Emerging and on-going research indicates that vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change are gendered. Still, policy approaches aimed at strengthening local communities' adaptive capacity largely fail to recognize the gendered nature of everyday realities and experiences. This paper interrogates some of the emerging evidence in selected semi-arid countries of Africa and Asia from a gender perspective, using water scarcity as an illustrative example. It emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the counting of numbers of men and women to unpacking relations of power, of inclusion and exclusion in decision-making, and challenging cultural beliefs that have denied equal opportunities and rights to differently positioned people, especially those at the bottom of economic and social hierarchies. Such an approach would make policy and practice more relevant to people's differentiated needs and responses.

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North-central Namibia is more vulnerable to effects of climate change and variability. Combined effects of environmental degradation, social vulnerability to poverty and a changing climate will compromise subsistence farming in north-central Namibia (NCN). This will make subsistence and small-scale farmers in the region more vulnerable to projected changes in the climate system. Thus, the aim of this article was to examine factors contributing to subsistence farmers’ vulnerability to impacts of climate change. The article further discusses different aspects of human vulnerability and existing adaptation strategies in response to impacts of climate related disasters experienced over the past three to four decades in NCN. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches and methodology were employed to obtain information from subsistence farmers in north-central Namibia. The sociodemographic characteristics of Ohangwena, Oshana and Omusati Region reveals high levels of unemployment, high adult and elderly population and high dependency on agricultural livelihood system. These indicators help understand levels of household vulnerability. The study concludes that households interviewed revealed low levels of adaptive capacity due to exposure to climate risks and combined effects of social, political and cultural factors. This article provided an understanding that is required to inform the adaptation pathways relevant for NCN.

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The shift in forestry policy towards resource management and access rights from state control to local community control has been a welcome step towards sustainable forest management in Namibia. The policy acknowledges the direct dependence on natural environmental resources by the proportional majority of the population that live in the rural areas of Namibia. This study was aimed at performing gender analysis by identifying relationships of various groups to natural resources. The study further assessed the influence these relationships have on control, access and use of forest resources, as well as on natural resource management and the implications thereof on various forest management efforts in the country. Data were collected from seven community forest institutions in Namibia and analysed using the Harvard Gender Analytical Framework. The findings show a gendered differentiated knowledge, control and access to forest resources and unequal participation in leadership and governance. Furthermore, the results suggest that unequal power relations among minority and vulnerable groups affect access to and control of forest resources. This study proposes participation of both men and women in the management, protection, access and utilisation of forest resources, as this will contribute to sustainable forest management and economic development of all members of society.