Women in Rural and Agricultural Livelihoods + Climate - Insights, Opportunities, and Strategy

These slide decks are related to the CGAP working paper "Strengthening Rural Women’s Climate Resilience: Opportunities for Financial and Agricultural Service Providers" (May 2023) and  the reading deck "Resilient Rural Women: Applying Personas and Insights for Climate-Smart Innovation" (May 2023).

These documents synthesize research and insights to date regarding women in rural and agricultural livelihoods (WIRAL), financial and non-financial services, and climate change.

This research was motivated by the fact that WIRAL are disproportionately affected by climate change – and also hold the key to building more resilient global food systems. Women play critical roles in global food systems, as farmers, traders, processors, and laborers in a range of paid and unpaid work. Therefore, ensuring global food security requires that rural women are equipped with the tools and resources they need to adapt and thrive in the face of a changing climate. 

But the realities facing rural women affect their ability to adapt and build resilience to climate change. Gendered social norms mean that women typically have unequal access to knowledge, tools, assets, and financial capital. As a result, they have lower average productivity than men and less ability to adapt to the new climate reality. These norms also limit their opportunities to migrate and diversify into new economic activities to cope with the effects of climate change. 

Supporting rural women with tailored training, financial services, and climate-smart inputs and services can allow them to thrive in the face of climate change, as well as build more resilient global food systems. Equipped with the right tools, rural women can drive increases in food production, ensure household nutrition, and contribute to mitigation efforts through the employment of climate-smart agriculture practices.   

This literature review was designed to inform service providers, researchers, and funders working to design and deliver solutions tailored to WIRAL that improve climate-smart agricultural production and increase food security.

Disclaimer

This work was funded in whole or in part by CGAP. Unlike CGAP's official publications, it has not been peer reviewed or edited by CGAP, and any conclusions or viewpoints expressed are those of the authors, and they may or may not reflect the views of CGAP staff.