What are the key barriers faced by women farmers, like limited access to resources, education, and decision-making power, that make their adoption of climate-resilient practices lower when compared to men?
Short answer
Key finding
Climate change significantly affects both men’s and women’s livelihoods and well-being, but its impacts are more severe for women. Women face structural barriers that limit their ability to adopt climate-resilient practices, including restricted access to land, financial resources, education, and agricultural technology. Additionally, women encounter greater difficulties in accessing and utilizing weather and climate information services compared to men. These gendered constraints result in women having fewer opportunities to implement effective adaptation strategies, ultimately exacerbating their vulnerability to climate change.
Short summary
This review explores the barriers that prevent women from effectively adopting climate-resilient practices in comparison to men. Gendered inequalities in access to land, education, credit, technology, and decision-making power significantly limit women’s capacity to adapt to climate change. Social norms and caregiving responsibilities further restrict women’s mobility and ability to engage in agricultural training or off-farm work. Even when legal frameworks exist to protect women's rights, implementation gaps and contradictions between customary and formal laws continue to inhibit women’s access to productive assets. Additionally, women’s underrepresentation in decision-making processes at both local and national levels further weakens their ability to influence climate adaptation policies. Addressing these challenges requires targeted interventions that improve women’s access to financial services, land rights, and capacity-building programs to enhance their resilience.
Long answer
Long summary
What is this summary about?
This summary presents evidence on the key barriers faced by women farmers that restrict their adoption of climate-resilient practices compared to men.
What evidence is this summary based on?
This summary is based on one systematic review:
Awiti, A. O. (2022). Climate change and gender in Africa: A review of impact and gender-responsive solutions. Frontiers in Climate, 4, 895950. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/climate/articles/10.3389/fclim.2022.895950/full
What are the main findings?
Women farmers face multiple barriers in adopting climate-resilient agricultural practices, including limited access to land, financial services, education, and decision-making roles. Gender norms prioritize male inheritance and ownership, restricting women's ability to secure land despite legal provisions. Women also struggle with financial constraints, having lower access to credit, which limits investments in climate-smart agricultural technologies. Lower literacy rates and lack of training further inhibit their ability to implement adaptive farming techniques. Social norms and caregiving responsibilities reduce women's participation in training programs and off-farm work, further limiting their adaptive capacity. Women’s exclusion from agricultural cooperatives and policy discussions prevents them from influencing climate adaptation strategies. Additionally, contradictions between customary and formal legal frameworks create implementation gaps, preventing women from fully exercising their rights to land and financial resources
This review provides substantial evidence on the systemic barriers hindering women's ability to adopt climate-resilient agricultural practices. It highlights how gender inequalities in access to land, finance, education, and decision-making power result in lower adaptive capacity for women. By analyzing legal and societal constraints, the review underscores the need for targeted interventions, including legal land reforms, financial literacy programs, and institutional support for women-led agricultural projects. Strengthening policy enforcement and addressing cultural biases through gender-sensitive policies can significantly enhance women's participation in climate adaptation strategies.
Review summaries
Climate Change and Gender in Africa: A Review of Impact and Gender-Responsive Solutions
Review
Geography
Year
Citation
Number of included studies
Review type
Critical appraisal of included studies
Assessment review
1. Key finding
Overall
Climate change significantly impacts both men and women’s livelihoods and well-being, but women experience disproportionately negative effects. The review identifies five primary impact areas where women are more adversely affected than men. These areas include agricultural production, food and nutrition security, health, water and energy access, and climate-related disasters, migration, and conflict.
Women also face greater challenges in accessing and utilizing weather and climate information services compared to men.
Women and girls related
Climate change disproportionately affects women and girls due to structural inequalities, social norms, and limited access to resources. Women experience greater challenges in food security, health, and economic resilience. In many cases, traditional caregiving roles and social norms restrict their ability to pursue adaptive agricultural and economic strategies.
Additionally, gendered migration patterns often increase the burden on women left behind, limiting their access to alternative livelihoods. Legal and policy barriers, combined with persistent cultural constraints, reduce women's ability to own land, secure financial services, and access critical climate information. Addressing these disparities requires gender-responsive policies that prioritize women’s inclusion in decision-making processes and enhance their access to resources and support systems.
