Feature
Environment

By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi

40-year-old George Chambuluka married with seven children from Malawi’s Lower Shire region (covering Chikhwawa and Nsanje Districts) sharing boundary with Mozambique abandoned his wife and children including his ailing 70-year-old frail, sick mother some weeks ago.

He travelled a distance of over 40 Km from his village to the country’s sole commercial city, Blantyre after failing to provide food for his family due to climate change.

“After accessing the cheap government subsidized fertilizer last season I harvested literally nothing since my crops withered while in the garden before maturity due to drought as a result of climate change,” said Chambuluka.

He left home in search for work in Blantyre to solicit money for purchasing food for the family in Chikhwawa after burrying his heard of five cattle.

“The animals were my last hope to solicit income. I was about to sell them, unfortunately they all died of Foot and Mouth Disease. I feel lucky because now I have secured a job as a watchman for a confectionary products manufacturing firm, at least I will be able to send some money for food to my family at the end of the month,” said Chambuluka adding that before going to Blantyre he was collecting wood for sale from his village bushes to solicit money.

“The little income was just enough for a single meal for my family per day,” he said.

And when Chambuluka could not find any more wood for sale since his home area was severely deforestated the family was surviving on eating Nyika tubers from Shire River.

“Everyday I had to dive deeper into the river at risk of crocodile and snake attacks to retrieve the tubers and I decided to come here in the city to hunt for a job after narrowly escaping from a crocodile attack in the course of searching for the Nyika tubers,” said Chambuluka.

38-year-old Tabitha Njerenga a widow with six children from the same area and region said they are eating the tubers out of desperation since they have no food.

“Nyika tubers are yellow in colour and have no food value. They even taste bitter and are not something worth to swallow, children can not like them at all. In fact we are eating the tubers just to fill something in our stomachs because we have no food,” she said.

Tabitha disclosed that for the past three agricultural seasons she has been receiving Farm Input Subsidized Fertilizer Programme (FISFP) coupons from Malawi Government allowing poor farming families purchase fertilizer at subsidized price of K500 ( about $3) per 50 Kg bag including access to quality hybrid seed for planting.

“But I have never benefitted from the coupons due to climate change,” she said.

Njerenga revealed that during the first and second year after planting and applying fertilizer in her garden her farm produce withered due to severe drought before maturity due to climate change.

“Presently I have no food in the house because last season after planting and applying fertilizer all my farm produce was also washed away by floods,” she said adding that she has no any means to solicit money even just for a meal per day with her children.

“So I have no choice but dive into Shire River to retrieve Nyika tubers for our survival,” she said.

Chikhwawa and Nsanje are among disaster prone areas in Malawi due to climate change.

The two areas have in recent years experienced climate change related calamities such as floods because they are bare after trees were previously wantonly cut down, hence there is an urgent need to heal their environment .

The areas’ environmental actvities mainly deforestation in the Upper Shire Valley for processing charcoal and poor agricultural practices led to land degradation and soil erosion has even resulted in flooding and siltation of the Shire River and its tributaries.

Climate change related disasters resulting from the environmental degradation activities by residents from the two areas have however, seen them reluctant to move upland especially during rainy season because they depend on fish from the river and crop production yet these livelihoods have become unsustainable.

To rescue the people Malawi Government has with donor support been providing relief items including food during climate change related disasters such as floods and droughts.

But how George and Tabitha have responded to the crop failure in their gardens due to climate change reveals that the impact of the climate change problem will affect men and women differently in Malawi and southern Africa.

Men and women’s response to climate change impact will also be different, after all their roles also differ right from their grass root level in their societies in the region.

A study by the international Non-Governmental-Organization (NGO), Care International for instance in agricultural sector, says in southern Africa men often claim safer or more fertile land for growing market-oriented crops leaving women who account for over 70 percent of farmers in the region to grow household crops on less fertile land.

The organization says no doubt that women in the region will shoulder more burden including suffer from more pangs of poverty due to climate change than men because women also stay home to care for children and elderly including sick members of the family.

“Men on the other hand can easily migrate to access economic opportunities,” says the organization adding that a research also reveals that it is women who produce household crops and livestock products while men produce market crops and livestock products for sale hence more economically stronger than women.

The NGO also discloses that harvests are reduced or destroyed by changes in weather, floods or droughts and in return this affects market prices and the availability of surplus to sell –placing pressure on both men and women to identify other sources of income and reduce major expenditure for example school fees for children and these forces affect more women than men.

“In times of shortage, women are often expected to feed other members of the family before themselves,” says the organization.

It adds that while men’s savings provide a buffer during tough times and along with other assets make it easier for them to invest in alternative livelihoods it is difficult for women to sustain their livelihoods and that of their households since men hold the final decision on whether such resources be used or not at household level.

In fact some men in the region have left the responsibility of all household needs including bringing food on the table fully to women without supporting them with resources in any way leading to acts of Gender Based Violence in the process like what 35-year-old Gladys Moyo from Embangweni in Mzimba, northern Malawi experienced.

Climate change has had a very personal impact on Moyo because after 15 years of a happy marriage, her husband left her after the land she tended for years failed to produce food due to persistent drought.

Moyo and her husband worked as tenant farmers at a tobacco estate in Embangweni, but to help provide for her family, the mother of eight continued to farm her own plot of land.

"Since the estate was in my home village, during every planting season I would go to my village, 20 Km from the estate, to produce food in the field for my husband and children," she said.

Between 2007 and 2008, Gladys Moyo's crops failed because of a severe drought due to climate change.

At the same time, poor tobacco prices meant that the family's landlord incurred huge debts and could not pay them on time.

