Assessment of women’s adaptation strategies to climate change: a case of Same District, Kilimanjaro Region

The study on women’s adaptation strategies to climate change was taken in Same District. The main objective of the study was to assess women’s adaptation strategies to the impacts of climate change. The methodology utilized questionnaire interview. In this study, individual women were considered to be the unit of analysis for data analysis. The random selection technique facilitated obtaining 10% of the women in each two studied villages, leading to a sample size of 100 women. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. SPSS software was used to crosstab and showing relationships between variables that is, dependent and independent variables. Cross-tabulation was done to show relationships between education and adaptation strategies, occupation and adaptation strategies to climate change, relationship between age of the respondents and the period in which the indicators of climate change were observed. SPSS software was also used in computing regression analysis so as to verify the findings of some variables to prove or disapprove their relationships, that is, between education and adaptation strategies and occupation and adaptation strategies to climate change. The findings showed that the impacts of climate change have already been in effect in the study area. Statistical analysis showed that 75% of women engaged in small scale business as their adaptation strategy to climate change. The effort of respondents to adapt to or reduce effects of climate change was obstructed by various elements including inadequate production tools, inputs, capital, knowledge on improved production, formal markets, and credit services.