Addressing Gender in Climate-Smart Smallholder Agriculture

Research shows that men and women have varying abilities to adapt to climate shocks and longer-term climate change because of differentiated access to entitlements, assets, and decision-making; this ability to adapt is further complicated by gender and social differences.1 At the same time, driven by studies that highlight the urgent need for actions to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and smallholder vulnerability to climate change, Climate-Smart Agriculture is emerging as a new paradigm in agricultural development.2 It seeks solutions that improve agricultural productivity, reduce farm level vulnerability to climate change, and sequester carbon. Recent studies also suggest that if such efforts are to be effective and the benefits equitably distributed, practitioners cannot lose focus on the gender implications of any agricultural interventions.