Current Research in Environmental Sustainability Journal Special Issue Published

Advancing Transformative Adaptation through Social Equity: Land, Water and Food Systems in the Global South

Climate change affects people in uneven and unequal ways. Existing inequalities can be reinforced and new ones created, social equity is therefore fundamental to climate change adaptation.

Since 2021, the CGIAR Research Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) has worked to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land, and water systems, tackle vulnerability to climate change at its roots, and support countries as they adapt and build equitable and sustainable futures. Now, as the Initiative comes to an end in December 2024, this Special Issue in the Current Research in Environmental Sustainability (CRSUST) journal, brings together critical insights from the social sciences, from CGIAR and beyond, on how social equity is given meaning in contexts where transformative adaptation must be addressed.

These contexts include those where the impacts of climate change manifest agricultural systems, with patterns of vulnerability shaped by gender relations and social norms, and where conflict raises questions of transformation within a climate, peace, and security nexus.

Guest edited by ClimBeR’s Social Equity team, the journal articles that constitute the Special Issue share new knowledge related to social equity in climate change research linked to the transformation of food, land, and water systems in the Global South.

Here are the journal articles that have been accepted to the Special Issue so far:

• A field methodology to advance social equity and transformative adaptation to climate change in smallholder communities |Patti Petesch, Eleanor Fisher, Olivia Ebenstål Almeida, Jon Hellin, Renee Bullock
• Prosperous futures inspired by prosperous pasts: Fostering imagination of radical food system alternatives in Guatemala |Lucas Rutting, Marieke Veeger, Randolph von Breymann, Ubaldino Garcia, Joost Vervoort
• Impacts of gender-inclusive extension approaches on farmer understanding and willingness to pay for bundled financial services | Anne G. Timu, Dismas Manoti, Apurba Shee, Liangzhi You
• Community-based water tenure in equitable and transformative drought resilience |Barbara van Koppen, Carol Emma Mweemba, Giriraj Amarnath, Barbara Schreiner

More journal articles to be added in 2025.

Access the Special Issue Here.