The case of women and climate change in Northern Kenya

Kenya is particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming. More than 80% of the landmass is made up of arid and semi-arid land. Even though there are regional variations in temperature, Kenya is becoming noticeably warmer. Kenya’s average yearly temperature has risen by about 1.0°C since the 1960s. It is predicted that temperatures will rise by 1.7°C by the 2050s and 3.5°C by the end of the century. The health of people and animals, agriculture and ecosystems will all be significantly impacted by increased and extreme heat.

In recent years, Kenya has faced frequent natural disasters, including droughts and floods, as well as health epidemics that result in population displacement and the need for humanitarian aid. Most recently, above-average rainfall during the October, November and December 2023 and 2024 ‘short rains’ season led to thousands of people being displaced, as well as causing road and infrastructure damage, livestock loss and fatalities. As of the end of April 2024, 160 people had died in Kenya because of floods brought on by El Niño and exacerbated by climate change, and around 55,575 households had been forced to flee.

This was preceded by five consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall, between 2020 and 2022, with Northern Kenya the most impacted. This resulted in a severe drought and insufficient access to food and water, which limited agricultural outputs and livelihood opportunities and decreased the population’s capacity to withstand future shocks.

Pastoralism is the primary source of subsistence in Northern Kenya. Pastoral groups are accustomed to dealing with drought and unpredictable rainfall and have traditionally used various methods to limit the impact of climate-related shocks on their livelihoods. However, the increased pressures caused by climate change mean that the practice of pastoralism has become more difficult. Climate change, along with other environmental, economic and political issues, has made poor and marginalised households increasingly vulnerable.

‘Like most other humanitarian and development challenges, the climate crisis perpetuates and magnifies structural inequalities, such as those between women and men.’ It also amplifies challenges caused by factors such as population growth, a declining supply of resources, conflicts centred around those resources, shifts in access to land and water, and the effects of other social and cultural injustices that exist in the communities. In the context of Northern Kenya, ‘women bear an unequal burden when it comes to climate change impacts’ as they ‘rely primarily on extremely climate-sensitive livelihoods’, such as rainfed small-scale farming.

Insufficient access to food and water deprives women and girls, particularly expectant and nursing mothers, of essential nutrients. Water scarcity, caused by droughts and high temperatures, means women must go further to get water for cleaning, gardening and cooking, which puts them at risk of dehydration, heat stroke and sexual assault. Lack of access to education for girls and financial strain on families due to climate change raise the probability of child marriage and other forms of violence, causing women and girls to lose their homes, livelihoods and land. Additionally, pregnant women who are displaced are less likely to obtain appropriate pre- and post-natal care, which can negatively impact their health, as well as infant health.

WOKIKE interventions – emergency response, resilience and climate justice

Womankind Kenya (WOKIKE) is a non-governmental women’s rights organisation that operates in the northern and coastal regions of Kenya, with the mission of empowering women, children and vulnerable communities through community initiatives enhancing their rights and fostering resilience.

WOKIKE has been at the forefront of promoting and advocating for locally led climate action in Kenya, empowering communities and driving change using gender-responsive and child-centred approaches.

WOKIKE recognises the unique needs and priorities of women; while women are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, they are also effective actors and agents of change in relation to adaptation and mitigation. Over the years, WOKIKE has worked with women at the grassroots level, rolling out research, development and humanitarian initiatives, effectively addressing gender-specific impacts of climate change in the areas of food security, agriculture, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), peace and security.

Our approach in addressing climate-change impact is threefold: providing humanitarian aid and services; building the resilience of communities to enable them to better respond to climate impacts in the long term; and supporting climate justice advocacy so that they can effectively engage with the structures and systems that affect them. These approaches are based on robust community engagement, in collaboration with both private and public sectors.

Firstly, in responding to climate shocks like prolonged drought and floods experienced in Kenya, WOKIKE (in collaboration with partners) has been providing humanitarian support to affected communities, through food assistance, nutrition, and WASH interventions. This has led to reduced morbidity and mortality and ensured that households are able to meet their basic needs and reach an acceptable level of food security.

Secondly, to support the longer-term resilience of communities, WOKIKE has supported communities in resilience programming. In particular, this has been through a series of livelihood and agriculture interventions such as provision of drought-resistant seedlings to small farmers, procurement and distribution of animal feed for livestock, and technical sessions on feed management. Moving forward, we would hope to find investment in climate-resilient water infrastructure, and to be able to support work to decrease post-harvest losses and address issues of crop pests and diseases.

A central element of these humanitarian and resilience initiatives is the survivor- and community-led response (SCLR) approach, which gives power to community-owned initiatives during rapid onset or protracted crises. Working with local government and civil society, WOKIKE identifies communities particularly at risk of, or affected by, climate hazards. These communities are then asked to develop plans to address these hazards, with support and training from WOKIKE, before receiving grants to implement plans for activities such as solarisation of water supplies and constructions of pit latrines. In order to receive funding, a community has to show that women and marginalised groups have been involved in the selection and planning of activities.

The third pillar of WOKIKE’s work in responding to climate change is climate justice advocacy. We have seen that the magnitude of climate effects depends on how far people are from the centre of power – and so we aim to bring their voices to the people who make decisions. This work has three strands: developing strong grassroots groups, developing narratives, and using these narratives to shift policies. We work with community groups to make them aware of climate change, through trainings, inviting speakers, and building networks between these communities and climate justice groups. We build narratives in the form of position papers, but also in formats such as poetry and dance. And we create forums where people can present these narratives to decision-makers. The approach has been successful at multiple levels. Through this process, community concerns around water access were included in the Garissa County Development Plan. A better understanding of climate change also enables people to take action to adapt their livelihoods: in recent years, participants have begun to diversify livelihoods to encompass beekeeping and agriculture along rivers, to make them less vulnerable to droughts.

Lessons learned

Over the years that WOKIKE has been engaging in these areas, we have constantly tried to learn and to improve the work we are doing.

Communicating climate change with rural communities can be difficult. In many communities, people are aware of increased drought and floods, but think that it is a punishment from God. Building an understanding of what is happening takes time – it requires working with communities for many months, or years, and using a variety of different media: trainings, radio programmes, meetings with local government. It is also important that people get these new ideas from people they already know and are used to working with.

Finally, it is important to anchor the messages in people’s own realities – using messages about carbon dioxide or the greenhouse effect doesn’t work because people don’t understand the technical language, but often, through conversation, you find that they are talking about the same things in their own language. For instance, instead of discussing ‘carbon emissions’ or the ‘greenhouse effect’, we usually frame our conversations around issues that resonate with the community’s day-to-day life which have severely impacted livelihoods, including unpredictable rains, increased temperatures, and livestock loss.

In addition, we link the causes of carbon emissions to communities’ daily human-led activities e.g. overgrazing, deforestation and encroachment on riparian areas.

Wherever possible, we try to bring these conversations directly to policymakers – through media such as the arts – but in some cases, and for some audiences, we need to interpret what communities are saying back into technical language and then take it to the policymakers. While we have made progress in bringing traditional knowledge into climate discussions and policy, there is still work to be done.

Lynn Chestit is Programs Coordinator at Womankind Kenya.

Carol Rotich is Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Officer at Womankind Kenya.