Climate Risk Informed, Gender Responsive Adaptation Planning and Capacity Building Measures at Local Level in Virudhunagar District, Tamil Nadu, India

Background

With over 60% of the population dependent on agriculture, rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, frequent droughts, and groundwater depletion are straining Tamil Nadu state's natural resources - water, soil, and biodiversity, there by disrupting cropping patterns, reducing productivity of major crops like rice, millets, and pulses, and increasing the vulnerability of rural communities. Although the State has formulated comprehensive climate action plans, significant gaps remain in translating these into effective, decentralized interventions at District, Block, and Gram Panchayat (G.P) levels. Developmental planning continues to lack integration of climate risk assessments and gender-responsive strategies, resulting in disproportionate impacts on women and smallholder farmers with limited access to resources, information, and decision-making platforms. To address these challenges, G.I.Z with the support of Anna University developed Gender Responsive Adaptation Planning Tool (greapt) to guide local planners in identifying and implementing climate risk-informed, gender-responsive adaptation across agriculture, water, and environment sectors, fostering inclusive, climate-resilient rural development.

Currently, M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation (M.S.S.R.F) aims to enhance greapt's usability, effectiveness, and scalability by contextualization and fine-tuning for wider application with the following objectives:

Objectives

- Test the greapt tool in selected blocks of Virudhunagar district for adopting gender responsive, climate resilient local planning processes and to evolve targeted gender responsive adaptation strategies in agriculture and water sectors

- Build capacity of planners at gram panchayat, block and district levels to use the greapt to integrate climate risk and gender responsive actions and identifying local specific gender responsive adaption strategies

- Disseminate the use of greapt in climate risk informed, gender responsive planning processes to the officials of all district heads of departments of agriculture, water, environment and forest and concerned state officials

Project Area

Virudhunagar District

Selected blocks

: Table summary: A framework connecting key activities to their specific outputs, focusing on climate risk and gender-responsive adaptation. Primary activities include conducting sensitization workshops for stakeholders, which result in climate risk profiles for blocks, gender vulnerability assessments for high-risk GPs, and the development of adaptation plans. Training efforts at the district, block, and GP levels yield a training manual in Tamil and a trained workforce capable of using GReAPT. Finally, research and policy work culminate in three policy briefs covering agriculture, water, and environment, one journal publication, and a dissemination workshop for 50 state and district planners.

Expected Outcomes

• Scaled-Up Application of greapt - Enhanced usability, effectiveness, and reach of greapt across additional blocks, enabling more widespread adoption of gender-responsive, climate-resilient local planning processes

- Building an enabling ecosystem in adopting gender equitable climate resilient local planning processes to evolve targeted gender responsive adaptation strategies in agriculture and water sectors

• Strengthened institutional capacity at multiple governance levels and enhanced policy dialogue on gender responsive planning