Making women visible in climate change vulnerability

Why disaggregated data is crucial for policy responses to reduce women's vulnerability to climate change and public health shocks

Communities’ health and well-being are increasingly being threatened by natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks, where socially vulnerable populations are particularly at risk.

The recurrence of shocks caused by climate change and natural degradation has driven investment of billions of dollars in the resiliency and adaptation of communities worldwide. Making sure that these investments reach those living in the most vulnerable conditions is imperative to close the existing inequality gaps.  This is particularly relevant in Mexico, which has high socioeconomic and gender inequality.

Who are the most vulnerable to Climate Change shocks? Where are they located? What factors make them more vulnerable? Are women and men vulnerable in different ways?

These are the research questions that led the present research informed by data feminism lenses.


Measuring Social Vulnerability in Mexico

The United States Center for Disease Control Agency has a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) that determines the degree to which a given community may be unable to prevent human suffering and financial loss in the event of a disaster, including climate change and public health shocks. It ranks the Census Tracts on 15 social factors.

Based on the CDC's standards, an SVI was created to identify social vulnerability in Mexico based on data from the following 6 social factors at a municipal level:

Factors of the SVI for Mexico

Data sets with percentages of population per municipality that have characteristics of each of the social factors were retrieved from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), a Mexican organization coordinated by the Ministry of Social Welfare.

⚠️ Nevertheless, no disaggregated data by gender was found for each specific population group ⚠️

Data available in CONEVAL was not gender disaggregated, making it impossible to evaluate if there are different vulnerabilities that women and men from each population group (indigenous, elderly, minors) may face.

CDC's original SVI does not provide gender-segregated analysis either, making invisible the disparities of vulnerabilities between women and men.

This has serious policy implications. Program targeting can become ineffective, leaving gender disparities unaddressed and ultimately increasing existing inequalities.

✅ Making the disparities visible through maps

With the available data, 3 maps were created to demonstrate why gender-segregated data is needed to have a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the social vulnerability in Mexico:

Map A - presents the States in Mexico with the highest Social Vulnerability Index for all populations without disaggregated data by gender.

Map B - presents the States in Mexico with higher SVI by population without disaggregated data by gender.

Map C - presents the States in Mexico with higher SVI for women and for men with disaggregated data.

Let's not forget the human in data.

The data and analysis presented here represent the lives of thousands of people who in many cases live below the minimum living standards according to everyone's human dignity. When reading this article and thinking about the solutions, let's remember the lives of the people who are represented in each number and who work hard every day to have a dignified life.


Map A - Social Vulnerability Index without gender-segregated data

This map shows the SVI results for Mexico, replicating the methodology used by the United States CDC original SVI. It represents the States with a higher concentration of indigenous population, elderly, and minors who live below the poverty line, have accessed low levels of education, and live in low-quality housing.

⚠️ This analysis does not consider any difference between women and men within these population groups.

In this case, the States with the higher social vulnerability are Oaxaca, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, and Guerrero.

Map B - Social Vulnerability Index by Population

It is crucial to make visible the differences between population groups found through data. Data Feminism principles indicate the importance of considering context, as data is not neutral but a product of unequal social relations and power relations. This principle is highly relevant for the present analysis, in particular, to understand why the map of Indigenous Populations indicated different States with higher vulnerability compared to Elderly and Minors populations.

It is worth noting that compared to other population groups, there was a high number of unavailable data in the indigenous population database. This means that the lack of data prevents us from knowing the real situation of indigenous people living below the poverty line, in low-quality housing, and with low education attained. Indexes and studies like the present one show an average of available data rather than the real situation.

This situation reproduces the existing structural inequalities, where indigenous populations have been historically marginalized, having unequal access to public services that constitute their basic human rights.

Therefore, census institutions should strengthen their data collection from indigenous populations, through methodologies that are adequate to their needs, specially at a municipal level.

Map C - Social Vulnerability Index by Gender

Map C shows the difference in localization of women and men living with higher social vulnerability. Each map shows which States in Mexico have a higher percentage of men / women living below the poverty line, with low level of education attained and in low-quality housing.

This data does not consider other population indicators (if they identify as indigenous or belong to an elderly or minor age group) but only their sex.

The gender-segregated data processed to create these maps clearly show that:

1) Women have a higher vulnerability index compared to men (represented in orange and red colors). This finding confirms that women are more vulnerable to the impact that climate change and public health shocks for living with greater social vulnerability. It also highlights the importance of having disaggregated data to understand in which States are women more vulnerable and to focus investments in adequate social protection to women's needs.

2) There is a significant difference between States where women and men are more vulnerable. For instance, Quintana Roo has a low SVI for men but a high SVI for women. These differences indicate a higher inequality within States.


Policy Recommendations

Where in Mexico do indigenous elderly live in greater social vulnerability conditions? Where have indigenous women attained greater progress in terms of social inclusion?

➜ Advances and challenges for the intersectional characteristics of a person are invisible if data per population and by gender is not available. Therefore, countries should improve data collection of indigenous populations and overall social vulnerability indicators segregated by gender to have an intersectional understanding of the difference in vulnerability per population group and gender.

➜ The government of Mexico should focus its climate change resiliency investments on social protection programs targeted at indigenous populations, the elderly, and minors located in the Southwest region of Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca and Chiapas.

➜ The government of Mexico should target investments in States where there is a higher concentration of women in social vulnerability like Quintana Roo, Veracruz, Zacatecas, Michoacan, and Tlaxcala. Adequate social protection measures for women should be put in place particularly in these States, as part of the climate change resiliency efforts.

➜ The United States's CDC Social Vulnerability Index, as well as other Index built by social scientists around the world must analyze data segregated by sex in order to clearly identify and address the differences between women's and men's conditions of vulnerability as well as their geographic localization.

Picture by:  UNICEF 


References

(1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022) CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) Fact Sheet. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Retrieved from: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html

(2) CONEVAL. (2020). Poverty Data per Population Group. Retrieved from:  https://www.coneval.org.mx/Medicion/Paginas/Pobreza_grupos_poblacionales_municipal_2010_2020.aspx 

(3) A Social Vulnerability Index for Disaster Management. Flanagan, B.E., Gregory, E.W., Hallisey, E.J., Heitgerd, J.L., & Lewis, B. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (2011). 

(4) D'Ignazio, & Klein, Lauren F. (2020). Data feminism. The MIT Press.

Factors of the SVI for Mexico

Picture by:  UNICEF