In the eye of the storm : a gendered study on climate change adaptation in small-scale farming in Thái Bình, Vietnam

Abstract: Vietnam is one of the countries in the world that is projected to be most impacted by climate change. Extreme weather events such as storms and floods are predicted to increase with the changing climate. As such, climate change adaptation is crucial, especially for farmers who are relying on vulnerable livelihoods to climate change. This thesis investigates gendered patterns within the province of Thái Bình in Vietnam in relation to climate change impact, connecting them to national strategies and provincial implementation. The research was conducted in collaboration with a Vietnamese NGO in Hanoi by combining interviews with national stakeholders and farmers in two communes within a coastal district in the Thái Bình province through the lens of feminist political ecology. FPE allowed me to create a site-specific analysis on the case of Thái Bình, which has been beneficial for the whole research process; it has instructed the awareness of several perspectives concerning the topic of the study, including dimensions that could have been overlooked by choosing a theory without a gender perspective. The findings show highly gendered rights and responsibilities among farming livelihoods in Thái Bình, leading to unequal opportunities and mobility depending on gender. Young people and men are leaving the agrarian society of Thái Bình to find prosperity, older women are left behind which leads to a feminisation of farming. Female farmers have higher responsibilities and work more, but lack control and ownership of the work they do. This leads to unequal capacities between women and men, where women are impacted on a higher level by climate change in a sense of restricting opportunities, devaluation of farmers’ knowledge, particularly the knowledge of female farmers. I argue for gendered climate change adaptation acknowledging capacities and impacts depending on gender; feminisation of farming; an aging generation; and the local knowledge and experiences. Through the policy analysis it is clear these factors are not considered in the Vietnamese strategies that are mainly addressing technical solutions to climate change adaptation, while ignoring the complex relations affecting the capacity for adaptation of the agrarian society in Thái Bình. I question the unsustainable future for farmers in Thái Bình due to labour migration, pressure for higher production and low profitability of farming which will be exacerbated by climate change impacts, while the support is not considering the capacities of the farmers.