Title : Intrinsic vulnerability index: Gender dimension of households’ vulnerability to climate change in east shewa zone, central Ethiopia
Abstract:
In Ethiopia, female-headed households have limited access to and control over key resources than male-headed households. This problem calls a need to study gender differentiated vulnerability to climate change to facilitate decisions, to focus on the most vulnerable groups and to provide gender disaggregated information for development of local adaptation strategies. The data was analyzed using means, frequencies, standard deviations t-test and one way between groups ANOVA. In addition categorical principal component analysis with 36 indicators was used to develop weights for different indicators and construct a household intrinsic vulnerability index. Data were collected through key information interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 365 randomly selected households in four districts of East Shewa Zone, Ethiopia. Six sets of vulnerability indices were constructed using principal component analysis (PCA). The study revealed that vulnerability level of female-headed households (V1 =0.63) is higher than male-headed households (V= 1.35) in the area. However, one way between groups analysis of variance with post-hoc tests indicated that there is no significant vulnerability difference between all household groups: female- and male-headed households in the warm submoist lowlands and warm moist lowlands. With respect to aggregated households across gender, female-headed households have relatively higher vulnerability level (V=1.38) than male-headed households (V=1.42). The results from independent sample t-test indicate significant mean difference between aggregated male- and female-headed households with respect to land size, livestock size, off-farm income, saving, irrigated land, water and food insufficient months and total yields. Findings suggest the formulation of gender-sensitive policy to increases female farmers’ access to resources to reduce their vulnerability so as to build their adaptive capacity and to share the benefit of irrigation starting from the design of such a scheme Key words: Female-headed households, climate Change, and intrinsic vulnerability index
