ICT-Climate Change-induced geohazards nexus: is gender the missing gap?Sam Wong Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen as an enabling tool in tackling extreme geo-hazards induced by climate change. Satellite weather mapping and projections help monitor the occurrences of droughts and floods. ICTs play a significant role in disaster prevention and post-disaster management by offering better real-time on-line collaboration and information sharing. They also help vulnerable communities adapt to changing climate by resilience building. However, the relationships between ICTs and geohazard prevention and management are criticised for being gender-insensitive. Whilst efforts have been made to examine the diverse ICT-climate change impact on various collective groups, such as farmers and fishermen, it is unclear about how different social roles and expectations, between men and women, in their communities affect the effectiveness of the ITC policies on climate change. Gender relations shape access to digital information and affect the ownership and control of ICTs. Questions as to how, and where, men and women socialise; who carry out monitoring tasks; and who make final decisions over investment in ICTs, will have significant impact on how ICT projects are designed and implemented to tackle climate change. Integrating a gender perspective into the analysis would be more effective in targeting and empowering both men and women in technology inclusion My paper draws on a diverse range of literature and focuses on the gendered relationships in the ICT-geohazard nexus with reference to four areas: mitigation, adaptation, monitoring and strategy. With regard to mitigation, the norm that men are breadwinners remains strong in many developing countries. Research has explored how Web2.0, such as blogs and social networking, might be effective in helping poor communities share information in order to adapt to changing climate. This paper shows, with examples, that women encounter more obstacles in access to computers and internet connections. The problems include high costs of internet connections and the psychological insecurity of cyber café owning to frequent police raids. Different gendered and social roles between men and women give them different monitoring and strategic functions. Men tend to work in farms, so convincing them to use ICTs to improve their farming practices, such as focusing on climate-resilient crops, would result in bigger impact. In contrast, women are more home-based and they are more effective in monitoring disaster warning systems by radio and mobile phones. The strategies in raising public awareness of climate change would become more effective if ICT programmes target men and women differently. |
