23 Sep 2019

Women in marginalised communities bear the brunt of climate change compared to those in urban areas, principal gender officer from gender affairs department, Ms Mashidiso Thathana has said.

Ms Thathana shared with attendees of a gender sensitisation workshop in Komana recently that a study carried out in Seronga in the North West District and Chobokwane in the Ghanzi District, showed that communities in remote areas were mainly impacted by climate change.

She said this was because such communities relied on raw materials and subsistence farming which in turn relied on rainfall.
“As a result, communities which are dominated by women single-headed families are mainly affected as climate change resulted in low rainfall and high cases of human-wildlife conflict,” she said.

She also said other livelihood activities that depended on raw materials such as basket weaving were affected by climate change therefore negatively impacted the women.

Ms Thathana said with that realisation, the government saw the need to align programmes that assisted communities especially under the Gender Affairs Department to encompass climate change effects.

She advised that such programmes should be curtailed in such a way that they cushioned beneficiaries during drought, especially in hard-hit areas. Ends