In the highlands of Ethiopia, as rains fail and rivers dry, it is women who wake first, walking miles for water, foraging for food from withered fields, calming hungry children while negotiating with a silent land. In Mauritania's desert villages, it is women who gather the seeds, store the knowledge, and manage the rhythm of life amid creeping sands. And in Haiti, when hurricanes rip apart homes and political violence restricts aid access, it is women who step forward, organizing, adapting, and surviving. Insecurity, violence, and any form of instability worsen their lifestyle. The process of living becomes unbearable. Yet, they are still missing from most tables where climate adaptation policies are designed.
This article stems from my literature review on how climate adaptation policies in Mauritania, Ethiopia, and Haiti either integrate or fail to integrate the roles, voices, and vulnerabilities of women. While climate change has become the defining threat of our era, the silence on gender in adaptation strategies remains a systemic failure. And until we center women, not as vulnerable populations but as agents of change, our policies will remain ineffective, inequitable, and incomplete.
Climate change does not discriminate. But society does. And so its impacts are gendered.
Women in low-oncome countries are more likely to rely on climate-sensitive livelihoods, agriculture, water collection, and informal economies.They are less likely to own land, access credit, or have decision-making power. In times of crisis, such as droughts, floods, and crop failures, they are often the last to eat and the first to be blamed. In Ethiopia, for instance, my research found that women’s roles in household food security put them at the center of climate risk, yet they remain peripheral in national adaptation plans. In Haiti, climate-induced disasters intersect with gender-based violence and political instability, creating layers of compounded vulnerability that policy rarely addresses. In Mauritania, cultural norms prevent women from participating in environmental governance, despite their being the most affected by desertification and water scarcity.
Despite growing international commitments, like the Lima Work Programme on Gender and the Gender Action Plan under the UNFCCC, many climate frameworks still treat gender as an afterthought.
What questions Should Guide Climate Adaptation?
To transform climate adaptation, we must ask harder questions—of policy, power, and participation.
Are women meaningfully involved?
Do they shape policies, or are they simply consulted after the fact? Gender-responsive adaptation means more than inclusion; it demands that women influence policy design, access funding and land, receive training, and hold decision-making power within climate governance—not as tokens, but as architects.
Who writes the policy? Who benefits? Who defines resilience?
These questions surface the structural inequalities embedded in adaptation frameworks. We must interrogate who sets the agenda and whether institutions are designed to uphold or dismantle systemic inequity. Feminist adaptation requires redistributing not just resources, but power.
Is traditional ecological knowledge being used—or ignored?
Women, particularly in rural and Indigenous communities, are stewards of seed banks, water systems, and biodiversity. Yet their knowledge remains undervalued. True resilience integrates their practices into planning—not as folklore, but as critical, sustainable expertise.
How does climate risk vary across identity and geography?
A “women’s perspective” is not monolithic. Climate impacts intersect with age, ability, ethnicity, location, and class. Without disaggregated data and differentiated responses, policies will continue to miss those most at risk—adolescent girls, older women, disabled women, displaced women.
Narratives That Call for Systemic Change
Across all three countries, my results revealed patterns of exclusion and opportunity.
In Mauritania, women walk farther for water every year, exposing themselves to violence and fatigue. Yet national policies rarely account for their safety or knowledge. A notable exception is the leadership of Lalya Aly Kamara, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, who has begun introducing more gender-aware frameworks; however, implementation lags due to entrenched norms and underfunded institutions.
In Haiti, where climate shocks are layered over gang violence and fragile governance, women are simultaneously frontline responders and targets of exploitation. Many organizations in the community organize cleanups, run informal shelters, and mediate resource conflicts—yet adaptation plans barely mention them. Here, climate adaptation must also be trauma-informed and security-aware.
From Policy Gaps to Power Shifts
If we are serious about transforming climate adaptation in low-income countries, especially for women who live at the intersection of vulnerability and leadership, then we must redesign the system, not retrofit it.
So what does getting it right actually look like?
Data That Sees Women: Who is counted, how, and what are we missing?
Too often, data collection stops at rainfall patterns and crop loss. But resilience lives in the everyday. We need climate data that is disaggregated by gender, age, ability, and geography—and that captures invisible indicators like caregiving burdens, migration patterns, food insecurity, and reproductive health access. When data tells women’s stories in full, policy can finally respond with nuance.
Policies Designed With, Not For : Whose knowledge shapes the solutions? Who defines the priorities?
Women are not beneficiaries. They are planners, negotiators, and solution-builders—especially in the face of crisis. Adaptation strategies must be co-created with women’s groups, Indigenous leaders, youth, and frontline communities. Lived experience is not anecdotal; it’s evidence. It's time we built policy from the ground up, not from boardrooms down.
Finance That Reaches the Grassroots: Who gets resourced—and who’s left filling the gap without funding?
Women-led climate action is often underfunded and outperforms. We need funding models that support community-based adaptation, not just large NGOs with English proposals and donor networks. That means flexible, multi-year financing and mechanisms to channel resources to informal collectives and mutual aid networks that already hold the social fabric together.
Feminist Governance Structures: Who holds authority? Is participation shifting outcomes or just optics?
Representation is not just about presence; it’s about power. Women must not only sit at the decision-making table, they must lead it. Build gender-responsive budgeting into climate programs. Embed accountability for equity into every phase—from planning to implementation. Policy is not neutral. We need governance that reflects that.
Safety as a Climate Metric: What does it take for a woman to adapt—and survive—with dignity?
No adaptation effort is sustainable if women are unsafe. Climate-related risks heighten gender-based violence, displacement, and exploitation. Recognizing safety and bodily autonomy as adaptation outcomes means integrating protection measures into climate programs—from shelters and legal aid to GBV-responsive infrastructure and crisis response.
We cannot climate-proof the planet without gender justice. And we cannot build gender-responsive systems through gender-blind processes. Women are both the most impacted and the most prepared to lead. But they remain systemically invisible in the policies that shape their lives. The road to resilience runs through the wisdom, leadership, and rights of women on the frontlines of climate disruption. As funders commit billions to adaptation, the question is not just how much, but to whom.