[NAIROBI] Extreme weather events linked to climate change are fuelling violence against women long after they occur, say researchers, prompting calls for more gender-focused climate action.

One in three women in the world experience physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner, according to UN figures, and women in poorer countries are the worst affected.

New analysis by University College London (UCL) shows that the rate is even higher in countries that have recently faced climate shocks.

Economic insecurity that stems from such shocks could be driving the increase, as long as two years after the event has happened, the researchers suggest.

“Storms, landslides and floods appear to be linked to higher rates of intimate partner violence two years later at a national level,” says Jenevieve Mannell of UCL, who led the study published 2 October in the open-access journal PLOS Climate.

Mannell and her colleagues analysed nationwide surveys from more than 150 countries covering a 26-year period to estimate the prevalence of intimate partner violence, defined as physical or sexual violence against a woman by her partner in the last year.

The highest rates of violence were found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea.

They compared this data with climate shock data on earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, storms and wildfires. And they found that not all types of weather events affected violence rates to the same extent.

Heatwaves were linked to immediate physiological effects leading to aggression and violence.

Storms or floods, on the other hand, take time to impact on mental health and food security in ways that drive violent behaviour, according to the researchers.

“Different climate-related shocks take different lengths of time to impact on rates of violence,” said Mannell, a professor of social science and global health.

The researchers noticed that climate shocks had as much of an effect on violence as economic performance indicators. They think the two factors could be linked.

Wealthier countries were generally associated with fewer instances of partner violence, according to the study.

“Extreme weather events bring economic and security dynamics that disadvantage women and girls when it comes to their sexual and reproductive rights,” said Gladys Kiio, executive director at the African Gender and Media Initiative Trust in Kenya, a women-led research organisation that promotes gender equality.

She said the floods in Kenya earlier this year exposed the sexual vulnerability of women and girls to such climate shocks.

She recalled how a mother and her disabled daughter were repeatedly raped in a slum in Nairobi after they were left homeless by the floods.

In some pastoral communities, where livestock are highly valued, young girls are essentially sold off into marriage by their parents to replace livestock lost during droughts, added Kiio.

The researchers hope their findings will shape environmental policies designed to mitigate the social and health impacts of climate change.

It comes only a few weeks before the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where countries are expected to present their updated climate action plans.

While Kenya has a national climate action plan, Kiio believes it fails to address gender issues in relation to climate change.

She says gender-focused organisations are working on a national gender and climate action plan that aims to make gender issues part of the climate change conversation.

“The plan gives us a roadmap on how climate change is affecting gender and how men and women interact with climate,” she told SciDev.Net.

“It will define programmes and actions that mainstream gender into climate responses.”

Countries have two mechanisms for addressing this issue as part of their climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, says Mannell. One is the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – countries’ commitments under the Paris agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and measures to adapt to climate change. The other is the Climate Change Gender Action Plans, which are being developed in some countries.

Countries have until February to update their NDCs, but some countries are expected to announce their updates early at COP29 in November.

“We also need clear strategies for addressing climate change in existing programmes to reduce violence against women globally,” added Kiio.

“For the moment, there is a lot of talk, but very little concrete action.”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.