Gender Perspective in Building Resilience Through Financial Inclusion
Date
2022
Authors
Mesfin, Hiwot
Ahmed, Musa Hasen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
The effects of climate shocks on welfare and households’ coping mechanisms has
been extensively addressed in the literature. However, there is a dearth of evidence
on how climate shocks impacts on fragile societies especially in Africa. Due to this
knowledge gap, in this study, we examine an African context, specifically Somalia in a
postconflict era,to understand householdwelfare through the lens ofthe interactions
between climate shock and financial inclusion.
Our results show that female-headed households are more likely to fall below the
poverty line, have a larger poverty depth, and shift their diet due to
climate shock than male-headed households. Interestingly, we find thatremittances
decrease following climate shock,bothonaverageandforfemale-headedhouseholds,
but suchreductiondoesnothaveasignificantadverseeffectonthehouseholds' coping
ability. Additionally, we find that mobile money improves households’ coping ability.
Policymakers need to consider: 1)the gender variations in climate vulnerability when
designing interventions; 2) further investigating the reasons behind the reduction in
remittances following shocks; and 3) expanding mobile money infrastructure to reap
its benefits of improving coping abilities of the vulnerable.