Towards a gender sensitive vulnerability assessment for climate change: Lambani, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Women's limited access to resources and decision-making processes increases their vulnerability to impacts of climate change. Despite their own vulnerability, women are often responsible for caring for close relatives, extended families and friends during hazardous and traumatic events (whether its famine, floods, drought or forced displacements). Based on experience and knowledge it is believed that women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, primarily as they constitute the majority of the world's poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. The paper proposes a gender sensitive vulnerable assessment framework that is scaffolded by three key concepts: exposure, temporality and resource base. Because the study is grounded in the Capability Approach Framework it captures multi-dimensionality and intangible goods which are emotions such as fear, anger, shock or shame. It seeks to better understand the differentiated responses of men and women to climate variations and stress such as extreme heat, cold, droughts or floods in a specific site, Lambani, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The main aim is to understand different responses of men and women to climate change in order to design and populate a vulnerability assessment (VA) framework. In order to do so the Capability Approach (CA) is applied as a theoretical frame with its lens on diversity and social justice. The CA thus provides an expanded notion of human well-being that taps into the emotional life of women and men in Lambani.

Climate Change Attitudes, Relationship to Nature and Pro-Environmental Behaviour of Students From Three European Countries

“…ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/ ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/ This phenomenon could be explained in part from a psychological perspective, with girls being more sensitive to processes that could affect different areas of human life (Goldin et al, 2019;Holvoet & Inberg, 2014;McCall et al, 2019).…”

Elaborating a people-centered approach to understanding sustainable livelihoods under climate and environmental change: Thang Binh District, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam

“…Interviewees were selected to cover (a) the different levels of government within the coastal areas of Thang Binh District (province, district, and commune) responsible for setting and enacting policy relevant to livelihoods, sustainability, and climate and environmental change; and (b) citizens living in coastal communes assessed at being at high climate and disaster risk (UNDP 2019) and working in sectors (agriculture and fisheries) identified at being at risk within Quang Nam Province's action plan on climate change (Quang Nam Province 2013). Given the strong emphasis in the literature on gender differences in vulnerability (e.g., Goldin et al 2019), particular attention was paid to ensuring female respondents were represented at commune level.…”

Assessing local government's response to black women's vulnerability and adaptation to the impacts of floods in the context of intersectionality: The case of eThekwini metropolitan municipality, South Africa

“…South Africa needs more studies exploring the gendered aspect of climate change adaptation. The few known ones include Goldin et al's (2019) research in the Lambani locality of the Limpopo Province. In the KwaZulu‐Natal Province, there are Vincent et al's (2010) study in the uMzinyathi district municipality and Babagura's (2010) study in the uMhlathuze district municipality.…”