Climate change through a gendered lens: examining livestock holder food security
Core message
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- Created a novel conceptual framework integrating a gender lens to climate change and food security in livestock systems.
- Identified gendered pathways of vulnerability and food insecurity across livestock holders from pastoral to urban environments.
- Examined economic, health, and nutrition aspects of food security among livestock keepers.
- Provided pertinent recommendations for livestock development initiatives to apply a gendered approach.
Livestock holders experience increased food insecurity because of climate change. We argue that development programs, public health specialists, and practitioners must critically examine gendered impacts of climate change to improve food security of livestock producers. This review illustrates the differential experiences of men and women and how vulnerability, adaptive capacity, exposure and sensitivity to climatic stimuli are gendered in distinct ways between and among livestock holding communities. We propose a gendered conceptual framework for understanding the impact of climate change on food security among livestock holders, which highlights potential pathways of vulnerability and points of intervention to consider in global health strategies for improving household food security.
Full citation
McKune, S.L., E. C. Borrensen, A.G. Young, T.D. A. Ryley, S.L. Russo, A.D. Camara, M. Coleman and E.P. Ryan. 2015. Climate change through a gendered lens: examining livestock holder food security. Global Food Security 6:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2015.05.001