Amidst the escalating impact of climate change on Nigeria’s agricultural sector, an expert has developed a tool, the Gender-responsive Smart Monitor (G-SMART Monitor), to track gender inclusion in agricultural adaptation initiatives.
The gender expert Dr Clara Ifeayin-Obi, who is an African Women in Agriculture and Research Development (AWARD) fellow of the Gender Responsive Policy System (GRASP) Fellowship, maintained that the tools was part of efforts to ensure that policies move beyond intent to measurable action.
According to her Nigeria being a climate hotspot is facing growing risks to food security and rural livelihoods as projections have indicated that climate change could lead to a 30 per cent drop in crop yields and reduce Nigeria’s GDP by 6 per cent to 30 per cent by 2050.
Dr Ifeayin-Obi, who is also the Acting Head of the Department of Agriculture Extension and Development Service at the University of Port Harcourt, while speaking during a validation exercise held in Abuja asserted that women and girls are disproportionately affected, with climate risks worsening existing gender inequalities.
She lamented that even though women make up 60% to 79% of the rural agricultural workforce, yet men are five times more likely to own land
While acknowledging efforts by the federal government through various ministries to address gender gaps in climate adaptation by enacting policies and frameworks, she said implementation has being a challenge.
The don maintained that many existing policies lack specific measures and actionable strategies to effectively address gender inequality, hence the need for the G-SMART tool to bridge the gap.
She explained that the G SMART Monitor is a simplified framework designed to achieve two objectives, including providing real-time assessment of gender responsiveness in climate change policies as well as assessment of policy implementation from the beneficiaries’ perspective.
She said, “The framework will not only support responsible government arms in adhering to gender commitments in existing policies, but it will also guide the development of new policies towards gender responsiveness.”
Dr Ifeayin-Obi disclosed that the framework was categorised into two parts, namely, Indicators of gender responsiveness in climate change adaptation and indicators of successful gender responsive policy implementation. It
She pointed out that the first section comprises 12 thematic areas of climate change that requires gender mainstreaming to foster gender equality in adaptation policies and initiatives including involvement in decision making and leadership and access to improved farm inputs including climate resilient crop varieties.
Other thematic areas are access to climate information and services; access and ownership of agricultural assets, including lands; access to climate finance, credit finance and insurance; capacity building and climate education on climate adaptation; Early warning; sustainable soil and water management; agroforestry and reforestation; soil conservation and management; pest management services; and indigenous knowledge.