To rescue her family from hunger, Moyo borrowed money in late 2008 from her elder sister to start a small business.

"I sold tomatoes at Embangweni Trading Centre to put food on the table for my husband and children," said Moyo adding that soon after getting married she had clearly captured some signs that she would be responsible for her household’s welfare and her husband would not be involved.

However, her business was short-lived when her last-born son suffered from cerebral malaria and medical bills drained her already small capital.

By the time the hospital discharged her son after 14 days treatment, her pockets were empty and she was unable to rekindle her tomato business. From there, things went from bad to worse.

"When I arrived home after my son's discharge from hospital, my husband was nowhere to be seen," added Moyo, after mentioning that the husband never visited her while she was with the child at the hospital. By then he was already staying with another woman.

"Soon after he heard that I was back from hospital he came to collect all his clothes," she explained.

"But before his departure we quarreled. He called me all sorts of names for failing to provide him with food. He then left after severely beating me."

Researchers Kamarunga Banda and Agnes Babugura also did a study on Climate Change and Changing Gender Relations in southern Africa pointing that in most cases climate change impacts are linked to gender issues and women’s vulnerability.

“Decreasing availability of clean water, decreasing agricultural production, decreasing access to crop residues and biomass for energy, and increasing risk of famine are all areas where women take primary responsibility and are to experience severe negative impacts,” they say.

They therefore, call for an urgent need for policy makers in the region and the continent to capture the positive effects of choosing adaptive investments which take the different needs for men and women into account.

“Government officials and decision-makers need to interact with rural communities including with women and involve women in decision making. Facilitators and communities need to develop sensitization programmes to eliminate gender stereotypes where they create obstacles for opportunities for women, men and children to work together towards sustainable societies,” they say.

President Bingu wa Mutharika admitted that climate change related problems are already having devastating impacts especially on women in Malawi.

“The most vulnerable groups to climate change in this country are the poor farmers, rural communities, especially women, children, female-headed households, orphans and the elderly and those affected and infected by HIV and AIDS,” he said.

In an analysis on "Climate Change and Gender" Dr. Wendy Annecke writes on the website of the South Africa based research wing Indigo, Development and Change emphasize that there is a great need to include gender perspectives in climate change adaptation programmes.

As Moyo and Njerenga's stories show, even slight climate shifts have significant impact on women small-scale food producers.

According to Annecke, the gender element in climate change and adaptation refers to the different impact that climate change has on men and women, and the different ways that men and women respond to and are able to cope with climate change.

"We are talking about poor men and women and the differences in how they are able to shift from short term coping mechanisms to resilience," she said.

Annecke added that policies and practices should therefore, be careful not to consolidate or extend these inequalities between men and women.

She also pointed out that migration is another pitfall of changing climates that men tend to be more able to use mobility as a response.

"Their ability to migrate in search of economic opportunities makes it easier for men to deal with crisis, and may result in benefits for the family as a whole," said Annecke.

However, she added: “Male migration often increases women's workload, as they are left behind to manage the household in addition to usual tasks. It can also increase women's exposure to risks such as gender based violence and HIV infection."

Annecke said that women are not just victims of climate change but also agents of change who possess unique knowledge and skills that should be acknowledged and tapped into to develop resilience.

There is also a need to significantly increase awareness of climate change. As in Moyo's case, women tend to face blame for the lack of food and resulting marital discord, as there is still not a good understanding of climate change in communities.

In Malawi for example, the Ministry of Agriculture has tried to explain that 20 million tonnes of soil that would have been used for food production is washed away annually due to acts of environmental degradation, including deforestation and shifting cultivation, but people hardly believe it hence continue to degrade the environment.

"People need to be told what climate change is all about and the negative impact it is already bringing in our society," said Malawi's Acting Director of Environmental Affairs Aloysius Kamperewera.

He explained that weather changes due to climate change have already seen many areas across Malawi including the Lower Shire region experiencing droughts and floods during planting season.

"These are affecting more women than men because they [women] make majority (over 70 percent) of our farmers," said Kamperewera.

A snap survey conducted in southern Africa by the German think-tank Heinrich Böll Stiftung showed that women's workloads increased as a result of climate change impact.

"For example, in attempting to increase household economic security, women turned to other sources of income such as selling fruit and second-hand clothing. This work was carried out in addition to normal household duties," the report said.

As a result, the German organization study found that women worked longer hours than men and were physically affected as well as emotionally drained from having to worry about the wellbeing of dependent children and youth.

“Climate change is likely to increase poverty levels, heightening men's and women's already existing vulnerabilities,” says the organization’s report.

British Charitable organization, Oxfam’s Climate Change Regional Advisor, Hugh Cole, said incorporating gender in climate change is vital if the fight against climate change is to yield results.

“Gender need to be taken into account when financing decisions are made, climate adaptation funds also need to be set up so that projects target women effectively,” said Cole adding, “Now is the time to make sure that the adaptation response is targeting the most vulnerable."

Margaret Angula, a researcher with FANRPAN who also did a study on Gender and Climate Change in some parts of southern Africa said studies clearly reveal that there is a strong relationship between gender, livelihood and poverty.

“This relationship has been explored by many researchers, and significant to their findings is the relationship between climate change and people’s livelihood, which is dependent on natural resource base and poverty,” she said.

Angula further said the subordinate role of women in societies plays a critical role in determining people’s ability to cope with the impact of crises such as climate change.

“Recognized in studies of this link is that the majority of the poor, worldwide, are women because of existing gender inequalities,” she said adding, “Despite this established linkage, gender issues have not played a major role in climate change discourse. This has inevitably affected both policy and planning for sustainable development in many developing countries.”

---