Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change among Rural households in the Lake Tana Basin region: A Gender Perspective.

Study Site: Lake Tana Basin, Amhara region, Ethiopia 

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 vulnerable to flooding, and thousands displaced every year as a result. Due to weak economies and governance, Ethiopia has low adaptive capacity and is vulnerable to climate change. The impacts will worsen without swift, deep cuts to global carbon emissions and a significant scaling up of climate change adaptation. These impacts can be felt differently by individuals for a multitude of reasons. Focusing on the Lake Tana Basin Region in Ethiopia, this research will assess men's and women's vulnerability to climate change and their levels of resilience, considering the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural conditions resulting in differential hazards, impacts, and capacity to recover from impacts.

This research specifically focuses on assessing vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience through a gender lens. 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.

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 potential strategies exist to enhance the adaptive capacity of both male and female-headed households facing future climate change impacts?