Climate, Gender and Innovation in Africa

In light of the recent COP28, I wanted to use this next blog to explore the relationship between climate change and gender in the context of Africa.  

Countries paying the price

As the world gets warmer, the countries least to blame are the ones who pay the highest price. Anthropogenic reasons for climate change come from countries responsible for the highest fossil fuel emissions, not African nations. However, there are many examples of how climate change is impacting the African continent. For example, some African countries experiencing rising surface temperatures may fall victim to the effects of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. That, the warmer the surface temperatures, the holding capacity for rain in clouds rises exponentially. This results in more drought periods for some and less frequent, but heavier, precipitation events for others (Tabari, 2020). These effects can be seen as increased flooding, decline in crop yield, failing livestock and livelihoods (Palmer et al, 2023).


A gendered experience to global changes

Now, as climate change affects countries differently, the same logic can be applied to gender. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change than men are in Africa. Women are often in charge of collecting water and farming the land - both aspects which are massively impacted when rising global temperates impact water availability. These pressures multiply and create power imbalances between men and women, further perpetuating gender inequalities.


COP28 promises


COP28 saw Water Equity put $100million USD towards improving climate change adaptation infrastructure, in hopes to improve the resilience of countries facing water issues, such as in Africa. This is necessary as climate change adaptations are crucial for long term economic and environmental development in Africa, regardless of what climate issues we are yet to face (Washington et al, 2006).



Innovators

Luckily, there are also many examples of innovative female scientists aiming to help adapt their countries' infrastructure to climate change. Dr Aline Okello, a PhD student who have created an app for rainwater harvesting. This is helping communities in Mozambique establish their own rainwater harvesting technologies. 



Furthermore, an example of women helping women innovate in the face of climate change is the NGO Dar Si Hmad, in Morocco. Created by women for other women, they set up fog harvesting nets to collect water in times of drought: mesh nets trap wind and collect water droplets into gutters beneath. Morocco faces tough periods of water scarcity (Seif-Ennasr et al, 2016) and with the added pressures of rising global temperatures - long term, sustainable and successful initiatives like these will become more and more necessary. The women in their communities have more time to take on other tasks, since they no longer have to manually collect water.


Whilst COP28 pledged actions against climate change, the reality is that certain countries and genders are being affected more than others. But, if we want to achieve the SDGs by 2030, innovation such as by Dr Aline Okello and Dar Si Hmad shows determination in the face of gloom. 

Comments

  1. Shanjana Kodeeswaran7 January 2024 at 05:47

    Hi Elizabeth, this was a very interesting post, especially because not many would think about the multiple connections between climate change and the impact it has on women! I was wondering if there have been some criticisms with technologies such as fog collection?

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Wales7 January 2024 at 05:53

      Hi Shanjana, thank you for commenting! Yes, fog collection has definitely been critiqued, and is often viewed as a 'last resort' method to water collection because it does seem quite a tedious process. The yield is not extremely high and it is not widely used. However, in the case of Morocco where rain is so scarce as temperatures continue to rise, more innovation is necessary and last resort tactics start to come into play.

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  2. Cristina Basche Gonzalez7 January 2024 at 07:45

    Hi Elizabeth - I loved reading your post, especially on the section of female innovators! In regards to COP28, I was wondering if you had seen the news that only 15 out of the 133 world leaders there were women and what your thoughts are on the importance of including women's voices in climate governance?

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Wales7 January 2024 at 09:42

      Hi Cristina, thanks so much! Yes, that is exactly the problem. Women's voices MUST be included in climate governance more. We need equity in order to achieve equality - without a fairer split of men and women in positions of power, then issues of climate impacts affecting women will never be fully understood. I hope that in the years to come, more steps will be made to include more female voices and we start to properly mainstream gender in climate policies. I am hopeful though! If there is one takeaway from this blog series is that whilst women are under-represented and discriminated against, improvements have still been made!

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