Socioeconomic and Gender Effects of Climate Change and its Adaptation Strategies in Different Agro-ecologies of Sidama Region, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract This study examined socio-economic and gender effects of climate change and its adaptation strategies in lowland, midland and highland agro-ecologies of Sidama Region in Ethiopia. A mixed research approach with secondary data analysis, key informant interview, focus group discussion, field observations and survey research is employed to collect data. A total of 700 households selected randomly and proportionately after stratifying households by wealth ranking into poor, medium and model farmers in each kebele . Subsequently, qualitative information is analyzed using thematic and content analysis whereas quantitative data is analyzed using descriptive statistics by STATA Software. Secondary data is also analyzed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. The results showed that there is climate change and it has effects on livelihood, food, water, and energy securities. Accordingly, climate change affects all livelihood capitals, and it causes both transient and chronic food insecurity in the study areas. Moreover, there is gender differentiated vulnerability since livelihood assets are still under the control of males. Furthermore, in intra-household analysis women differently affected by food, water and energy insecurities since they are expected to fulfil food, water and energy demands of the household. To address these effects, soil and water conservation, changing crop varieties, intercropping, changing planting date, water harvesting, irrigation, livestock diversification, livelihood diversification, and migration are practiced as adaptation strategies. Thus there should be appropriate and gender sensitive policies, local institutions, and public participation to minimize the socio-economic and gender effects of climate change and optimize the practice and efficiency of adaptation strategies.