Intersectionality of Climate and Social Injustices in girls' educational experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa, Case of Benin

My PhD project aims to research how climate change effects intersect with gender and social inequalities drivers (location, age, socio economic status, disability, religion, and household structure) to create differentiated inequities for girls or aggravate existing injustices girls experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus is on the challenges associated to the education of girls in Benin rural communities.

Extreme climate hazards' dramatic impact on school infrastructures and facilities, on income generating activities, and on the distribution of gender roles disrupt the education of millions of differently situated adolescent girls in less privileged communities. Climate change effects and gendered social inequalities are thus intersectional and mutually reinforcing in the educational injustice experienced by different girls in disadvantaged communities.

The educational injustice aggravated for girls by climate change results in its turn into weak climate adaptation because literature postulated that more education especially secondary education could improve countries' resilience and adaptation to climate change. However this postulated positive correlation between girls' education and better climate adaptation deserves rigorous research into gender, education and climate change to provide tangible evidence on its validity.

Rural communities in Benin view girls' education as a threat to their tradition. Therefore, rural parents promptly withdraw girls from school whenever climate hazards (droughts, irregular rainfalls, floods) negatively impact their agricultural harvest and places financial challenges on them. However, this intersectionality of climate change effects and gendered social inequalities is not highlighted in studies and policies regarding the impact of climate change effects in Benin.

In Benin's NDCs, there is no mention of girls and how social factors intersect with gender and climate change effects to destabilise their access and participation in education. To attend to the above mentioned gap, my research aims at answering the following questions:

- What socio-cultural factors interplay with gender and climate change effects to induce a gender differentiated impact on girls' education in Benin rural communities?

- How do intersectional social and climate injustices materialise in the lived experiences of secondary schoolgirls in Benin rural communities and what are the implications for girls' educational access, attainment, and achievement?

- Are there any possibilities for rural girls in Benin to enact assertiveness and agency regarding their right to education in the context of intersectional social and climate injustices?

- What do rural girls, affected by interlocked social and climate injustices, expect from education stakeholders in Benin for the enhancement of gender equality in education? Does girls' education enable climate adaptation in anyways in their communities?

The gendered intersectionality analysis of the experiences of the targeted girls is key to inform gender responsive and transformative policies. In the framework of this PhD project, I will collect primary qualitative data in rural communities in two regions in Benin by means of Focus Group Discussions, Semi-Structured interviews and participant observations.