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Indonesia

Gender-Based Approach to Climate Change Adaptation: A advocacy paper from Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

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Summary

Research background

Indonesia is severely affected by global climate change.
Alongside impacts to health and wellbeing, climate change directly and indirectly contributes to economic downturn and slow development in the region, not only at the national level but also in many rural provinces.
As one of the larger islands in Indonesia, Lombok is at high risk from the impacts of climate change. Lombok is projected to face increasingly severe threats to crop yields caused by the increase in air temperature and changes in rainy season patterns: this will lead to disruption of plant metabolisms and increase the frequency of plant related diseases and pests due to more humid conditions. A decrease in crop yields also provides further threats to farmers’ livelihoods and also has a severe effect on food security, potentially leading to significant economic decline. The impact of climate change is also felt strongly in coastal areas, where it has damaging effects on high-value economic sectors such as sea transportation, fisheries, trade, and tourism.
To address impacts on Lombok and minimise future effects of climate change, it is critical that action is taken now to adapt and build resilience, particularly for vulnerable groups such as women and girls who face additional barriers to climate change adaptation.
Considering the increasingly tangible impacts of climate change, a comprehensive study was conducted by Islamic Relief alongside IPB University to assess the extent to which women and girls are vulnerable to climate change disasters, and the factors which hinder their adaptation, on the island of Lombok. This results from this study will aim to increase the capacity of communities capable of adaptating to climate change; and also improve the mainstreaming of gender issues in development planning on a local, national and global scale.

Approach and methodology

The study was conducted from April 2022 to November 2022 with a quantitative and descriptive quality approach. Data and information was collected from literature reviews, field surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and consultations with stakeholders. Field surveys were conducted in three ways; household surveys (with categories of respondents including married men and women, boys, and girls); in-depth interviews (with categories including unmarried/single female respondents and persons with disabilities); and key informant interviews (KII) and FGDs (with the category of respondents including regional apparatus organisations (OPDs) and community organisations (CSOs). Each category of respondents were taken to represent the characteristics of coastal, highland, and urban areas on Lombok. The total number of respondents from field surveys was 311, spread across the island.

Impacts and role of vulnerable groups in climate change

According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2022), the impact of climate change will be distributed differently among regions, generations, social classes, income groups, occupations, and genders. Due to climate change exacerbating preexisting conditions of inequality and vulnerability, it has been identified that climate change can more negatively impact the lives of vulnerable groups, such as women and girls (UNICEF, 2011) The impacts of climate change felt by women in this study included financial loss, and physical and psychological health impacts. Nearly all women included in this study felt the health-related impacts of climate change, while over 50 per cent reported a reduction in income and 40 per cent reported difficulty in covering their financial needs.
The impact of climate change on children, is felt primarily in terms of health impacts such as, an increased frequency of conditions like the flu or coughs and loss of education. According to this study, over 60 per cent of children reported they had been forced to miss school because of disasters, floods, and heavy rain. Moreover, girls reported feeling a heightened risk of having to drop out, as household income declined due to climate change and parents struggled to afford tuition fees. For persons with disabilities (PWDs), the most strongly felt impacts of climate change relate to health, and include increased frequency of diarrhoea, pain, lethargy, headache, abdominal pain, and the flu. PWDs also experience physical and financial challenges due to climate change, such as loss of income as natural resources become more scarce and less accessible.