Trapped in Poverty and Informality: The Effects of Climate Change-Induced Migration on Women in Urban Settlements in Windhoek

Increasingly, scholarship suggests that climate change amplifies gender inequalities, therefore affecting men and women differently. Although there is an understanding that Namibia's changing climate patterns pose a threat to people's livelihoods, no study has been carried out on how climate change-driven migration, gender inequality and urban poverty intersect.Considering rural Namibia's extremely high vulnerability to climate change, this study explores the lived experience of climate change-induced migration of women in Windhoek's informal settlements. A hybrid methodological approach was used in the review and analysis of existing literature on climate change, migration and urbanisation. The literature review was supplemented with face-to-face semi-structured interviews carried out with women participants with a migratory background residing in the informal settlements in Windhoek. A second set of interviews with rural women participants residing in the northern regions, where the impact of climatechange is visible, was also carried out. In this way, we were able to investigate (through the participants' narratives) the vulnerability to climate change and the presence (or absence) of direct correlation with movements to the urban areas.The findings indicate that climate change is diminishing viable opportunities for women in rural areas, therefore negatively affecting their agency and ability to provide and care for themselves and their families, and forcing them to migrate to urban areas in search of better opportunities. In urban areas, they are further exposed to other vulnerabilities due to the lack of formal and permanent employment; poor remuneration for those formally or informally employed; unavailability of insurance coverage in the event of destruction to their property by fire or flood; and the lack of electricity, water and sanitation services. The study recommends that rural areas, with appropriate structural intervention, could be transformed into hubs of climate- smart economic growth to prevent rural- to-urban migration. On the other hand, more efficient urban management is an urgent priority. There is a profound need for a proactive approach (at local and national levels) to meet the needs of people moving to the urban areas so as to curb and regulate the proliferation of informal settlements in Windhoek, as well as in other urban settlements.