Twitter Spaces: Responding to climate change with technologies that work for women
Photo: Denis Onyodi/KRCS.
On World Water Day, March 22, the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform is partnering with Nation Africa to host a Twitter Spaces event to explore how science, innovation and technologies can support women farmers to respond to climate change impacts.
Speakers
Everisto Mapedza
Senior Researcher - Social and Institutional Scientist International Water Management Institute
Janette C. Toroitich
Agripreneur
Jackline Makokha
National Gender and Climate Change Focal Point for Kenya State Department for Gender and Affirmative ActionHost and moderator
Background
A series of failed rainy seasons has led to the worst drought Kenya, and the entire Horn of Africa, has experienced in the past 40 years, which has resulted in food scarcity and hardship. Women farmers, when equipped with the right tools, technologies and support, can strike back and drive climate resilience in agriculture.
Climate change impacts, such as droughts, are hitting women harder than men, according to this recent article by Nation Africa. Another article exposed how women have always eaten last and least, leading them to suffer from hunger and malnutrition more often than men. Indeed, women in food systems are less able to adapt to climate change impacts than men, due to restrive gender norms, lack of access to resources, technology and information, and their greater workloads.
At the same time, research by CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform indicates that when the root causes of women’s excess risk to climate change impacts are addressed, then women can be drivers of climate resilience for everyone. We must also ensure that women have access to the support, technologies and innovations that help them respond to the effects of climate. For example, when designed to work for women, climate-smart agriculture practices, such as solar-powered irrigation, can benefit women and enhance their agency.
On the occasion of World Water Day on March 22, 2023, Nation Africa and CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform will host a Twitter Spaces conversation to explore how women farmers in Kenya and beyond can lead the charge against droughts, water scarcity and other climate change impacts. We will discuss how women are making a difference in their families, neighbourhoods and communities, and how they can be supported to be climate resilience champions. The significance of gender equality in agriculture and its effect on the development of food systems will also be discussed in this Twitter space.
