CLIMATE CHANGE, HUMAN SECURITY,120 AND GENDEREDVULNERABILITY: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF WOMEN AND CHILDRENIN THE LAKE CHAD REGION, 1960–2020

Climate change has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental and human security challenges of the twenty-first century, with its impacts disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations across the Global South. In the Lake Chad Region, decades of environmental transformation have profoundly altered livelihoods, intensified resource scarcity, and exacerbated human insecurity, with women and children bearing the greatest burden of these changes. While existing scholarship has extensively examined the environmental degradation of the Lake Chad Basin and its implications for conflict and displacement, limited attention has been given to the historical evolution of gendered vulnerability within the broader human security discourse. This study addresses this gap by undertaking a historical analysis of the relationship between climate change, human security, and the lived experiences of women and children in the Lake Chad Region from 1960 to 2020. Employing a qualitative historical research design, the study relies on documentary analysis of archival materials, peer-reviewed literature, government publications, and reports from international and regional organisations. Guided by the Human Security Framework and Feminist Political Ecology, the article traces the changing patterns of environmental degradation and examines how successive climatic events including prolonged droughts, desertification, shrinking water resources, and ecological decline have reshaped livelihoods, food security, health, migration, and protection for women and children. The study argues that gendered vulnerability in the Lake Chad Region is not solely a consequence of climatic variability but is historically produced and reinforced by structural inequalities, weak governance, environmental mismanagement, and protracted insecurity. It concludes that sustainable climate adaptation and human security policies must adopt historically informed and gender-responsive approaches that recognise women and children not merely as victims of environmental change but as essential actors in building resilient communities and advancing sustainable development across the Lake Chad Basin.