Impact of women empowerment on adoption of climate change adaptation strategies

Women experience the greatest threat of climate change, which poses high risk to their livelihood. Women empowerment is embraced as an opportunity for boosting adoption of climate change adaptation strategies and for rural development. However, there is limited studies that discus the nexus between women empowerment and climate change adaptation. The aim of the study was to examine the impact of women empowerment on the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies in Northern Ghana. The Abbreviated Women Empowerment in Agricultural index (A-WEAI) was adopted to identify the empowerment status of women in Northern Ghana, while the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to group women’s adaptation strategies into four components: soil water control, organic nutrient fixation, agro-inputs and plant protection. In addition, the Endogenous switching regression (ESR) that accounts for both observed and hidden bias in household characteristics was employed to quantify the impact of women empowerment on climate change adaptation strategies. The study concluded that women empowerment has a positive and significant effect on the adoption of “soil water control”, “organic nutrient fixation” and “plant protection” strategies. However, there was a negative and no significant impact of women empowerment on the adoption of “agro-input” strategies. These results shows that empowering women will be one of the best initiatives to influence their adaptation strategies in Northern Ghana. Specifically, empowering women will influence their adoption of affordable and sustainable adaptation strategies to climate change.