ABSTRACT
Just as armed conflict has a gender-differentiated impact, so too can climate change. Particularly in areas of the world where women and girls are dependent upon agriculture for their livelihoods, decreases in agricultural productivity directly impact food security. They can also experience different and more severe effects to their health, and those who perform roles within the household performing domestic chores and serving as family caregivers are also burdened with spending greater time on labour-intensive work such as drawing water and collecting fuel for cooking. Increased risk of suffering sexual or gender-based violence because of out-migration of male family members seeking employment is a threat, whether women and girls remain at their homes or become internally displaced persons or refugees themselves. The case study of South African municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal Province shows how the impacts of climate change are strongly mediated by society, economy and culture. How communities adapt to or mitigate climate change’s negative effects on their lives will depend not just on their human and capital resources, but potentially on evolving notions of gender roles as well. Accurately tracking such changes would likely pose a significant challenge for many military operations, but understanding these changes could be very important in making sure that scarce military resources were being directed towards efforts that complement mitigation and adaptation methods and lifeways.
