| dc.description.abstract | How to effectively target the intended beneficiaries of development interventions, be them connected to climate change, literacy, health or any other related area, is a constant challenge for NGOs and governments. This research gives a contribution in this regard, with a focus on climate-smart agriculture programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The case study is dry-season farming programming in the Northern part of Ghana, which is gaining momentum due to its potential as an adaptation practice that fosters local employment. Irrigated agriculture is indeed promoted by Ghanaian and international institutions as it is less exposed to the effects of erratic rainfall patterns increasingly characterising semi-arid areas which, together with droughts, floods, extreme weather events and a shortened rainy season, can cause crop failures and food insecurity.
One of the most commonly targeted groups by dry-season farming interventions are women, who are regarded as an especially vulnerable group to the threats of climate change due to their disadvantaged position in society. Scientific debate has shown that gender is not the only variable to produce differentiated roles and responsibilities that result in different exposures and adaptive capacities within populations, within communities and even within households. In fact, recent scholarship in the field of climate change has highlighted the need of an intersectional approach, drawn from feminist research, to place gender issues into a broader context of cleavages in other individual conditions, like social class, faith, age, disability, ethnicity and others. This research adopts an intersectional framework to the study of farming patterns in the dry-season, with a special attention to crop choices made by farmers. The existing research on gendered crops in West Africa, centred on rainy season varieties, is the blueprint to assess whether such classification holds true for dry-season crops. Moreover, this analysis is also the starting point of recommendations provided to dry-season farming programmers in terms of crops, water sources and fencing choices. These recommendations provide elements to better target the intended beneficiaries of the interventions through adjustments made in intervention programming. | |
