Adaptive Capacity: A Dream for the Female-Headed Household in Mulanje District, Malawi

Abstract

Malawi and other countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region continue to experience frequent and intense climate-related disasters yearly. The 2021 Global Climate Risk Index ranked Malawi at number five, among the ten most highly at-risk countries for climate-related disasters (Africa-Risk-Capacity, 2022). Tropical cyclones are particularly serious disasters causing adverse impacts in Malawi. Research indicates that the poor and other most vulnerable populations experience the worst impacts of disasters caused by tropical cyclones and this predicament is due to various challenges that they encounter. Such challenges influence their ability to adapt, cope and respond to disasters. Among these marginalized groups are women heading households and their families. Using the case study of Tropical Cyclone Ana (2021/2022), this study employed a grounded theory approach to investigate the contextual factors affecting this target population's adaptive capacity in Mulanje district, Traditional Authority (TA) Nkanda area, Malawi. The study further wishes to
understand some of the women's adaptation mechanisms to disasters amidst the various challenges they face.

Therefore, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and document analysis approaches were utilized to capture relevant information to inform this study. The target population was female-headed households affected by tropical cyclone Ana. The Feminist Political Ecological (FPE) framework brought the intersectionality aspect to the study and further guided the categorization of themes. At the same time, the matrix of domination theory was used to guide the analysis of results. The theory brought the perspective of how women are not naturally vulnerable to disasters but instead made vulnerable by various systems of domination, thus in the end, leading to low adaptation capability. Finally, from the analysis of the results, recommendations were made for the development of gender transformative policies and interventions that can address various factors affecting the adaptive capacity of women and their families to disasters, specifically tropical cyclones.