2. Short summary
This review highlights how climate change affects both men and women, emphasizing the distinct challenges women face in adapting to climate-resilient practices. Increased climate variability reduces agricultural productivity and exacerbates gendered inequalities in access to resources, decision-making power, knowledge, and financial assets.
Men and women experience climate change differently due to structural and social barriers that limit women’s ability to respond effectively. Women have lower access to agricultural training, technology, extension services, and credit. Societal norms further constrain their ability to adopt adaptive technologies and diversify their livelihoods. Gendered migration patterns increase women’s workloads, as they remain behind to manage households with fewer livelihood opportunities.
Despite the existence of legal frameworks promoting gender equality, implementation gaps persist, limiting women's control over land and other productive resources. Cultural norms often prevent women from asserting their rights and accessing essential support services. Additionally, women’s lower levels of financial literacy and restricted political participation further undermine their capacity to adapt.
Overall, the review underscores the need for gender-responsive policies to close these gaps and enhance women’s adaptive capacity.
3. Long summary
3.1 PICOS
Population: Studies focusing on gender or women and climate change in Africa.
Intervention: Analysis of climate change impacts and gender-responsive adaptation strategies.
Outcomes: Identification of barriers, adaptation strategies, and gender disparities.
Study design: Included modeling studies, systematic and narrative reviews, case studies, and qualitative research. Studies not published in English or outside 1992-2022 were excluded.
3.2 Risk of bias Not assessed.
3.3 Publication bias Not assessed.
3.4 Findings
Across multiple dimensions, women face persistent challenges in adapting to climate change, with restricted access to agricultural training, extension services, and adaptive technologies limiting their participation from awareness to implementation. Social norms and caregiving responsibilities reduce their ability to participate fully in farm work, diversify crops, or pursue off-farm employment, while key areas like certain crops and market access remain male-dominated. Institutional and structural biases heighten the vulnerability of women and female-headed households, especially in terms of food and nutrition security. Gendered migration patterns place additional burdens on women left behind, restricting their economic opportunities. Ambiguous property rights, limited decision-making power, and time constraints further hinder livelihood diversification and resilience. Even where legal frameworks exist to support women’s rights, traditional norms often override them, blocking effective enforcement. Access to climate and weather information services remains lower for women, and patriarchal systems continue to limit their political participation and influence over climate policy and resource distribution. Additionally, financial literacy programs have had limited impact, underscoring the need for more integrated, context-specific financial services tailored to women’s realities.
3.5 Sensitivity analysis Not assessed.
4. AMSTAR 2 assessment of the review
| 1. | Did the review state clearly the components of PICOS (or appropriate equivalent)? | Yes | |
| 2. | Did the report of the review contain an explicit statement that the review methods were established prior to the conduct of the review and did the report justify any significant deviations from the protocol? (i.e. was there a protocol) | No | |
| 3. | Did the review authors use a comprehensive literature search strategy? | Yes | |
| 4. | Did the review authors perform study selection in duplicate? | No | |
| 5. | Did the review authors perform data extraction in duplicate? | No | |
| 6. | Did the review authors provide a list of excluded studies and justify the exclusions? | No | |
| 7. | Did the review authors describe the included studies in adequate detail? (Yes if table of included studies, partially if other descriptive overview) | No | |
| 8. | Did the review authors use a satisfactory technique for assessing the risk of bias (RoB) in individual studies that were included in the review? | No | |
| 9. | Did the review authors report on the sources of funding for the studies included in the review? | No | |
| 10. | If meta-analysis was performed did the review authors use appropriate methods for statistical combination of results? | Na | |
| 11. | Did the review authors provide a satisfactory explanation for, and discussion of, any heterogeneity observed in the results of the review? | No | |
| 12. | If they performed quantitative synthesis did the review authors carry out an adequate investigation of publication bias (small study bias) and discuss its likely impact on the results of the review? | No | |
| 13. | Did the review authors report any potential sources of conflict of interest, including any funding they received for conducting the review? | Yes | |
| Overall (lowest rating on any critical item) | Low |
5. Count of references to the following words
| Sex | 0 |
| Gender | 30 |
| Women | 19 |
| Intra-household | 0 |