Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler November 14, 2022 Food and Agriculture Pavilion COP27, Sharm El-Sheikh

1. Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler
International Food Policy Research Institute
November 14, 2022 | Food and Agriculture Pavilion,
COP27, Sharm El-Sheikh
Measuring progress on adaptation and
mitigation of women in agriculture: What
does it take?

2. Motivation—Gendered Adaptation & Mitigation
Metric
1. Climate adaptation and mitigation are essential to ensure sustainable
water, energy and food security and nutrition in a climate crisis
2. A focus on women farmers is needed to achieve adaptation and
mitigation outcomes—a gender-blind approach to adaptation and
mitigation will grow inequities, reduce climate resilience and grow food
insecurity
3. A gender-sensitive adaptation and mitigation metric needs to be based
on an appropriate gender-sensitive framework
4. Metrics and indicators are essential to ensure that countries make
progress rather than regress
5. Lots of guidance tools exist but the lessons are not well distilled and
most of these tools would be difficult to adopt by policymakers

3. Why mitigation AND adaptation together?
• Debate if LMICs should participate in mitigation activities or only focus
on adaptation It is essential that they do both
o Many mitigation strategies are also key adaptation solutions
(biogas for cooking, solar pumps, precision agriculture)
o Adopting adaptation solutions as mitigation measures can grow
income opportunities through carbon credits, f.ex. SEWA biogas
operation
o Many mitigation strategies (biofuel crops, carbon capture and
storage, livestock management, fertilizer use) can negatively affect
adaptation outcomes as well as food security and nutrition, and
water security. LMICs have to engage on mitigation
o All appropriate mitigation strategies reduce GHG emissions,
lower emissions, in turn, improve food security and nutrition

4. Gender-blind adaptation and mitigation
increases inequality --Examples
• Women have particularl responsibilities in livestock management—
f.ex. they account for 80% of all work in the livestock sector in India —
and livestock is a key emitter of GHGs: Investments in livestock feed,
heat stress and manure management that do NOT include women’s
voices can reduce their and their family’s income and nutrition
• Climate information systems are essential to help farmers plan for
climate extreme events. However, much of this information is provided
via mobile/smart phones that women do not have access to
• Solar irrigation pumps are a key adaptation and mitigation strategy,
but current financing models tend to require a land title as collateral—
f.ex. only 29% of self-identified women landowners in Tanzania state
land can be used as collateral compared to 60% of men (Hasanbari et
al. 2022)

5. Gendered Adaptation and Mitigation
Monitoring Framework
Gendered resilience capacities
(e.g. men leaving agriculture)
Gendered vulnerability to shocks and stressors
(e.g. hotspot mapping)
Gendered response options ([mal]-adaptation and
mitigation)
Gender-differentiated well-being outcomes

6. Key Elements of the Metric: Exposure
Koo et al. (2022)
• Ex: Women dominate in
livestock activities in
Bangladesh and
Pakistan – and spend
more of their time than
men on cereals in Mali
and Zambia

7. Gendered vulnerabilities: climate hazard,
vulnerabilities, and gender inequities
Koo et al. (2022)
• Africa and South
Asia are most
vulnerable

8. Key Elements of the Metric
1) Progress measurable at the national level (scorecard approach) to
allow for comparison across countries
2) Metric considers gendered climate change vulnerabilities, resilience
capacities, responses and well-being outcomes
3) Development involves women across different positions of decision
making and power (i.e. women farmers and women agriculture
agency heads)
4) Progress indicators elucidate areas where women make key
contributions (f.ex. livestock management)

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