Rural Women’s Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Communities in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

There is a nexus between climate change and gender-based resilience in coastal communities. Notwithstanding, local interventions and collaborative international protocols on climate change have not improved rural women’s vulnerabilities to climate change in coastal communities in Nigeria. The revised National Policy on Climate Change emphasized mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability, mainstream gender equality and social inclusion for rural development. The study explored rural women’s resilience to climate change in Nigerian coastal communities. The paper adopted the ethnographic design of the qualitative research method. Data were collected through in-depth interview from sampled rural women using purposive sampling technique to measure the four thematic areas of the study. The study found that rural women were aware and affected by climate change. The rural women understood their environment and were resilient through cooperative mobilisation of resources, self-help, communication, and interdependency. The government should increase gender-parity in community engagement to scale up rural women’s participation and inclusion in rural leadership and decision-making to accelerate development and sustainability of coastal communities.