Supporting Gender-Responsive Adaptation to Climate Change in Kenya - UNJP/KEN/100/UWN

Abstract

The project aimed to address critical challenges posed by climate change in Kenya, particularly in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). In recent years, Kenya has experienced prolonged droughts, frosts in some of the productive agricultural areas, hailstorms, extreme floods, receding lake levels, drying up of rivers and other wetlands, etc., resulting in large economic losses, affecting food security and exacerbating poverty. These negative impacts are compounded by local environmental degradation, mainly caused by habitat loss due to land-use change, pollution, deforestation and overgrazing. Moreover, despite being the main producers of food, women in agriculture own fewer assets and have access to less land, fewer inputs and fewer financial and extension services than men, which limits their rights, potential and well-being, as well as their ability to build climate resilience. The project was designed to increase agricultural productivity, household income, nutrition and technical capacity of women farmer groups to adopt market-driven, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) value chains, while promoting gender equality.