Author: Jummai Othniel Yila
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Diss. no.GD-13-03
Year: 2013
Academic Program: Gender and Development Studies (GDS)
Type: Thesis (Ph.D.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 2013
Examination Committee: Bernadette P. Resurreccion (Chairperson); Edsel E. Sajor, Philippe Doneys, Agnes Atia Apusigah (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: The capacity and ability to adapt to climate change has been undermined not only by natural vulnerabilities due to geographic location and the commonly associated problem of poverty in many developing countries but also by the social context, gender and institutions that interact to influence and determine household and individual vulnerabilities and responses to drought. Looking at how smallholder farmers in Nguru Local Government Area (LGA) of Northeastern Nigeria are impacted by drought, the gender pattern of their vulnerability and adaptive capacity, this thesis analyses the context of vulnerability and what shapes farmers’ vulnerabilities and adaptability to climate change. By using quantitative and qualitative mixed methods, data needed for this study was collected from the questionnaire survey of 250 households, focus group discussions, participants’ observation and key informant interviews. The findings reveal a strong gender dimension to the ways climate variability is experienced and expressed by farmers in their coping and adaptation processes to achieving livelihoods and food security. First, household socioeconomic characteristic was found to be significant in households’ ability to cope and adapt to drought. Female-headed households have been excluded from taking on opportunities that would enable them pick on a secondary or complementary income source from wage employment due to low or lack of skill/education access to natural capital such as land that would allow for a purposeful investment on the farm for a long term adaptation plan and grant security or collateral mobility restriction that has contained and prohibited women from full public life activities due to cultural and social barriers in the area that limit women’s access to information. Secondly, I have demonstrated that what drives vulnerability in the local communities is disparate and not only context-specific but individualized and gender specific. Thirdly, risk distribution and expecte
Scholarship Donor(s): International Development Research Centre (IDRC); International Tropical Timber (ITTO)
Note: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development
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