Genere, ambiente e sviluppo: quali legami si creano? Quali sono i principali fattori responsabili di tali interazioni? Caso studio in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Environment degradation and climate change are considered critical worldwide, but responses to them have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions, rather than on a significant human and gender dimension. Women and men do not face environment degradation in the same way. In many countries economic constraints and cultural habits restrict women’s access to economic and environmental resources: as a consequence their livelihoods are particularly dependent on environment and climate sensitive sectors, such as subsistence agriculture, water and fire wood collection, spontaneous resources availability.
As well as the direct effects on these obviously climate-environment sensitive sectors, there are also indirect impacts such as education and employment, in which gender inequalities may be amplified.
In cases where women already face discrimination and limited access to resources or services, critical environment conditions may reinforce inequalities still further.
There is a direct relationship between poverty and vulnerability to climate change, but the intersection between gender, poverty and vulnerability is more complex, and includes noneconomic factors and cultural norms.
Aim of this work is to apply the known methodology of gender vulnerability index to a case study in Burkina Faso. Concerning the gender vulnerability index, it has been calculating for a group of associated women (in rural and urban context) using both the adaptive capacity and the sensitivity indices.

Keywords: Gender vulnerability index, gender and poverty, women association, Burkina Faso
Parole chiave: indice di vulnerabilità di genere, genere e povertà, associazione di donne, Burkina Faso