In all of the countries where SCALA operates, women have critical roles in agriculture, all along value chains — yet they remain systematically excluded from the resources and decisions that shape how the agriculture sector is responding to the threats posed by climate change. Women farmers often lack equal access to funding, technologies, extension services and information on climate-resilient cropping practices and weather patterns. This gap reduces farm productivity and income while at the same time, increasing women’s vulnerability to climate change impacts.
Another challenge is the lack of policy coherence and coordination between government ministries, which can make it difficult to integrate gender considerations into climate action in agriculture. That’s why programmes like SCALA are placed to help, by working with partners to strengthen coordination, build the evidence based needed for policy and planning and conduct gender analyses to better understand the gender issues in specific agriculture subsectors. The results are then used to inform climate plans and funding proposals, aiming to ensure that climate plans in land use and agriculture respond to the needs of both women and men — and that the barriers preventing women's full participation are identified and addressed at every stage.
Understanding the barriers to act on them
In Costa Rica, a study of 123 women livestock keepers found that 85 percent receive no economic compensation for their farm work, despite contributing substantially to production through rotational grazing, animal nutrition and sustainable pasture management. One woman interviewed described being turned away at a bank:
“I have gone to a bank and the guy said to me — tell your husband to come because I can approve him and not you. That day I left very upset because it is the same, we work in the same job, we do the same things.” — Woman livestock keeper, Costa Rica.
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