Gender Differentials in Climate Impacts: Experience from Nigeria

Climate variabilities and its profound impacts on earth systems and livelihoods are widespread globally but are more severe for vulnerable populations. Nigeria is a developing lower middle-income country with low adaptive capacities across most of its populations and systems. An estimated 133 million of the country's 200+ million people are classified multidimensionally poor. Beyond this country-wide vulnerability, deeper vulnerabilities exist for women as they have constrained access to resources, power, and, perhaps more fundamentally, to information. Many of these women are engaged in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture or informal enterprise. Consequently, the impacts of climate variability, while are felt by both males and females, further deepen vulnerabilities for the female gender. Further complications and differentials in vulnerability are found among females in the northern and southern divides of the country, while those in urban and rural areas also exhibit peculiar deprivations. The study explores how intersectionalities in demographics deepen vulnerabilities to climate impacts in Nigeria for females, drawing on extant literature, complemented with findings from a previous survey conducted 2023. The survey covered eight states in five of Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. The progression of vulnerability rises sharply from the female demographic (60.2%) to the northern female resident in rural areas, with no formal education, engaged in farming and earning a low income (90%). This confirms findings from extant literature that intersectionalities amplify vulnerabilities. The findings point climate fund managers to the need for intentional beneficiary targeting in dispensing benefits.