‘Sima’: The ‘Great Equalizer’ Pushes Everyone to Destitution: Gender analysis for drought response in Ethiopia – Somali Region

Overview

Despite impressive economic growth recorded in Ethiopia over the past decade, chronic food insecurity affects many. The country’s subsistence crop and livestock agriculture is vulnerable to climate change and rainfall variability. The Ethiopian Somali region is one of the regions worst affected. A shortage of rainfall in the region over the past three consecutive years has resulted in huge losses of livestock and internal displacement of people. Although the drought affects everyone, men and women experience the impacts of the drought differently. 

The objective of this gender analysis is to understand the different impacts of the drought on men, women, girls, and boys, and their different coping mechanisms and potentials, in order to design and deliver humanitarian interventions responsive to their different needs. The study was conducted in Somali region, in six kebeles (wards/towns) of six woredas (districts) in the Jarrar, Doolo, and Afder zones.