Gender, Climate Change and Nutrition Integration Initiative (GCAN)
EVIDENCE BRIEF
State of Knowledge on Gender and Resilience
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Resource-poor people face multiple risks and disturbances across social, economic, health, political, and environmental spheres. Included among these are conflict, public health threats, corruption, climate change, and natural resource degradation. The concept of resilience provides a useful framework for considering potential solutions to these intersecting challenges. This is particularly the case in situations where structural problems and inequalities—such as chronic poverty and gender gaps—underlie persistent and recurring shocks. Growing evidence shows that men and women have different exposure to shocks and stressors, and different preferences and capacities in terms of their responses. This stems from gendered social, cultural, and institutional contexts that shape such factors as their livelihood activities, roles, and bargaining power. Importantly, these factors are intrinsically linked with women’s empowerment levels, including their ability to access resources and make strategic life choices to improve their overall wellbeing.
Because shocks and stressors occur in local contexts with different power structures, institutions, and sociocultural norms, it is difficult to generalize the different ways men and women are affected and choose to respond. Men’s and women’s experiences and reactions largely depend on the types of overlapping shocks and stressors they are exposed to. This brief highlights some of the key gendered dimensions of resilience, drawing on evidence from the literature, including systematic reviews and global indicators, where available, as well as case-study examples that highlight important linkages. The evidence summarized is intended to guide the development and implementation of gender-sensitive resilience interventions focusing on key programming areas of interest to Feed the Future’s Center for Resilience.
Men and women face different risks and have different levels of exposure and sensitivity to shocks and stressors
Resilience-informed policy and programming requires active investigation of how risks, and exposure and sensitivity to shocks and stressors, differ within a local population. Evidence suggests that men’s and women’s exposure to and experiences of the same shocks and stressors differ, primarily due to unequal social structures and gendered livelihood roles.
Women tend to be more exposed and sensitive (though not always) to natural disasters, such as droughts, storms, and earthquakes. Outcomes depend on contextual factors, such as gendered participation in high-risk occupations.
Given their different livelihood roles, men and women experience climate shocks and stressors differently and, hence, may be affected differently by climate change.
Men and women are exposed to different types of risks, shocks, and stressors, and their exposure to the same types of disturbances differs. For example, women are more likely to experience gender-based violence.
Sensitivity to particular shocks and stressors is also gendered and can change throughout the life cycle, with implications for gender equality over the long run.
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Men and women have different resilience capacities. Measures of women’s empowerment are also important indicators of women’s resilience capacities.
Investing in resilience capacities can enable people to expand and improve their range of options for dealing with disturbances.
Addressing gender disparities in access to and control over resources and assets, like land, would facilitate women’s empowerment and increase women’s resilience capacities.
Increasing women’s access to services, like extension, information, and financial services, is also essential for building women’s resilience capacities.
Expanding women’s employment and income-earning opportunities can diversify livelihood sources and increase resilience outcomes both for women and their families.
Increasing women’s bargaining power and agency in their households and communities can lead to choices that reflect women’s needs and preferences and increase women’s contribution to addressing shocks and stressors.
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More research is needed to demonstrate the linkages between women’s empowerment, gender equality, and resilience.
While there is considerable apparent overlap between resilience capacities and indicators of women’s empowerment, little evidence exists on the extent to which women’s empowerment contributes to more resilient outcomes, such as the ability to avoid coping responses that lead to a deterioration in wellbeing, descent into poverty, and less time to rebound from the initial shock. Considerable heterogeneity exists in resilience measurement, yet few tools capture resilience dynamics and gender-differentiated outcomes.
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Gender-sensitive policies, programs, and investments can address structural inequalities while increasing resilience capacities and outcomes (transformative capacity).
Structural inequalities in society influence the resilience capacities of men and women. These include inequalities in men’s and women’s participation in governance institutions at multiple scales, and access to critical services such as information, extension, and financial services. Gender inequalities are also reflected in and reinforced by the lack of gender sensitivity of policies, investments (for example, infrastructure), and interventions, particularly those aimed at providing social protection, enhancing rural development, and providing humanitarian assistance during times of crisis.
Investments in women’s economic empowerment may also increase overall resilience to shocks and stressors.
Greater investments are needed to strengthen the capacity of implanting agencies to deliver gender-sensitive programming.
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Bryan, E., C. Ringler, and R. Meinzen-Dick. Gender, Resilience, and Food Systems. 2022. In Resilience and Food Security: Analysis from a Food System Perspective, C. Béné and S. Devereax, eds. Palgrave-MacMillan (forthcoming).
For Further Reading
Theis, S., E. Bryan, C. Ringler. 2019. Addressing Gender and Social Dynamics to Strengthen Resilience for All. Ch. 9 in RESAKKS 2019 Annual Trends and Outlook Report: Gender Equality in Rural Africa: From Commitments to Outcomes, A. Quisumbing, R. Meinzen-Dick, and J. Njuki eds. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.
This publication was prepared by Elizabeth Bryan, under the Gender,Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration Initiative (GCAN). GCANwas made possible with support from Feed the Future through theUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID). Thisbrief has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions are those of theauthors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IFPRI, USAID, orFeed the Future. Copyright 2022 International Food Policy ResearchInstitute. Licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
State of Knowledge on Gender and Resilience
Evidence Brief