Vulnerability to climate change and variability: gender and agro-ecological perspectives

Although the social and spatial dimensions of climate impacts are increasingly recognized, livelihood vulnerability studies combining gender and agro-ecology have received less attention. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, these studies have not employed stepwise Principal Component Analysis (PCA).This study examines livelihood vulnerability to climate change and variability from gender and agro-ecological perspectives in Bako-Tibe District, Ethiopia. Rural livelihood analysis was used to measure the adaptive capacity of households. Two-stage PCA was employed to index vulnerability dimensions: sensitivity and exposure in the first stage, and adaptive capacity in the second stage. The results show that disparity in adaptive capacity largely mediates vulnerability levels. Further, for agro-ecological factors, households residing within more climate exposure have better adaptive capacity; hence, they are less vulnerable than those in lower exposure agro-ecology. In all comparisons, female-headed households are significantly more vulnerable than male-headed households, but do not necessarily possess lower adaptive capacities. While agro-ecological and gender-specific factors differentiate vulnerability of male-and female-headed household across agro-ecologies, only gender-specific factors set such variations at district level and within agro-ecology. The results imply that scrutinizing the potential sensitivity of vulnerability level to study context is crucial. Results also suggest that, managing agro-ecological and/or gender-specific factors that hamper livelihood assets is vital for reducing climate-induced vulnerability.