Boys, Girls and Climate Change in China

Rapid shifts in the socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions in Jinping and Guangnan counties, Yunnan Province, China, are creating different sets of hazard risks for women and children in both communities.

Today’s children are more vulnerable to harm during and after hazard events - impassable dirt roads after heavy rains make it difficult for them to get to school, a lack of water and food during drought leads to health issues and malnutrition, stress and mental health issues without adequate support often happen post-disaster. Many are held back by a lack of knowledge about disaster recovery or the inability to take part in disaster risk reduction decision-making either at school or at home. Many children are also ‘left behind’, raised by their grandparents as their parents migrate for work elsewhere. A few have no one at home to care for them and are more likely to suffer during drought, temperature fluctuations and heavy rain events, especially if they do not attend school. The economic pressure to migrate for work is high. Among the Hani and Miao ethnic groups in Jinping, many children drop out of school early to find jobs in neighboring provinces, often marrying before migrating. But among the Zhuang in Guangnan, the push for economic migration is actually encouraging girls to stay in school longer, with some expressing the wish for university or vocational training to get higher paying jobs in the future.

While today’s weather events are severe and increasing in frequency, the changes that tomorrow’s children (yet to be born) are likely to experience might be much worse. If today’s women and children struggle to deal with existing hazards or their direct impacts such as lost income or health, they are unlikely to have the skills to be resilient to future climate change.

Against this backdrop, INTASAVE conducted a participatory study for Plan China on the gendered impact of climate change on boys and girls in Guang’nan and Jinping counties in Yun’nan, China in order to analyse the gendered impact of climate change in China. The study provided recommendations to inform Plan International’s work on climate change in the country, specifically with regards to its child centered and gender sensitive disaster risk reduction projects in communities and schools and its efforts in empowering women and girls.

This study was a preliminary, rapid assessment of factors contributing to the gendered impacts of existing weather hazards on middle-school girls and boys, and adult women in two communities in Yunnan Province. We also extrapolated gendered climate risks over the next 10 years from trends in socioeconomic and cultural change and potential shifts in regional climate.

By working with both communities to address access to education for children and women, finding ways to keep children in school longer, fostering forums to give children a voice, and addressing the silent health and food security issues, PLAN can help women and children build skills to cope with today’s challenges and be agents of change. By addressing today’s vulnerability and climate risk contexts, women and children will be more resilient to future challenges, including climate change.

To facilitate this, the study aimed to assess the different needs of girls and boys and understand the gendered dimensions of their respective roles in climate change adaption efforts. It captured both positive and negative mechanisms that households are undertaking to cope with and adapt to the changing climate and the implication of these on girls and boys ‘rights to health, education, protection, economic development as well as children’s right to participation. The study assessed the level and quality of information about climate change adaption amongst girls and boys and to document their access to information on disaster risk management and climate change adaption.

The study also analysed the role of key stakeholders in building the capacity of the current generation of children to adapt to a changing climate and identify good practices of working with girls and boys on implementing child centred and gender sensitive climate change adaption that can be replicated.

The participatory assessment approach contributed to building boys and girls’ capacities to understand the impact of climate change and disaster on their lives and communities and increasing their resilience.