Women’s Leadership in Climate Resilience
Drawn from the experience of community-based project – Lao PDR

Young women generation are collecting and have food from the area near the village and dried it to store for a longer time andplant some vegetables, Photo by GDA

Presented by: Manivanh Suyavong, Director of Gender Development Association, LaosAt the: ASEAN-Japan Environment Week seminar session, Vientiane, Lao PDR
Date: 23rd August 2023

Context: Gender and Climate change• Over 70% of people's lives rely on natural resources, withagriculture being the most important source of income,however, climate change has hampered economic progressin Laos because vital industrial sectors rely on naturalresources.
• Water scarcity and groundwater depletion can affectagricultural output, and Ethnic women are more prone tofood instability and malnutrition. Their ability to manage
and mitigate climate-related shocks to their livelihoods ishampered by systemic inequities and a deeply unequal
power structure.
• Food scarcity and the multifaceted repercussions of
extreme poverty, which cause familial stress and worsen
alcohol and drug abuse, have also been connected to a risein gender-based violence, particularly in rural and distantethnic communities.

Key Findings on Traditional Climate
and Livelihood Adaptation for ethnic
women in Lao PDR• Women are used their existing knowledge
and experiences in adapting to climatechange.
• Project participants became more aware ofclimate change as they became more awareof difficulty they face both directly andindirectly in the community.
• Even though their lifestyles andunderstanding of ethnic cultural customs
differ, they share agricultural activities andyear-round outputs.

Some Challenges• Many people are still lack of knowledge aboutclimate change, adaptation and response.
• Low level of women represented in village
leadership level, only 2,36% women village
heads.
• Climate change has resulted in low yields,
insufficient incomes and at the same time thediversity of crops, insufficient long-term foodsecurity.
• People are still not given clear and up-to-date
information on events, which is very importantto prepare an adjust in a timely manner.

Some Lessons• Promote knowledge on climate change and disasterto ensure understanding, response and adaptation
to the community’s livelihood and environment.
• Gender leadership mainstreaming in climate
resilience. Develop an easy and clear print media
format for climate change adaptation to give ethnic
women access to a wide range of information.
• Promote technical knowledge of agriculture – foodprocessing, animal husbandry, disease prevention.
• Ensure people in community can access to up-todate information to deal with adapt in timely
manner.

Climate change is a very
serious threat, and its
consequences impact
many different aspects ofour lives.
The impact of climatechange is not only anenvironmental problem.
It is a problem that affects
everyone in the world,
especially the agriculture
and economic sectors.

Traditional knowledge of how ethnic women understand climate change and how they adapt
to climate change with agriculture, food processing to keep them longer, planting vegetables
for food security and earning income in rural communities.

KhopchaiThank you !