This policy brief highlights how sensitivity to access to specific assets and constraints experienced by women (in particular local contexts) can help realise their potential of becoming important actors in adapting local food production to climatic stress.
It argues that gender provides a relevant framework for approaching climate adaptation in Bangladesh, in view of its patriarchal rural society where gender is central to the organisation of social structures and norms. Women, especially from poorer groups, are thought to have the lowest asset base, the least capacity to adapt to shocks and are the most vulnerable (Ahmad 2012).
The brief is based on iInterviews conducted with women participating in two initiatives to increase their contributions to household food and income security in Barisal District (Women onset technologies for sustainable homestead agriculture in Bangladesh project) and Kurigram District (Char market development initiative project).