Student Takeover Season: Prioritising Sustainable Development Goals: How should we reduce gender inequalities exacerbated by Climate Change in Bangladesh and Tunisia?

This episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton  is part of the Global Sustainability Challenges module student takeover. Hosted by Jacob, with discussion from Tilly, Emma, Harry and Visnuka, this episode will look at prioritising certain Sustainable Development Goals to better improve gender inequality issues that are exacerbated by climate change.

The topic of discussion will focus on Tunisia and Bangladesh, two regions that have seen recent developments and hardships in improving gender equality in their country. With both countries being reliant on agriculture for the economy, climate change is drastically impacting people's way of life. Women are often the worst affected by these issues and are seen as a 'policy blind spot' with the work they do to support agricultural processes (Najjar and Baruah, 2023). Furthermore, the persistent ‘traditional’ perception of women confined to the domestic sphere in both nations exacerbates gender inequality issues, particularly for women in rural communities (Fasial and Kabir, 2005; Amroussia et al., 2016).

Papers of interest from this episode:

Najjar, D. and Baruah, B. (2023) ‘Even the goats feel the heat:” gender, livestock rearing, rangeland cultivation, and climate change adaptation in Tunisia’, Climate and Development, 1–14. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17565529.2023.2253773

Faisal, I. and Kabir, M. (2005) ‘An analysis of gender–water nexus in rural Bangladesh’, Journal of Developing Societies, 21(1-2),175-194. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X05054623?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar- articles.2

Amroussia, N., Goicolea, I., & Hernandez, A. (2016) ‘Reproductive health policy in Tunisia: Women’s right to reproductive health and gender empowerment’, Health and Human Rights, 18(2), 183. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28559685/

Episode Host: Jacob Stammers, BA Geography Year 3 student

Episode Guests: Matilda Sutherland, BSc Geography Year 3 student; Emma Struckman, BA Geography Year 3 student; Harry Slatcher-Thwaites, BA Geography student; Visnuka Sivakurunathar, BSc Psychology Year 3 student

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This episode is part of the Student Takeover Season on the Meliora Podcast, and is a group project from the University of Southampton 'Global Sustainability Challenges' module.