Gender, Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh

This paper examines the links between gender, food security climate change and adaptation in Bangladesh, and investigates how a social justice approach to adaptation – with a commitment to participation, recognition, equitable governance and environmental integrity - may work to improve local level food security, and address social vulnerability. Southwest Bangladesh is facing a range of ecological and climate changes, including rising sea levels, cyclones, variable rainfall, river damming and salinity. Smallholder farmers, agricultural labourers and poor women are particularly vulnerable, with ecological changes interacting with other layers of vulnerability, including poverty, gender, political and social discrimination. A range of ideas are present in development and climate change literature, making links between gender and food security, both in terms supply and demand. In particular, women’s role in household food security is highlighted. Here, I critically examine these theories and assumptions, within the contexts of existing social, cultural and other vulnerabilities, with reference to projects and research from Bangladesh. I then discuss these ideas in relation to climate change adaptation. Socially just adaptation theory argues that for adaptation to be sustainable, transformative and effective, initiatives need to be responsive to existing social inequalities, while working to reduce vulnerability and create transformational change. Many NGOs, the Bangladeshi government and other key stakeholders, have recognised the complex vulnerabilities facing women, both within their households and communities, and are attempting to incorporate these ideas into adaptation responses. However, it is unclear whether these efforts represent strategic change for women from poor households, involving a transformation of gender structures, or only practical changes, in helping women survive.