Tesfaye, A. et al. (2022) ‘Gender empowerment and parity in East Africa: evidence from climate-smart agriculture in Ethiopia and Kenya’, Climate and Development [Preprint].
The role of women in ensuring household food and nutrition security is explained in the introductory part of the study. As women are active players in managing land and water resources, their contribution to sustaining family livelihood is paramount. However, in eastern Africa particularly Ethiopia and Kenya, women face gender-based constraints that limit their access to equal opportunities and access to productive resources including agricultural inputs. This in turn affects their productivity and limits their agricultural outputs. Implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate Smart Village (CSV) potential to empower women, promote gender equality and ensure productivity is made the focus of the study. CSV is an approach implemented by the CGIAR2 program on climate change, agriculture, and food security in 2012, in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.
The study was conducted in two diverse agro-ecologies: the Doyogena district of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia and Nyando of Western Kenya. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select 280 (232 Male and 48 Female) households from Doyogena and 305 (120 Male and 185 Female) households from Nyando. For data collection, the authors used the KoBO Collect survey tool which helped to collect primary data in a challenging environment such as remote places with no internet connection. The survey was complemented by focus group discussion (FGD) conducted with both women and men.
According to the finding, the participation of women in Climate-smart villages contributed to women’s empowerment. This shows, in both districts, involvement in CSA practices improved the level of participation in political, social, economic, and agricultural domains compared to households in non-CSVs. Similarly, households in CSVs scored higher GEI in both study sites. Comparing men and women in the CSVs, women were found to be more empowered compared to men, and comparing between the two districts, household heads in Doyogena were more empowered than those in Nyando. Considering gender parity, in both districts, the majority of the women in the empowered households in CSVs were either at equal status with men or even at a higher status than men. From these findings, there is evidence supporting the potential of CSVs in enhancing gender empowerment and promoting gender equality.
Generally, the author emphasized the importance of training and workshop in the study sites as a means of enhancing the bargaining power of women in a household to improve their role in decision-making. Since CSA serves the purpose of enhancing food security and promoting gender empowerment and equality, the positive contribution of CSVs in this study may guide policy and decision-makers to scale up these practices with a better-targeted approach that recognise and adequately address the implementation of CSA practices so that both men and women can equally benefit.