Amid the escalating impact of climate change on the agricultural sector, a gender expert, Dr Clara Ifeayin-Obi has developed a tool – Gender-responsive Smart Monitor (G-SMART Monitor) to track gender inclusion in agricultural adaptation initiatives.

Dr Ifeayin-Obi, who is an African Women in Agriculture and Research Development (AWARD) fellow of the Gender Responsive Policy System (GRASP) Fellowship, said the tools were 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 Gross Domestic Products (GDP) by six to 30 per cent by 2050.

Dr Ifeayin-Obi, who is also the Acting Head of Department, Agriculture Extension and Development Service, 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 per cent 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. 

She 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.

Dr Ifeayin-Obi 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 arm in adhering to gender commitments in existing policies, 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.