Understanding households’ livelihood vulnerability to climate change in the Lamjung district of Nepal

Abstract

Based on spatial variation and time, climate change has various levels of impacts on different communities and sometime with the state of development as well. The rural mountainous households that depend on natural resources for subsistence livelihoods and agriculture are particularly vulnerable with changing climate. Livelihood vulnerability assessment at local level is imperative to formulate appropriate adaptation policy and programs to address their livelihood challenges. This paper explored two vulnerability assessment indices, livelihood vulnerability index and IPCC vulnerability index by surveying 150 households from three village development committees (VDCs) in Lamjung district, Nepal. Data related to climate variables, natural disasters, water and food security, health, socio-demographics, livelihood strategies, and social network were collected and combined into indices. Both indices differed based on well-being status, gender of the household head and location across the households of three VDCs. The analysis was based on indices constructed from selected indicators measuring exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Results indicated that very poor and poor households, and female-headed households were more vulnerable than medium, well-off and male-headed households. The availability of livelihood diversified strategies, education, establishment of early warning system to climate extreme will help to reduce vulnerability to climate change in the study areas. The findings help in designing priority areas of intervention for adaptation plan to reduce vulnerability and enhance the resilience of the mountainous households to climate change.

Climate Change and Women's Health: A Scoping Review

“…Increase in climate‐related extreme weather events, such as floods, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, poor air quality and salinity of water, were reported by 20 articles in relation to women's health (Abdullah et al., 2019 ; Alhassan et al., 2019 ; Amoroso, 2018 ; Asamoah et al., 2018 ; Beaumier & Ford, 2010 ; Bunce et al., 2016 ; Cil & Cameron, 2017 ; Denton, 2002 ; Drolet, 2012 ; Khan et al., 2011 ; Leipert & Reutter, 2005 ; MacVicar et al., 2017 ; Marí‐Dell'Olmo et al., 2019 ; Mason & Agan, 2015 ; McCall et al., 2019 ; Poudel et al., 2020 ; Sanchez et al., 2012 ; Scheelbeek et al., 2016 ; Singh et al., 2018 ; Tirado et al., 2013 ; Zhang et al., 2018 ). Floods, hurricanes, heat waves and droughts were found to impact the agricultural industry where women worked as primary labourers, retrieved food for daily consumption and relied upon heavily for household incomes (Alhassan et al., 2019 ; Denton, 2002 ; Drolet, 2012 ; Poudel et al., 2020 ). Women were found to be more affected by temperature extremes such as heat waves which put them at a higher risk of poor maternal health, hypertension and heat exhaustion (Asamoah et al., 2018 ; Cil & Cameron, 2017 ; MacVicar et al., 2017 ; Marí‐Dell'Olmo et al., 2019 ; McCall et al., 2019 ; Singh et al., 2018 ).…”

“…The relationship between climate change and women's health outcomes was analyzed by 16 studies included in the review (Abdullah et al., 2019 ; Alhassan et al., 2019 ; Asamoah et al., 2018 ; Balehey et al., 2018 ; Beaumier & Ford, 2010 ; Bunce et al., 2016 ; Cil & Cameron, 2017 ; Denton, 2002 ; Khan et al., 2011 ; Khapung, 2016 ; Koehler, 2016 ; MacVicar et al., 2017 ; Mazorra et al., 2020 ; Poudel et al., 2020 ; Scheelbeek et al., 2016 ; Tirado et al., 2013 ). Women were more affected by nutritional deficiencies, such as malnutrition and anemia, due to food insecurity reasons (Beaumier & Ford, 2010 ; Denton, 2002 ; Koehler, 2016 ; Tirado et al., 2013 ).…”

“…This was found to be more common in female‐headed households compared to male‐headed households (Alhassan et al., 2019 ). Women in rural areas were also more likely to be at risk of vector‐borne diseases because they are likely to be in close proximity to wells, rivers and ponds when they collect water supplies (Bunce et al., 2016 ; Denton, 2002 ; Poudel et al., 2020 ). A strong relationship was also identified between climate change and maternal health (Abdullah, et al., 2019 ; Asamoah et al., 2018 ; Cil & Cameron, 2017 ; Denton, 2002 ; Khan et al., 2011 ; Khapung, 2016 ; Koehler, 2016 ; MacVicar et al., 2017 ; Scheelbeek et al., 2016 ; Tirado et al., 2013 ).…”

“…Twenty‐two articles explored the risk factors to vulnerability in relation to women's health and climate change (Alhassan et al., 2019 ; Balehey et al., 2018 ; Beaumier & Ford, 2010 ; Bunce et al., 2016 ; Carranza & Niles, 2019 ; Denton, 2002 ; Khapung, 2016 ; Koehler, 2016 ; Larson et al., 2018 ; Leipert & Reutter, 2005 ; MacVicar et al., 2017 ; Marí‐Dell'Olmo et al., 2019 ; Mason & Agan, 2015 ; Masson et al., 2019 ; Mazorra et al., 2020 ; Ortega‐Egea et al., 2014 ; Poudel et al., 2020 ; Roy & Venema, 2002 ; Seidel & Bell 2014 ; Shanthi et al., 2017 ; Shodieva et al., 2014 ; Singh et al., 2018 ). Climate change exacerbated existing gender and social inequalities faced by women, especially in rural and remote communities (Alhassan et al., 2019 ; Balehey et al., 2018 ; Beaumier & Ford, 2010 ; Bunce et al., 2016 ; Khapung, 2016 ).…”

Analysis of Smallholders’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Drought across Agroecology and Farm Typology in the Upper Awash Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

“…In this regard, various studies have been conducted in the upper Awash sub-basin and elsewhere; (i) some have focused on livelihood vulnerability to the entire climate change impacts [25,[48][49][50][51][52]. These studies only used household survey data to understand the level of livelihood vulnerability [8,[53][54][55]; (ii) some vulnerability studies (e.g., [56,57]) considered only basin-wide livelihood vulnerability analyses that overlooked the local and farmers specific contexts; (iii) some studies completed livelihood vulnerability analysis using few numbers of indicator variables (e.g., [58][59][60]).…”