognise gender as a critical factor