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Title
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Assessing climate change vulnerability of smallholder farmers in northwest Ethiopia : application of a household intrinsic vulnerability index
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Author
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Abstract
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| Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia and help decision-makers in developing and prioritising effective adaptive strategies and actions. Design/Methodological Approach: A multi-scale analytical tool and hazard-generic socio-economic indicators were developed to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia. Categorical Principal component Analysis (CATPCA) with 36 indicators was used to develop weights for different indicators and construct a household intrinsic vulnerability index. Data was collected through key information interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 1602 randomly selected households in three districts of Northwest Ethiopia. Findings: Drawing on intrinsic vulnerability index computation, our study highlights that low levels of education, low access to climate information and credit services, long distance travelled to fetch water and frequent food shortages are the dominant factors contributing to high levels of intrinsic vulnerability at district level while lack of livelihood support and income diversification are the key drivers of vulnerability at household level. Findings further show that the majority of households (78.01%) fall within the very high to moderately high vulnerable category. Disaggregating the data according to agro-climatic zones highlights that the prevalence of high intrinsic vulnerability is most widespread in the lowland agro-climatic zone (82.64%), followed by the highland (81.97%) and midland zones (69.40%) respectively. Practical implications: From a policy intervention vantage point, addressing the drivers of vulnerability provides a reliable approach to reduce the current vulnerability level and manage potential climate change-induced risks of a system. Specifically, reliable information on inherent vulnerability will assist policymakers in developing policies and prioritising actions aimed at reducing vulernability and assisting in the rational distribution of resources among households at a local level. Originality: This study contributes to the existing vulnerability literature by showing how hazard-generic socio-economic indicators in the vulnerability assessment adopted by the IPCC 2014 are important to identify drives of vulnerability which ultimately may feed into a more fundamental treatment of vulnerability. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management. - Bingley, 2009, currens
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Publication
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Bingley
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Emerald Group
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2023
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ISSN
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1756-8706
1756-8692
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DOI
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10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2022-0019
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Volume/pages
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15
:4
(2023)
, p. 537-560
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ISI
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000865779100001
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (open access)
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