Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change among rural households in the Lake Tana Basin of the Amhara region in Ethiopia: A gender perspective

About this CARP project

With an estimated 122 million people, many of whom are poor and face significant challenges accessing adequate, safe, and nutritious food every day, Ethiopia has some of the most vulnerable food systems in the world to climate change. The country is experiencing historically severe droughts, leading to 22.7 million people being food insecure and flooding, where thousands of people are being displaced every year. Low adaptive capacity, which is linked to weak economies, institutions, and governance, also makes Ethiopia more vulnerable to climate change. Without swift, deep cuts to global carbon emissions and a significant scaling up of climate change adaptation, the impacts are projected to get much worse. This research, focusing on Ethiopia, will go a long way toward filling this knowledge gap and contribute to the achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 – 2030 (SFDRR), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement (2015) all include the common objective of reaching gender equality and parity by 2030 while building coherent approaches between sustainable development, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. We will integrate the concepts of social vulnerability and feminist political ecology theory to analyze how women and men are differently affected by climate change, their vulnerability, and resilience considering the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural conditions that result in differential hazards, impacts, and capacity to recover from impacts.

Study site: The study will be carried out in the Lake Tana Basin of the Amhara region in Ethiopia. Lake Tana is the largest freshwater resource in Ethiopia, contributing 50% of the water, and is the source of the Blue Nile River, which contributes 86% of the water to the Nile River. The basin covers an area of 15,114 km2 with rich biodiversity, providing livelihood security for more than five million people.

 Main Research Questions

• What are the gender-specific impacts of climate change on the lives and well-being of vulnerable rural households in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia?
• What are the drivers of livelihood vulnerability to climate change among rural households?
• What capacity do rural households have to cope with climate change impacts?
• What potential strategies exist to enhance the adaptive capacity of both male and female-headed households facing future climate change impacts?

With a specific focus on vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience, this research is directly related to disaster risk reduction and climate change. This study will highlight relevant issues on rural households' vulnerability to climate change, adaptation strategies, and resilience capacity that will support disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the Lake Tana Basin of the Amhara region in Ethiopia.