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Leading up to the COP17 Climate Change conferences now underway in Durban, South Africa, there has been many discussions about how the changing climates affect Africa. While most conversations centre on the increasing occurrence and severity of extreme weather, the impact on crops and food security, and the future of water access, few links have been made between climate change and gender violence.
For 35-year old Gladys Moyo from Embangweni in Mzimba, northern Malawi, climate change has had a very personal impact. After 15 years of a happy marriage, Moyo’s husband left her after the land she tended for years failed to produce food, an affect of Malawi’s’ changing climate.
Moyo and her husband worked as tenant farmers at a tobacco estate in Embangweni, but to help provide for her family, the mother of eight continued to farm her own plot of land. “Since the estate was in my home village, during every planting season I would go to my village, 20 Km from the estate, to produce food in the field for my husband and children,” she says.
Between 2007 and 2008, Gladys Moyo’s crops failed because of a severe drought due to climate change. At the same time, poor tobacco prices meant that the family’s landlord incurred huge debts and could not pay us on time,”
To rescue her family from hunger, Moyo borrowed money in late 2008 from her elder sister to start a small business. “I sold tomatoes at Embangweni Trading Centre to put food on the table for my husband and children,” says Moyo.
However, her business was short-lived when her last-born son suffered from cerebral malaria and medical bills drained her already small capital. By the time the hospital discharged her son after 14 days treatment, her pockets were empty and she was unable to rekindle her tomato business. From there, things went form bad to worse.
“When I arrived home after my son’s discharge from hospital, my husband was nowhere to be seen,” adds Moyo, after mentioning that the husband never visited her while she was with the child at the hospital.
By then he was already staying with another woman. “Soon after he heard that I was back from hospital he came to collect all his clothes,” she explains. “But before his departure we quarrelled. He called me all sorts of names for failing to provide him with food. He then left after severely beating me.”
In an analysis on “climate change and gender” Dr. Wendy Annecke writes on the website of the South Africa based research wing Indigo, Development and Change, that there is a great need to include gender perspectives in climate change adaptation programmes. As Moyo’s story shows, even slight climate shifts have significant impact on women small-scale food producers.
According to Annecke, the gender element in climate change and adaptation refers to the different impact that climate change has on men and women, and the different ways that men and women respond to and are able to cope with climate change.
“We are talking about poor men and women and the differences in how they are able to shift from short term coping mechanisms to resilience,” says Annecke, adding that policies and practices should therefore, be careful not to consolidate or extend these inequalities.
Anneke also points out that migration is another pitfall of changing climates, and that men tend to be more able to use mobility as a response.
“Their ability to migrate in search of economic opportunities makes it easier for men to deal with crisis, and may result in benefits for the family as a whole,” says Anneke. “However, male migration often increases women’s workload, as they are left behind to manage the household in addition to usual tasks. It can also increase women’s exposure to risks such as gender based violence and HIV infection.”
However, for Anneke, women are not just victims of climate change, but agents of change who possess unique knowledge and skills that should be acknowledged and tapped into to develop resilience.
There is also a need to significantly increase awareness of climate change. As in Gladys Moyo’s case, women tend to face blame for the lack of food and resulting marital discord, as there is still not a good understanding of climate change in communities.
In Malawi for example, the Ministry of Agriculture has tried to explain that 20 million tonnes of soil that would have been used for food production is washed away annually due to acts of environmental degradation, including deforestation and shifting cultivation, but people hardly believe it hence continue to degrade the environment.
“People need to be told what climate change is all about and the negative impact it is already bringing in our society,” says Malawi’s Acting Director of Environmental Affairs Aloysius Kamperewera. Kamperewera explained that weather changes due to climate change have already seen many areas across Malawi experiencing droughts and floods during planting season.
“These are affecting more women than men because they make majority (over 70%) of our farmers,” said Kamperewera.
As the delegates at COP17 debate a the roadmap ahead for Africa, we can only hope that they will be considering what climate change means for small rural framers like Gladys Moyo.
Frazer Potani writes from Malawi. This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service series for the 16 Days of Activism.
📝Read the emotional article by @nokwe_mnomiya, with a personal plea: 🇿🇦Breaking the cycle of violence!https://t.co/6kPcu2Whwm pic.twitter.com/d60tsBqJwx
— Gender Links (@GenderLinks) December 17, 2024
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