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SUMMARY


Adaptation, vulnerability and resilience of people to climate change depend upon a range of conditions. These vary from their degree of exposure and dependency upon weather patterns for livelihoods and food security, to varying capacities in adaptation, which are influenced by gender, social status, economic poverty, power, access, and control and ownership over resources in the household, community and society. Mountain peoples are especially vulnerable since climate impacts and changes are predominantly acute in mountainous regions. This is particularly true in the Andes, Africa and Asia.


A key challenge in responding to climate change is the increasing number of events of too much and too little water. From 1999 to 2008, floods affected almost 1 billion people in Asia. The corresponding figures were about 4 million in Europe, 28 million in the Americas and 22 million in Africa. For instance, the 2010 flood in Pakistan affected more individuals than the combined impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Kashmir earthquake (2005) and the Haiti earthquake (2010). Flash floods in the Himalayas are estimated to cause the loss of at least 5,000 lives every year.


Women in the South are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of disasters due to skewed power relations and inequitable cultural and social norms. At the same time, women are essential for developing sustainable adaptation options due to their knowledge, multiple and simultaneous responsibilities and as well as roles in productive areas. These include all sectors from agriculture, rangelands, biodiversity and forests, to households, income-generation, livelihoods and other socio- cultural and political-economic institutions and relations. Worldwide, women are an estimated 43% of the work force in agriculture. In Asia and Africa, this proportion is higher, often above 50%, especially in mountain regions. Hence, women play a key role in adaptation efforts, environmental sustainability and food security as the climate changes.


However, several dynamics make adaptation more difficult for some women due to a lack of access to formal education, economic poverty, discrimination in food distribution, food insecurity, limited access to resources, exclusion from policy


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and decision-making institutions and processes and other forms of social marginalisation. These dynamics put women at a distinct disadvantage, and few programmes include or focus on them for adaptation.


Women generally have far less access to and control over the resources they depend upon. Nor do they have opportunities for direct governance and effective influence in politics from the household to community, national, regional and international levels. In some contexts, women are often subject to gender- based violence, harassment and psychological violence within the household. Some studies suggest that 95% of women and girls surveyed reported first-hand knowledge of violence with 77% by family members. Such situations affect women in negative ways, and further impede women’s ability to adapt to extreme events and changes in their environment.


During extreme events such as drought, floods and other climate-related disasters, women face additional risks, due in large part to gender inequities that result in women bearing the disproportional brunt of disaster impacts. Moreover, women are often discouraged from learning coping strategies and lifesaving skills, such as how to climb trees or swim. Both factors put them at a disadvantage when floods hit. Often women are not permitted to evacuate their homes without consent from their husbands or elder men in their families or communities. Gendered cultural codes of dress may inhibit their mobility during crises, resulting in higher disproportionate mortality during many disasters. During such events, women and girls are frequently subjected to intimidation, gender-based violence,


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