Bridging the gap between gender, climate finance and food security in the human rights discourse: a case study of women smallholder farmers in Murewa District, Zimbabwe created by Rosalie K. Katsande and Nesia C. Mangulen

Climate change is perhaps one of the greatest threats that our world faces today. While climate change impacts are being experienced globally, they have gendered dimensions that exacerbate and accelerate existing inequalities, while giving rise to novel ones. In Zimbabwe’s rural communities where the economy is agrarian, food security and livelihoods are at a heightened threat, women who constitute the largest group in farming activities at 86 percent, are even more vulnerable. The case study indicates that despite the multiplicity of women’s identity and roles as mothers, wives and smallholder farmers, women still prioritise and attend capacity building on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) due to their responsibility towards food security within the home. These efforts are however impeded by their lack of access to credit facilities and the mistrust of banks and financial institutions whose credit facilities are predicated on traditional banking models, which place preference on scientific and technology-based projects, thus discriminating against rural women with their specific traditional knowledge and methods of farming. The Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) offers climate finance for bankable projects by women who still facehurdles with meeting the traditional criteria for bankable projects.