Climate-smart villages and empowerment: evidence from Honduras and Guatemala

Interventions to mitigate climate change while enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacity present an opportunity to make substantial improvements in the lives of rural men and women, while contributing to a more equitable rural society. Given that gender norms and climate change impacts are context-specific, these interventions must be tailored to each setting. This study uses survey data from Olopa, Guatemala, and Santa Rita, Honduras, to quantify the difference in empowerment between Climate Smart Village (CSV) participants and non-participants, the extent to which this varied between male and female farmers, and the consistency of the pattern across sites. The results provide compelling evidence that being a CSV participant is associated with modestly higher empowerment, as measured by the Gender Empowerment Index (GEI-CSV), with similar differences for both male and female farmers at both locations. Individual domains of empowerment show discernible differences between groups of farmers: male farmers in Olopa appeared to exhibit lower economic advancement than did either females from Olopa or farmers of either sex in Santa Rita. The findings underscore the importance of considering the specific needs of men and women when planning and implementing climate policies.