Saleh Ahmed, assistant professor in the School of Public Service, recently published an article “Adaptation outcomes in climate-vulnerable locations: understanding how short-term climate actions exacerbated existing gender inequities in coastal Bangladesh” in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
Co-authored with Elizabeth Eklund and Elizabeth Kiester, the article investigates ongoing adaptation strategies in the region, and highlights how those interventions exacerbated existing gender inequities.
Ahmed and co-authors state that adverse climate impacts, which present a significant challenge for the majority of the world’s population, especially impact smallholder farmers in coastal Bangladesh, where some adaptation initiatives appeared to be short-sighted and reproduced further inequity, poverty and food insecurity.
The articles uses empirical insights to illustrate how short-sighted climate responses can adversely affect gender equity, as outmigration from the region predominately sees males leave first, forcing increased household and farm responsibilities onto females and increasing their vulnerability. These insights help in understanding the complexity of climate–society interactions and the importance of long-term planning on any climate adaptation initiatives.