The Impact of Climate Change on African Women's Health

Sierra Leonean woman holding grass and smiling

Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

This post is co-written by Awa Darboe and Jonta Kamara. 

Climate change poses a formidable threat to the African continent, with its impacts echoing across vulnerable communities. Amidst this challenge, it is crucial to recognize the specific vulnerabilities that women face. This post explores the intersection of climate change, gender equality, health, and the unique circumstances of African women.

Understanding the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change

African women find themselves on the frontline of climate change, constituting the majority among the 1.8 billion people living in poverty globally. The harsh reality is that climate change exacerbates existing gender inequities, amplifying the challenges faced by women in various spheres of life. From agricultural production and food security to health, water, and energy access, women bear a disproportionate burden of the impacts of climate change.

A review article published in Frontiers underlines the scarcity of gender-disaggregated data specific to the impact of climate change on women in Africa. While scientific evidence on climate change impacts is abundant, the lack of detailed data on how these impacts affect women impedes the design of effective, gender-responsive interventions. This post highlights that climate change will significantly impact African women in key areas of agricultural production, food and nutrition security, water and energy, as well as climate-related disasters, migration, and conflict. Since this is the United Nations Decade on Ecosystems and Restorations, this post will focus on the impacts of climate change on African women’s health.

Climate, Gender, and Health 

Climate change disparately impacts women's health. Women’s health is at risk due to increased climate-related diseases and health challenges. As temperatures get warmer, this will lead to direct deaths from cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses, as well as an increase in aeroallergens which will trigger asthma. With changing weather patterns, the transmission of vector diseases such as malaria has increased by 20%. The 2023 Lancet Report on Climate and Health indicates that dengue transmission may increase to 36–37%. This has severe impacts, especially for pregnant women as cerebral malaria may become an issue, and gender disparities magnified by climate change can reduce women's share of agricultural gains, impacting their financial success. Gender-specific health impacts of extreme weather conditions also include a rise in physical and emotional violence and mental stress.

There are also increased climate-related disasters and climate-induced migration, where women face increased risks of violence and displacement. Climate disasters pose several health challenges for women, such as navigating pregnancy and finding menstrual hygiene products. Climate change serves as a risk multiplier, impacting already existing challenges during disasters, migration, and conflicts.

Agriculture

Women, who are responsible for 80% of food production in Western, Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa, face challenges due to gender inequalities in accessing land, productive assets, and technology, as well as climate change-disrupted food systems. Limited agricultural production significantly limits women’s income. On the African continent, a large number of medical expenses are paid out-of-pocket, and as of 2021, only 10 countries provide free and universal access to health services. Thus, limited agricultural production limits the ability of women to pay for health expenditures and purchase other necessities that contribute to positive health outcomes.

This also affects the ability of women to ensure nutrition security for their families. In particular, undernutrition and malnutrition are of particular concern for young children. In some instances, women have skipped meals to ensure that men have adequate nutrition.

A study conducted on smallholder farming households in Ghana reveals that women-led households are more exposed to vulnerabilities related to 'socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, social network, water, and food' compared to homes led by men. This results in female-led households being more vulnerable to climate change, variability, and climate adaptation. Although both male and female-headed farming households in the same geographic location face the same climate conditions, the effects of climatic stresses vary between men and women. This is a result of differences in their levels of adaptive capacities and sensitivity, as vulnerability to climate change is exacerbated by gender disparities. Women farmers usually do not have the same resources as men for their agricultural activities. Agriculture is an important source of livelihood for many, and agricultural systems impact health outcomes. The outputs of agriculture also ensure individuals can access food, water, and health services.

"limited agricultural production limits the ability of women to pay for health expenditures and purchase other necessities that contribute to positive health outcomes."

Heatwaves

As global temperature is rising, we are experiencing more heat waves which contribute to increasing urban air pollution and impact local and regional air pollution concentrations. Men and women respond differently to severe thermal environments.  Women tend to sweat less, have a higher working metabolic rate, and have thicker subcutaneous fat which limits their ability to cool themselves as efficiently as men. This means that women are more vulnerable to heat stress. 

It is predicted that heatwave conditions will happen on at least 50% of days during the warm season in numerous cities in the Sahel region by 2100 if the current trajectory of emissions continues. Studies conducted in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa found that on days when the temperature is higher than average, there is a considerable spike in overall population-level mortality.

Many women living in Africa have very limited protection against exposure to severe heat events during pregnancy. Increased urbanization has resulted in a large number of pregnant women living in informal housing in urban heat islands, where temperatures can be several degrees higher than in neighboring places. In some cases, health facilities, brick dwellings, and informal housing are warmer than surrounding areas. Also, in many rural areas, pregnant women have a limited ability to decrease heat exposure, and drinking water can be limited or untreated. Heat waves lead to negative impacts on labor, placental shrinkage, and increased chances of fetal distress amongst others.

Water and Energy

Limited access to clean water and sustainable energy sources disproportionately affects women. Water scarcity is also a major issue in North Africa, which constitutes one of 'the most water-stressed regions on Earth.' Limited access to clean water enables the spread of infectious diseases. According to the World Bank and UNICEF, unclean births are associated with more than one million deaths each year. Infections account for 26% of neonatal deaths and 11% of maternal deaths, which are concentrated in low and middle-income countries.

In rural areas, women rely on natural resources for water and energy supplies for cooking. During times of floods and droughts, women have to work more to secure their livelihood. This includes longer travel times to access water and cooking fuel. For example, in Senegal, there are areas where women and girls walk up to 2.5 hours to access water. This is a lot of time and energy that could be used for other purposes.

Another concern with climate change is the drying up of water sources such as lakes. There are concerns about the future of Lake Victoria providing water supplies in East Africa. If Lake Victoria dries up, it will lead to longer distances for women to travel to access water and less production output for crops, limiting incomes. The consequences of limited water and energy lead to missed education and social and economic opportunities, disproportionately impacting women, which are determinants of health outcomes.

"According to the World Bank and UNICEF, unclean births are associated with more than one million deaths each year."

Climate Finance as a Solution
Health-related effects of climate change can be decreased through behavioral adaptation, early warning systems, policy, and climate finance. A paradigm shift in climate finance should occur with a focus on the needs and priorities of women. To ensure the efficacy of climate finance efforts, it is essential to mainstream gender equality and women’s empowerment within all climate finance governance structures. This includes integrating gender dimensions throughout the project cycle, from design and implementation to monitoring and evaluation.

Allocating climate financing to bolster the resilience of pregnant women and to develop programs offering heat-related services could significantly alleviate the increasing impact of heat-related conditions on pregnant women in Africa.

As temperatures are rising and climate change becomes an increasing threat, it is important to center African women in Africa’s climate solutions, as women tend to be more impacted by climate change than men. Older generations of African women have inherited knowledge about early warnings and risks to mitigate climate action, which is one of the reasons why women need to be included at the decision-making table along with groups disproportionately impacted by climate change such as youth and people with disabilities. This should also be a topic of focus as the discussion of climate change continues, one space for this is the next  Africa Climate Summit.