Transforming the Indus Basin with climate resilient agriculture and water management Pakistan

The report assesses gender dynamics in Pakistan's Indus River Basin to inform a climate resilience project. It finds that while women perform the bulk of livestock management and significant crop labor, they lack land ownership, decision-making power, and access to technical resources. The document proposes 'Women Open Schools' and targeted technical training to empower female farmers and young women as catalysts for climate adaptation.

• Women in the Indus Basin are heavily involved in agriculture but are not officially registered as farmers. While 73 percent of Pakistani women are engaged in agriculture, only slightly over a quarter of the female population belongs to the formal labour force, compared to 83 percent of men.
• There is a strict gender-based division of labor in crop agriculture. Men typically handle input purchase, pesticide application, machinery use, and on-field irrigation, while women focus on planting, transplanting, harvesting, and food and seed processing.
• Women bear the primary responsibility for livestock management, which contributes nearly half of the total agricultural value added nationally. However, men typically control the decision-making, fodder and medicine purchases, and the cash generated from sales.
• Women face severe barriers to asset ownership and financial resources. In 2012-2013, 96 percent of ever-married women aged 15-49 did not own any land, and 89 percent did not own a house.
• A significant gender gap exists in access to information and communication technology (ICT). Mobile phone ownership is 86% for men versus 27% for women, the highest gap in South Asia. This is driven by technical illiteracy and social norms where some women are discouraged from using mobile phones.
• Female representation in technical government roles related to climate, water, and agriculture is extremely low. For example, the Indus River System Authority has no female professionals, and the Irrigation Departments of Punjab employ no female irrigation professionals.
• Rural women suffer from specific health risks linked to their agricultural work, including allergies and skin rashes from pesticide exposure and physical ailments from long hours of manual cotton-picking. Malnutrition is also widespread, with 30-40 percent of Pakistani children being stunted.
• The project proposes establishing 'Women Open Schools' (WOS) to provide technical agricultural information and create social networks for female farmers, as they currently lack the social capital and community networks available to men.
• Young women are identified as key catalysts for change due to their higher literacy rates and greater proficiency with ICT compared to older women. The project intends to train them to assist older female farmers in using mobile-phone based information services.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2019). Transforming the Indus Basin with climate resilient agriculture and water management Pakistan. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp108-fao-pakistan.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Transforming the Indus Basin with climate resilient agriculture and water management Pakistan. 2019. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp108-fao-pakistan.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Transforming the Indus Basin with climate resilient agriculture and water management Pakistan |date=5 September 2019 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp108-fao-pakistan.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2019transforming, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Transforming the Indus Basin with climate resilient agriculture and water management Pakistan}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2019}, month = sep, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp108-fao-pakistan.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }