Beyond victims and saviors: gendered and intersectional vulnerabilities and the efficacy of adaptation strategies in Hamer pastoralists of South Omo, Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change poses a severe threat to pastoral communities in the Horn of Africa, but its effects are mediated through deeply gendered power relations. This paper goes beyond the simplistic view of women as either victims or saviors and interrogates how social institutions shape differential vulnerability and adaptation capacity in the Hamer district of Ethiopia. The paper aims to challenge the homogenizing narratives, disentangling the institutional landscape of vulnerability quantitatively, and document adaptive practices that exist across the gender spectrum. Using a mixed methods design, cross-sectional surveys of 384 female and male-headed households, we applied the Simplified Vulnerability Model to quantify vulnerability across six domains, regression analysis, and assessed the effectiveness and sustainability of adaptation strategies using the Sustainability Score Framework. Our analysis indicates female-headed households (V = 78), women with disabilities (V = 0.76), women in polygamous unions (V = 0.73) are most vulnerable, while male-headed households (V = 0.42) are least. The findings show how intersecting social positions produce a continuum of risk, challenging binary and homogenizing portrayals of women as vulnerable groups. Building equitable and sustainable resilience requires going beyond protecting the most vulnerable to enhancing their resilience capacity by removing the institutional obstacles that limit their agency.