Access to finance ‘strengthens climate resilience’ among sub-Saharan women

Empowering women through greater access to finance could “strengthen” households’ resilience to “climate shocks”, according to a new study.   Published in Climate Risk Management, it analyses the impact of financial access on “women-headed households” in sub-Saharan Africa.  The study finds that where women had formal financial access – such as through owning a bank account – households were more able to withstand short-term shocks. However, as shown in the chart below, the gap between men and women has also increased, rising from just under 5 percentage points in 2011 to 12 in 2024.  Share of population with bank accounts 2011-2024, %. Source: Global Findex Database, World Bank Group Using survey data from Afrobarometer, the new study analyses 25,511 women-headed households across 37 sub-Saharan countries.  The authors use the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) framework to measure “financial inclusion”. This looks at factors such as having a bank account, owning a mobile phone and having internet access.  Francis Anaisie, a co-author on the study, tells Carbon Brief the researchers were motivated ’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Anaisie, an economist at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, says the study specifically looked at SDGs five and 13, on gender equality and addressing climate issues. He adds:  “Financial inclusion is one of the key policy tools for empowering women or for empowerment. But as to whether this actually translates into better climate outcomes for women is not known or is limited; this study seeks to address that gap.” The study finds households with higher levels of financial access for women had higher levels of women’s empowerment, when this is defined as the ability to make choices and have control over economic and social outcomes.  This was checked by cross-comparing financial access against different measures of women’s empowerment, such as financial security, voting rights and connection to communities. In particular, the study found that “financially included” women had greater political and economic empowerment, such as financial security and voting rights. On some measures of social empowerment, however, the link was weaker – financial access alone was not enough to erase cultural and social barriers to gender equality.  Women and climate change  It has been well documented that women are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than men.  Environmental shocks affect women disproportionately due to a range of factors. These include income disparities, higher rates of displacement and unequal access to land. Financial inequality and barriers to economic resources, such as needing internet access to make digital payments, play a key role in climate vulnerability, says Tracy Kajumba.