Gender differences in response and resilience to drought among pastoral communities in Nakaseke District, Central Uganda

Abstract

Gender differences affect communities' response, adaptability and resilience to extreme events such as drought in arid and semi-arid areas. This study was undertaken to assess the gender differences in response and resilience to drought among pastoral communities in Nakaseke District in Central Uganda. Focusing on the 2019 drought, the study specifically assessed its gendered impact on pastoral households, differences in response capacities between male and female pastoralists and evaluated the resilience mechanisms undertaken by male and female pastoralists to cope with the drought. The study employed a cross-sectional design, in which both quantitative and qualitative data was collected using a survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews at one point in time. The household survey covered 120 pastoralist respondents, of whom 60 were females and 60 males. The qualitative data was collected through 8 gender-segmented focus group discussions, two per parish. The study parishes were Kalagala and Mijumwa in Wakyato Sub-county and Ngoma and Kiteyongera in Ngoma Sub-county. The findings on the impact of the drought revealed that women, including single mothers, widows, and pregnant mothers, as well as vulnerable persons such as the elderly, disabled, and orphaned children were most affected by human and animal disease outbreaks, shortage of water for domestic use and animals, unfavourable grazing sites due to demarcation and fires, limited access to quality health care, food shortages and disruption of schooling schedules for children. Regarding response capacities, patriarchal norms contributed to men being more flexible and having more power and resources than women in responding to the drought. For example, more male respondents relocated their children to other schools (while females withdrew theirs, 70% vs. 32%), sought new food sources, and sold some household assets or items to cater for food shortages (38% vs. 30% for land) while women could not sell any of the household assets without the approval of their husbands or partners and if they did, it led to domestic violence. On the other hand, more female than male respondents engaged in income-generating activities such as poultry keeping (90% vs. 45%), casual work such as washing clothes, digging and fetching water for others (62% vs. 55%) and petty business (60% vs. 42%). Regarding resilience mechanisms, males had more access to the early drought warnings and other information before the onset of the drought compared to the females (e.g., 85% vs. 77%), and could easily sell-off some livestock to remain with manageable herd sizes during drought (97% vs. 83%). Also, more males than females diversified their livestock to reduce the risk of animal death during the droughts, mainly through keeping more goats and poultry with support from NGOs (32% vs. 3.3% for goats, sheep and chicken combined). Altogether, the findings indicate that patriarchal norms and other social vulnerabilities limited women’s ability to respond and cope with the 2019 drought in Nakaseke District. The study recommends among others, sensitizing men and other key stakeholders on the negative patriarchal norms and practices, ensuring that female pastoralists also access information on early climate change warning systems, enhancing women’s adoption of new technologies such as climate smart agricultural mitigation measures such as agroforestry, and involving women more in climate change or drought related disaster or drought risk related activities alongside men.